Lillian Kay

The Society reprinted this profile from the Toronto Star's own “Crafts” column, by Ankaret Dean, of Saturday 12 January 1985 — not the Society's own writing, but its own choice of what to carry about one of its officers. Lillian Kay was, in the same issue's masthead, the Society's Corresponding Secretary.

“Most people don't realize the things that leather can do”

“My goal is to get leather work back into the school system and the commercial art courses,” said leather artist, Lillian Kay. “Most people don't realize the things that leather can do.” Kay thinks leather, talks leather, and lives with leather. Her apartment is decorated with leather pictures on the wall, a leather lampshade, and of course she carries a leather tote bag.

• Associate, C.S.C.L., since 1983
• Corresponding Secretary of the Society, 1982–1986
• Director of the Society, 1989–1990 and again 1995–1997
• Director on the Board of the Ontario Crafts Council
• 1990: two 2nd Prizes and an Honorable Mention (Masters Division) at the International Federation of Leather Guilds Show
• 1996: a Craftsman Ribbon for a jewellery collection
• Introduced to leatherwork as a teenager at Danforth Technical School; trained later at Humber College as a recreation therapist
• Gave up her job at the Workman's Compensation Board, c. 1982, to work full-time on her own leatherwork

From Danforth Technical School to full-time leatherwork

“Kay was introduced to leather work while she was a teenager at Danforth Technical School. Unfortunately, due to family circumstances, she was unable to pursue a career in the arts until she returned much later to Humber College to train as a recreation therapist. It was both here and at her job at the Workman's Compensation Board that she rediscovered the joys of leatherwork. For a while she was teaching leathercraft by day and working on her own leatherwork at home by night. However, three years ago she gave up her job to work full-time on her own leatherwork.”

Life drawings, key fobs and pipe holsters

“Her leather art pictures are designed from her own life drawings. In some, she cuts the figure with a single line using stylized texture for hair, and in others she sculpts the figure from the back, raising up the leather to maybe an inch and a half.” Among her functional work, sold in craft outlets, “one of her most fascinating lines is her variety of key fobs” — car and pick-up truck silhouettes, dog shapes, the outline of historical houses — and, “using a completely different technique, she molds heavy leather into pipe holders, and recently has come up with a new idea of making a pipe holster, to save carrying a hot, smelly pipe in a coat pocket.”

Awards, and the Society itself

“During the last few years her leather art has been winning awards at all the large craft shows, including the Ontario Crafts Council, the C.N.E., and the Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft.” The article names her Society roles directly: “Kay is an active member of the crafts community. She is a director on the Board of the O.C.C. and corresponding secretary for the Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft. This society was founded in 1950 to improve the quality and design of leatherwork.”

The Society's own register already carries what the newspaper could not: her Associate standing from 1983, a run of Corresponding Secretary years to 1986 and two spells as Director, 1989–1990 and 1995–1997, and prize records from the 1990 International Federation of Leather Guilds Show (two 2nd Prizes and an Honorable Mention, Masters Division) and a 1996 Craftsman Ribbon for a jewellery collection. The same issue's follow-up notice, “More Coming Displays,” lists four further North York library showings of her solo work into mid-1985: Yorkdale, Centennial, Black Creek and Amesbury.

From “Artist Promotes the Fun of Working with Leather,” reprinted from the Toronto Star “Crafts” column by Ankaret Dean, Saturday 12 January 1985, in Canadian Leathercraft, Winter 1984/85, page 9 — read the issue.