Dorothy McPherson

The Society’s records

Everything the Society’s own records say of Dorothy McPherson: the offices held, the standings conferred, and the awards won. Where the records are silent, so is this part of the page.

In memoriam · 24 February 2021

An international folk artisan and writer who tirelessly promoted leathercraft. Her obituary, written by her daughter Lauren McPherson, the Society's Members-At-Large Representative, and printed in the January-April 2021 newsletter (p6), sets out what that came to: a member of the Hamilton branch from 1990 and Woodstock from 1997, she opened her own home to informal meetings that kept leathercraft alive for London crafters from 2010. She competed, retailed and exhibited leather over several decades, and founded and curated the TRC Gallery in London, which staged monthly exhibitions of fine hand art by Canadian craftsmen including CSCL members, two of them devoted to leather alone. She conducted two workshops, was the Society's LEATHER 2010 liaison with the Ontario Crafts Council, and was Editor and contributing writer of Canadian Leathercraft. A jewellery maker herself, she co-founded the Society's London Jewellery Award. She wrote leather biographies for fifty-three CSCL artists in support of their Ontario Volunteer Service Award proposals, and secured three further distinguished awards for CSCL artists: the Governor General's Caring Canadian Award, the John Mather Award of the Ontario Crafts Council, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In September 2000, at the executive meeting in Cooksville, she and her husband David were asked to produce a newsletter for Members-At-Large; that is the origin of the MAL-designated summer issue of Canadian Leathercraft, which ran for decades. She retired in 2013.

From January–April 2021, page 6.

Standing

Society Member 1997

Branch

Member-at-Large · member since 1990

Co-author, with David Windeyer, of the Society's fiftieth-anniversary article “Fifty Years of Leather Art” (2000), written when both were Board members. She made a square for the CSCL Leather Quilt. She showed two pieces at Leather 2000: Fifty Years of Leather Art, the Society’s exhibition in the Grand Hall Gallery of the Woodstock Museum, 466 Dundas St., 20 May to 17 June 2000 (Original Dolls - Set of Two; Duck Decoy), and five at Leather 2004, the Society's biennial juried exhibition at the Hamilton Public Library, 55 York Boulevard, 2-30 November 2004, with the Woodstock guild. The Society's own Members-at-Large final report (May 2026) credits her, as a freelance arts reporter, with a leather exhibition and new editorial columns for the Society's newsletter. The London Jewellery Award she co-founded with Marion Kehoe dates from 2010, when, by Marion Kehoe's obituary, Marion co-sponsored its creation; Dorothy's own 2016 profile says it was awarded at the 61st Annual, held at Dundurn Castle, Hamilton.

From Fall 1998, page 2; Fifty Years of Leather Art (2000); Leather 2000: Fifty Years of Leather Art, Exhibition Programme, Woodstock Museum, page 4; Leather 2004: Juried Biennial Exhibition, Hamilton Public Library, page 3; Members-at-Large: Final Newsletter Report, page 1; and Autumn 2018, page 6.

Served the Society as

• Editor 1995–1997
• Correspondence 1997–1999
• Corresponding Secretary 1997–1999
• Director 1997–2012

Honours

• Honourary Life Membership 2016
  Welcomed as an Honourary Life Member at the 66th Annual Convention.
• Ontario Volunteer Service Award 2005
  Ontario Volunteer Service Award recipient (London). Named on p6 of the Summer 2005 newsletter as the "2005 OVSA Recipient."

Awards

• Allan Foss Workshop Award 1996
• Craftsman Ribbon 1991, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2011
• Leather 2010 Honourable Mention 2010
• Salon Ribbon 1991, 1993, 1995, 2010, 2011

Demonstrations given

• Leather Mache demonstrations 1993
  44th Annual

  From 43rd Annual Meeting 1993: programme, Royal Resort, Fenelon Falls.

• Fish leather talk (with David McPherson) 1998
  48th Annual

  From Summer 1998, page 9.

• Jewellery Making (with Carol McLean) 2003
  53rd Annual

  From Spring 2003, page 4.

Where this comes from

• Summer 1991
• Winter 1991–92
• Summer 1993
• Spring/Summer 1994
• Summer 1995
• Fall 1995
• Winter 1995–96
• Spring 1996
• Summer 1996
• Fall 1996
• Winter 1996–97
• Spring 1997
• Summer 1997
• Fall 1997
• Winter 1997–98
• Summer 1998
• Fall 1998
• Winter 1998–99
• Spring 1999
• Summer 1999
• Spring/Summer 2000
• Spring 2001
• Summer 2002
• Autumn 2003
• Spring 2005
• Summer 2005
• Spring 2006
• Autumn 2007
• Spring 2008
• Spring 2010
• Autumn 2010
• Spring 2011
• Spring 2012
• Spring 2016
• Autumn 2018
• January–April 2021
• 47th Annual: Convention Programme and Annual Report
• 61st Annual Meeting: Reports
• 62nd Annual Meeting: Reports
• Members-at-Large: Final Newsletter Report
• Fifty Years of Leather Art (2000)
• Leather 2000: Fifty Years of Leather Art, Exhibition Programme, Woodstock Museum
• Leather 2004: Juried Biennial Exhibition, Hamilton Public Library
• Society membership list, 1997