The Society’s Records

Muriel McKnight

← People of the Society · on record 1968–2002

Everything the Society’s own records say of Muriel McKnight — the offices held, the standings conferred, and the awards won — gathered on one page. Where the records are silent, so is this one.

This is the Society’s own record of Muriel McKnight. A biography: Who’s Who in Leathercraft · Spring 1981 →

Also recorded as M. McKnight, Mrs. M. McKnight, Muriel McNight, Muriel Mcknight, Muriel Mcnight, Muriel Strongman

Standing

Society Member 1988–1997

Branch

Hamilton · member since 1966

Certification

Associate of the CSCL 1969
No earlier designation for her is on file at all; the 1996–97 list prints her rank code plainly, “H,A”. The 19th Annual report (1969-spring p1) has her presented by Mrs. Clara Cavanaugh and also receiving the Janis Zalitis pin, presented by Mrs. Ann Hook, for the Associate with the highest marks.

She began studying leathercraft in 1963, spending seven years at Westdale Secondary School under Irva Ford; she joined the Society in 1965, and in 1969 became an Associate with the year’s highest marks, which brought her the Zalitis Pin. She won a Salon ribbon for a jewellery box at the International as early as 1968, her work helped the Hamilton Branch win the Weston Trophy several times, and she had work accepted into most of the biennial exhibitions. In the Hamilton Branch she held office from the time she joined — President, Secretary, Exhibition and Programme Convenor — and she served about five years on the Society’s Executive Council; in her three years as Publicity Chairperson she had the Society mentioned twice in “Make It With Leather”. From 1970 to the end of 1978 she taught leatherwork at summer school for the Hamilton Board of Education; she also taught senior citizens’ groups, one of them at Caledonia, evening classes for adults at Delta Secondary School, and private pupils at home. She studied design for twenty weeks at Mohawk College, with a day course and many weekend workshops there, and took a week-long leather course at the Haliburton School of Fine Arts. She showed one piece at Leather '74, the Society's exhibition at the Toronto Public Libraries' Learning Resources Centre, 666 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto, 3-28 June 1974, and one piece at Leather '78, the Society's exhibition at the Etobicoke Civic Centre, 550 Burnhamthorpe Road, November 1978. Her crochet also won prizes at the C.N.E.; she taught crochet and knitting in evening classes at Orchard Park, Stoney Creek, and adult day classes at George R. Allan School in Hamilton for over five years, and was a member of the Artisans Guild and the Hamilton Regional Arts Council. In 1981 she was a grandmother, with four sons and four grandchildren. She showed one piece at Leather '82, the Society's exhibition at the City of Brampton Library and Art Gallery, Bramalea, 3 July to 1 August 1982. One piece of hers was chosen for the Society’s 1985 Travelling Exhibition, from about sixty entries, by the judges Robert Muma, Paul Williams and Alison Parsons: a pocket secretary in tan mission grain calfskin. She made a square for the CSCL Leather Quilt. Of the Hamilton Guild, she was a Director of the Society through the early 1990s, a Craftsman and Weston Trophy prizewinner, and author of the filigree article in the Summer 1992 newsletter. She showed five pieces in the Society's exhibition at the Etobicoke Art Gallery, 4-29 September 1992. She showed one piece 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 (Belt - Brown with Inlay Buckle). The programme prints her as Muriel Strongman.

From Spring 1981, page 5; Summer 1992; Fall 1998, page 2; Leather ’74 — exhibition catalogue, Toronto Public Libraries, page 5; Leather ’78 — exhibition catalogue, Etobicoke Civic Centre, page 6; Leather ’82 — exhibition catalogue, Brampton Public Library and Art Gallery; Etobicoke Art Gallery exhibition 1992 — catalogue, page 13; Fall 1985, page 4; and Leather 2000: Fifty Years of Leather Art — Exhibition Programme, Woodstock Museum, page 3.

A CSCL member ("CSCL's own Muriel Strongman") who performed with the Hamilton Senior Hawaiian Dance Group at the entertainment following the Annual Banquet, 51st Annual General Meeting, Beacon Harbourside Resort, Jordan, April 2001. An Associate of the Hamilton Branch; she showed a belt at Leather 2000 and was a 2002 Ontario Volunteer Service recipient.

From Spring 2001, page 7; Summer 2002, page 2; and Leather 2000: Fifty Years of Leather Art — Exhibition Programme, Woodstock Museum, page 3.

Served the Society as

Hamilton Branch Secretary 1969–1997
25th Annual Demonstrator 1975
27th Annual Demonstrator 1977
Council 1977–1988
Hamilton Branch President 1978–1990
Publicity Chairman 1979–1984
Executive Council Member 1980
Hamilton Branch Past President 1980
Director 1982–1998
Recording Secretary 1988–1989
Director (Hamilton) 1997

Honours

Ontario Volunteer Service Award
Named on the Society's roll of Ontario Volunteer Service Award recipients.
Ontario Volunteer Service Award 2002
Announced by Dorothy McPherson and Kevin Armstrong at the 52nd Annual Meeting, ACSCL, Hamilton. The Official Awards were to be presented at a ceremony not yet announced on this page.

Awards

Bramalea Ribbon, Leather '82 1982
C.N.E. Any tooled leather article, original design — 1st 1969
Canadian National Exhibition Competitions 1978
Canadian National Exhibition Women's Division 3rd Place 1973
Craftsman Ribbon 1968–1997
Moore-Pearsall Award 1998
Salon Award 1968
Weston Trophy Winning Piece 1993
Zalitis Pin 1969

Demonstrations given

Demonstration, one of two afternoon sessions 1988
38th Annual
From Spring 1988, page 2.
Sponge Dyeing 1994
1994 Annual
From Spring/Summer 1994, page 3.
Tips for successful Leather Tooling 1995
45th Annual
From Summer 1995, page 2.
Desk blotter pad (Hamilton Leathercraft Guild, Jan/Feb 1997, with Ruth Haig) 1997
Workshop, 1997
From Spring 1997, page 4.

Where this comes from

This name in the index of people →