Paul Kitchener

• Graduated Georgetown District High School (1963) and Lakeshore Teachers College (1964)
• Taught art and material arts — ceramics, lapidary, enameling, jewellery-making — in Etobicoke schools, 1964–1982
• Principal of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project school in India, 1971–72, on loan to the Department of Atomic Energy
• Co-founded the Mississauga Society for Creative Leathercraft in the early 1980s, with Joyce Scruton and two others
• Studied bootmaking at Oklahoma State University (1998–2000), leather embossing with Robb Barr, western boots with Carl Chappel, and silver engraving with Johnny Weyert
• Demonstrated leather carving at the Calgary Stampede, Canadian Rodeo Finals, and Royal Winter Fair, 2000–2006
• Best in Show, CSCL, 2002, 2003, and 2004; Associate 2006 (with the Zalitis Pin, average 88.5%); Fellow 2007
• Ontario Volunteer Service Award, 2007; President of the Mississauga branch and Director on the CSCL Executive Council

Paul Kitchener came to leather through teaching. After Georgetown District High School and Lakeshore Teachers College he taught elementary school in Etobicoke, then spent nearly two decades in the board’s Unified Arts Program teaching art and material arts — ceramics, lapidary, enameling, jewellery-making, silver work, lost-wax casting, batik, and weaving. In 1971–72 he served as principal of the school at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project in India, on loan to the Department of Atomic Energy. His first attempt at leather carving foundered when he was sold chrome-tanned leather; in the late 1970s he found Tandy Leather and the leathercrafter Joyce Scruton, got on track with vegetable-tanned leather, and soon had his own students making their own stamping tools.

After leaving teaching in 1982 — and after a knee injury — Joyce Scruton gave him a job at Tandy Leather, and with her and two others he founded the Mississauga Society for Creative Leathercraft in the early 1980s. Most of his skills were developed there: embossing, dyeing, case making, and hand stitching. Returning to the craft in earnest in 1999, he studied the design and construction of boots and saddles at Oklahoma State University, leather embossing with Robb Barr in Oklahoma City, western bootmaking with Carl Chappel in Saint Jo, Texas, silver engraving with Johnny Weyert, and women’s shoemaking with Sarah Rotering in Toronto.

His commissions ranged from intricate leather sporrans with silver, lapis lazuli, chains and buckles, to a gavel of cow leg-bone, silver, and rosewood; a donors’ plaque for Mount Sinai Hospital; a presentation folder for the King of Bahrain; and a motorcycle seat for a 2005 Suzuki. He demonstrated leather carving at the Calgary Stampede, the Canadian Rodeo Finals, and the Royal Winter Fair from 2000 to 2006, and his work was shown in group exhibitions in Ontario, Wyoming, and Texas.

In the Society he took Best in Show three years running (2002–04), earned his Associate certificate in 2006 with the Zalitis Pin and an average score of 88.5 per cent, and was made a Fellow in 2007 — the same year he received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award for his five years of dedicated work with the CSCL, as president of the Mississauga branch and a Director on the Executive Council. He created the Don MacLeod Belt Buckle Award in memory of his fellow Mississauga member.

From the profile printed in the Canadian Leathercrafter when Paul Kitchener was made a Fellow at the 2007 Annual Meeting.