Ruth Haig

• Born in Mildmay, Ontario, in the 1930s
• Registered X-ray Technologist (1954); worked in Hamilton and at DOFASCO
• Joined the CSCL and the Hamilton Leather Guild in 1962, from a night-school leather course under Irva Ford
• Associate of the CSCL, 1966; Fellow, 1985; Honourary Life Member, 1993
• Weston Trophy inter-branch winner across eleven years between 1965 and 1994
• Michigan Leather Award (1980) and Irva Ford Memorial Award (1984, best moulded-leather article)
• Twenty articles and twenty ribbons at the Canadian National Exhibition, 1977–1981
• Charter member of the TEXTURES craft co-op, Hamilton (1983); World Craft Council conferences, Vienna (1980) and Vancouver (1986)

Ruth M. Haig came to leatherwork by way of radiography. Born in Mildmay, Ontario, in the 1930s, she qualified as a Registered X-ray Technologist in 1954 and spent her working life in Hamilton’s hospitals and at DOFASCO. In 1962 she enrolled in an eight-year leather course at the Hamilton night school under Irva Ford — herself a Fellow, and the namesake of the Society’s moulded-leather award — and joined the Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft the same year.

Over the next three decades she became one of the Society’s most decorated competitors. She won articles in the Weston Trophy inter-branch competition across eleven years between 1965 and 1994, took the Michigan Leather Award in 1980 and the Irva Ford Memorial Award in 1984 for a moulded-leather article, and entered twenty pieces at the Canadian National Exhibition between 1977 and 1981, winning twenty ribbons. Her work was shown in the Leather ’72 through Leather ’94 gallery exhibitions and at the Ontario Crafts Council; she conducted leather workshops in Buffalo and Rochester, New York, and attended World Craft Council conferences in Vienna and Vancouver.

She was made an Associate of the CSCL in 1966, a Fellow in 1985, and an Honourary Life Member in 1993, and volunteered on the Society’s booth committee at the Canadian National Exhibition. Ruth Haig died on 1 September 2011.

Compiled from Ruth Haig’s own résumé, prepared in 2005, and the Society’s records.