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Leatherworking has always been a part of Colleen Moffatt's life.
It all began in the early 1970s, when Moffatt's mother, Carolyn, was approached by two of her cousins who offered to teach her the art. At that time, one of the cousins was doing stamping, and the other was doing carving.
“My mom said that if she was going to get into it, then she was going to learn to do both, so she was taught by both,” says the Yarmouth woman.
Carolyn was looking for a hobby that she might one day be able to turn into a business — and that's exactly what eventually happened.
Moffatt herself began to learn the art of leatherworking at her mother's side, starting around the age of six years old. Her mom tried showing her brothers as well, she says, but they never really got into it. It was Moffatt who continued picking it up over the years.
“I started lacing wallets together for my mother when she was getting ready for the exhibitions. She did all of the stamping and carving of the pieces,” says Moffatt.
After lacing, the next thing she learned was stamping, but it wasn't until she was in her late teens when she started picking up how to do the carving.
THREE GENERATIONS
When Moffatt's own daughter was born, she and Carolyn started teaching Carrie about leatherworking as well.
It's become a family tradition, with Carrie starting when she was also six years old. Unlike Moffatt, Carrie started with stamping the small stuff first, like name tags, key fobs and wristbands. She was then taught how to make the coin purses, and the knife and cell phone cases and then she moved on to more of the bigger stuff such as the belts, wallets, and purses, says Moffatt.
Moffatt says she tried to teach Carrie about carving but says her daughter would rather do the stamping.
With the carved stuff, Moffatt says, you have to be able to concentrate.
"You more or less have to block out everything around you because there really isn't any way to fix something if it is messed up, so you would have to start with a whole new piece of leather," she explains.
Now 24, Carrie still helps her mother with the business, whenever her mother gets busy.
Over time, Moffatt's mother Carolyn developed dementia, and that's when Moffatt took over the leathermaking work, eight years before Carolyn passed away in 2018.
It wasn't until last year, however, that Moffatt turned their multi-generational hobby into a business.
The business is aptly called 3 C'S Custom Leather Works, named for the three generations of women involved: Carolyn, Colleen and Carrie.
They now make leather wallets that are specially stamped or carved, stamped leather belts, stamped leather coin purses, leather purses that are stamped or carved, and also make guitar straps, rifle slings, key fobs, name tags, stamped wristbands, mystery braid wristbands, carved leather clocks, knife cases, and cell phone cases.
Items have also travelled as far away as Germany, Australia, Italy, France, Africa and Spain.
“I have always been the kind of person that liked creating things, so with leather, that lets me create things,” she says.
Moffatt also does repairs for customers, fixing things like horse blankets and saddles.
CUSTOM CREATIONS
She has also completed customized orders, such as wallets with personal items on them and electronic reader covers. The process starts with the customer sending Moffatt a photo of the design they want on the item, such as a guitar or a truck, and she then hand-carves the design to recreate it in the leather.
All of Moffatt's materials come from Tandy's Leather in Dartmouth, but she does her work using the original tools used in the family. The main tool she uses for carving is a real ruby blade that has never been sharpened and has been going for 49 years now, she says.
"You can no longer get those blades," she adds, but
MEMORIES OF MOM
Moffatt says the most interesting story from working with leather is about the first purse she carved after her mom passed away.
“I picked out a pattern to put on the purse,” she said.
“It was a barrel racer with a horse head on the front, and then the barrel racer and full horse is on the back, and it is all hand-carved. Carving was my mom's most favourite thing to do in leather. We had a horse too, and the year that mom passed away our horse had also passed away. So, that purse kicked my butt.”
She started working on the purse on Christmas Day and had just started to put the picture onto the leather when something came over her and the tears started coming out. She had to stop for the day.
Normally, Moffatt says, the purse would have taken maybe a day to complete, but that one took her a monthand-a-half. Every time she started to work on it, the memories of her mom and their horse would come back and the tears would come back, too.
Since then, Moffatt has carved purses and wallets with no problem.
In the future, Moffatt plans to create a website for the business and would like to get back to selling their wares at exhibitions, once COVID restrictions lift. Dreams of her own store also come to mind.
In the meantime, find 3 C's Custom Leather Work on Facebook and Instagram or at farmers' markets in the Yarmouth area.
Learn more at https://www.facebook. com/3Cs-Custom-LeatherWorks-101364135158312
https://www.instagram. com/3cscustomleather/?hl=en
PISQUID
Edward, with a reference to the Piziguit River. Later in his book he also refers to the Pesegitk River. Henry
Youle Hind, in an early history of Windsor, has two spellings, Pigiguit and Pisiquid. Hind uses the word to refer to an Acadian settlement, not a river.
As mentioned above, we've settled on the spelling Pisiquid, as the river and the Acadian settlement, and it is the accepted use (except perhaps amongst history afficionados who at times insist on using the old spellings). Pisiquid is a rare example of a Mi'kmaq word for a river/place that apparently was adopted by the Acadians as a settlement name and then later trashed by English settlers. Given the Planter's penchant for giving everything British names, I'm surprised that we still have the community of Melanson, the Gaspereau River/ village and Grand Pre.