Melissa Winkler—leather artist

Melissa Winkler found her way to leatherwork because she wanted to make knives, and an unsheathed knife is dangerous.

“I’ve always had my hands in some sort of art or craft. In my 20s, I was fabricating metal for a sculptor and I wanted to learn how to forge knives. A friend suggested I take up leather work so I could offer a full package—knife and sheath,” she says.

Winkler began learning how to work with leather. She founded her company, Dad Hands, in 2015. “I’ve always had scrappy little beat-up hands thanks to my time as a metal fabricator and all-round maker,” she says.

Leather remained a side project for the next five years. This changed in 2020 with the advent of the COVID pandemic. Melissa had just moved from Vancouver to Denman Island when lockdown happened.

“I needed to find a way to work from home and decided to pick leather back up. I found a lot of sculptural techniques transferred over to leather quite well.”

Melissa developed a product line that includes wallets, pouches, purses, hair clips, earrings, key rings, belts, and—yes—knife sheaths, all made of premium vegetable-dyes leathers. “Natural leathers if cared for properly will last generations and if disposed of will actually break down and disappear.”

“I find tooling leather is much akin to carving wood, or sculpting clay/wax. I tend to stray away from traditional western imagery and tool bright, weird, and wonderful images,” she says. Her imagery ranges from colourful flowers and mushrooms to playful aliens to psychedelic swirls.

Where to find her work on Denman: At the Denman Island Farmer’s Market and Denman Island Craft Shop, and Christmas Craft Fair. Keep an eye on Melissa’s Instagram for commission opportunities.