When Calvin Glibert received his first leather crafting kit for Christmas at 14 years-old, he showed little interest in the craft. He allowed his brother to complete the kit instead.

Years later, in 1978, with time on his hands and that long-ago gift still lingering in memory, Calvin began teaching himself leatherwork from books by Al Stohlman. He has been tooling leather ever since. He has built a practice marked by patience, precision and the quiet satisfaction of making something both useful and beautiful.
For Susan Gilbert, creativity arrived even earlier.
Her mother put watercolours in her hands and allowed her to paint on grocery bags when she was a small child. When her father was building, she painted on scraps of wood.

For her, art quickly became more than just a hobby, it became a way to cope with life.

Painting helped Susan through recovery after rolling a truck and later after surgery, she said. When the Swan Hills Library invited her to bring paintings to a hobby night, children began asking questions. She started teaching painting lessons, sharing the gift that had steadied her.

Then, in 2008, Susan was diagnosed with cancer and told she had six months to live. She stopped teaching, but she did not stop painting.
“I quit giving lessons but kept painting for myself,” Susan said.
More than a decade later, life brought Susan and Calvin together. They met in 2021, married and blended their creative lives. Calvin introduced Susan to Tandy Leather. At first, she was not impressed.

“I was totally bored,” Susan says of her first experiences with the craft.
But Calvin began teaching her leather tooling, and the feeling changed. Soon she was hooked. Leather became their shared base, a medium they dye, tool and paint together. Susan still works in watercolour and acrylics and has been experimenting with felting and polymer clay, but leather is the place where their two perspectives most often combine.

Their process begins in conversation. Ideas are talked over as they come, then reshaped as each adds a thought, a line or a possibility. Before a knife touches hide, they draft patterns on paper or cardboard. What emerges is both planned and personal.

After moving from Swan Hills to Evansburg, the couple opened The Hobby Shop in December 2022. The shop has grown from years of markets, making and conversation. Susan had been taking her artwork and homemade jewelry to markets since 2000. Leather joined the table in 2021, after she and Calvin married.

Calvin, who grew up in Eastend, Sask., has earned national recognition for his tooling, the couple said. He was also hired by Western Saddlery to tool a saddle that was later replicated many times. Susan grew up in Norbuck, Alta. and work took her to Swan Hills before marriage brought the couple together there.
Evansburg is now home.
Still, they said many people do not realize they offer custom leatherwork. More than sales, they want people to understand the joy behind the work and the joy it can give others.

“We know how rewarding it is when people smile just looking at our creations,” Susan says.

That belief remains at the heart of their work.

For the Gilberts, creating is not only about what they make. It is about what keeps them making: the shared ideas at the workbench, the memory of encouragement, the courage to continue after illness and loss and the smiles of customers who see something in the work before they ever touch it.

“The smiles from people and our customers encourage us to keep creating,” says Susan.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader