Village Squire, 1977-02, Page 16Suzanne Thompson works at her loom adding her contribution
to Looms -n -Leather.
14, VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1977
Young couple
combines
talents
for new shop
For many people in Ontario and even in Michigan, the
name Blyth is synonimous with leather because of the two
large leather factory outlet stores in the village. The image is
getting new strength these days however with the addition of
vet another leather outlet.
Allan and Suzanne Thompson don't sell coats or sheepskin
rugs and their tiny shop in their home is no competitive threat
to the two huge stores in town but they do add an interesting
dimension to the variety of leather goods on sale in Blyth.
Called Looms -n -Leather, the shop is off the beaten track just a
block from one of the two mills. It features the work of the
two: Suzanne's weaving and Allan's Leather work, in one
small room off their cottage on Mill Street. The shop has been
open only since November and with its out of the way location
many people haven't yet discovered it. For those who have,
however, and for those who like hand -worked leather, it's like
a treasure trove of interesting goods.
The couple came to Blyth only last fall after living in
London for the past year. Allan is a native of Sarnia and
Suzanne of Forest. He studied advertising design in Port
Huron then travelled extensively. It was on his travels that he
first became interested in leather. When he returned to
Canada he worked in a leather shop in Sarnia for two years
and began to pick up the finer points of working with leather.
Suzanne trained as kindergarten and preschool teacher but
became interested in weaving about a year ago, almost by
accident. Another teacher at her school had inherited an old
loom and wanted to learn how to use it. She wanted to take a
course on weaving and wanted someone else to go with her.
Suzanne took two courses at Fanshawe College and became
very interested. She didn't have a clue what she was doing at
the beginning, she remembers, but she soon got to the point
where she had the basic knowledge and now is developing her
skills herself through study and practice. She used to lose
sleep at night worrying about just threading the loom but now