SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. —

Janet Dodson has always been crafty.

“I love art, and I can appreciate anything that someone’s worked hard on,” she said. “That’s always been my thing. I’m not a techie-type person. I’m a crafty person.”

As a child living in Plymouth, United Kingdom, Dodson loved to crochet. When she was 14, she was making ponchos and crocheted waistcoats and selling them at school.

She was 15 when she discovered a love of leather while working at Clark’s Leather and Shoe Factory in her city.

The smell of the leather, she said, is what she enjoyed and loved.

After that teenage experience, it was only natural that her passion for leatherwork carried into her adulthood.

Rather than making something common, like leather wallets, Dodson wanted her work to stand out. It was leather roses that became her thing.

“It was because it was something different,” she said. “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a bit more unique.”

When thinking of a rose, it’s easy to picture the traditional red rose, maybe a white or pink one. Dodson makes those as well, but she doesn’t limit herself to the colours and styles found in nature.

Rainbow roses for pride. Roses with leather barbed wire in the stems. Gothic and steampunk roses – styles that are popular in the United Kingdom. Dodson even makes boutonnieres and lilies.

Despite the seemingly endless ways to style leather flowers, Dodson’s favourite type of rose is the classic red one.

“I try to keep it just classic, normal roses, but so many people say ‘can you do this?’” she said. “They want the unusual.”