Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

If I did a poor job of trimming an edge, my old boss Jay Griffith would tell me it looked like it had been gnawed off by a beaver. I felt the tool slip as I was trimming behind the beading so before I went back and fixed it, I had to tell myself that it looked like it had been gnawed off by a beaver.

Yesterday I built and shaped heels on these boots. The plastic form, called a last, inside the boots weighs around 2-2.5 pounds depending on size. I shape the heels on a sanding wheel that’s slightly above waist height for me, holding the boot out in front of me against the wheel, turning and rotating the boot, flipping it around and repeating on the other side. The larger the boot, the heavier the last is, and the brown boots are a size 12.5.

I’ve also added some weight training to my exercise routine in an attempt to bulk up my arms and shoulders. Yesterday these two things collided hard and by the time I got home I will confess to some plaintive whimpers as my arms and shoulders and upper back made their complaints known. I’m feeling better today but I think as a special treat I’ll just work on a pretty boot top and not lift or shape anything.

Stitching boot tops is the only part of boot making that occasionally bores me. It’s also the only part of boot making that I’ve ever done working for someone else so I think perhaps I associate it with having a job more than being self-employed and in charge (which can also be a job, I will admit). I turned the music up today and sang along, and that’s getting me through it. I told Holly I had the music up loud in an attempt to drown myself out so she wouldn’t have to hear me, because if there’s music on and it has good harmony, I WILL sing.

Finally, I have all the pieces put together. I had to make a couple of very minor corrections but it went together so incredibly easily. Stitching will add the final small details and pull it all together, plus I still need to figure out what I’m doing with the flower centers, so I’m far from done.

Pro tip: If you will spend as much time as necessary thinking through your design, carefully creating your patterns, and accurately cutting and skiving every piece, putting it all together will be the easy part and you won’t have to fight it.

All the inlay pieces are cut; now I need to prepare the boot tops. I had a set of boot tops ready to go but the scallop decided it needed to be shaped differently so I have to start over on those. Inspiration is kinda bossy sometimes.

I am sincerely glad the magnolia design didn’t insist on having more flowers than it does. They are incredibly difficult to pattern and put together.

In other words, I’m having so much fun.

I took first place in the 3-D category at Women’s Work (Cowgirl Artists of America) last year and one of the prizes was a free ad in Art of the West magazine. I decided to have some fun with it because I enjoy doing graphic design, so here’s the ad I created.

Checking my paper patterns in an attempt to avoid wasting leather while having zero confidence I’ll be 100% successful — I’m sure there will be a piece or two I’ll need to recut. My designs are sometimes slightly ahead of my abilities but it’s definitely possible and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

When I first started making boots, I dreaded skiving* the bottom of the top liners. I was using the green handled knife on the right; it was difficult and never looked good. Once I switched to the knife on the left, I suddenly became a great skiver and now it’s one of my favorite things to do. It only takes a minute now though.

*Skiving is using a knife to thin the edge of leather at an angle to a paper-thin thickness.

I skived all four panels this morning and then it took me the entire rest of the day to put all the pieces together. Also, I have been singing for about eight hours now. This is good work to be doing while listening to music.