It’s a Boot Life

Posted on June 20, 2016 by customboots

On “It’s a Boot Life” this month, I talk about choosing the correct last length.

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Gift

Posted on June 17, 2016 by customboots

Look at the wonderful gift I received from my cousin Madison Cole and his family! It’s an exquisitely-made wooden mallet; I think it’s too beautiful to use.

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Paige

Posted on June 17, 2016 by customboots

I’m spending time today with my little barefoot shoemaker. ❤

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Feathers and Wings

Posted on June 17, 2016 by customboots

The inlaid feathers are on the boot fronts, and the outstretched, stitched wings are on the boot backs.

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Feathers

Posted on June 15, 2016 by customboots

This is what the front of the boots will look like. The back panels are totally different.

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Whoops

Posted on June 13, 2016 by customboots
Oh no! I’ve been out of the shop so long that I skived the wrong side!
 
Ha, not really. These boot tops are “rough out” (fuzzy side up) so I had to skive on the right side.
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Back to work

Posted on June 13, 2016 by customboots
Me: I’m going to TRY to work on boots today in the shop.
Paige: It’s been so long, are you sure you remember how?
This is such a very valid point I had no argument.
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Paige

Posted on June 10, 2016 by customboots

Someone sent Paige a bunch of vintage wooden lasts for ladies shoes. Here she is, taking inventory of her newfound riches.

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Coat of Arms

Posted on June 9, 2016 by customboots

Austria and I have been spending more time together; this design has taken a while to get right. I think I’ve finally drawn something that: 1.) The customer will like. 2.) I can actually create with leather inlay and overlay. This one’s going to be tricky.

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Craft

Posted on June 9, 2016 by customboots
My daughter Morgan is in Rome right now on a college study trip. She sends me emails each day about her travels, and in the latest one she included an excerpt from a paper she’s writing about how the past and present collide. The excerpt is below; it made me cry to see how eloquently she writes about respecting craft.
 
“I wrote about how what we’re really recognizing when we look at monuments is craft. The patterns carved into the columns, the people sculpted on the sides, the monument itself–those were all created by laborers and craftspeople. We only know about the emperors in an abstract way with facts about dates and wars fought and who they married. But the things we actually look at and touch and still functionally use today are the things created by everyday people.
 
The broken piece of column I got to touch had a pattern of square blocks with a bit of rounded column between them. Was that a pattern meant to be serious and regal? Was it just a generic pattern slapped on to fill up space? Did the person who carved it listen to music or sing it in their mind while they worked? I choose the genre I listen to based on the character I’m writing. The woman I’m writing right now likes old country music and her favorite song is “If We Make it Through December.” I also think of you singing it and the boots you named after that song when I listen to it. Did the craftsperson have a song like that? Did they have a kid they took with them to work, who arranged the little discarded chips of stone to make houses the way I arranged your scraps of leather to make dolphins?”
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