Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

I nailed the rubber heels caps on this morning and the glue that I put on yesterday was still tacky. I can’t think of any good reason to leave things overnight before putting them together but it’s nice to know that it’s possible.

These boots are almost finished!

The next step on these is putting on the rubber heel cap. I’m doing an experiment with the Aquilim 315 contact cement. I know it stays “sticky” longer than regular contact cement but I don’t know how much longer. I’ve put Aquilim on the rubber heel caps and the heels of these boots and now I’m leaving for the night. I want to see if the glue will still bond tomorrow morning.

On Thursday, November 14, I’ll be in Dallas, Texas for a book signing party at PDNB Gallery. I’m one of the featured artists in the book “Portraits of the American Craftsman.” There will be four prints available that night for a donation of $45 to the Fallen Heroes Fund. I’ll be donating; guess which print I want?

I haven’t posted pictures of these boots for a while but I have been working on them. The soles are on and I’m building the heels now. I am so proud to say that these are the first two pairs of boots that I’ve built using exclusively Renia Aquilim water-based, non-toxic glues with the exception of the soles. Cowboy boot soles are applied while wet and the Aquilim glues work best for applications where the leather is dry.

I’m not usually sad when I’m finally through stitching a boot top, especially not on a Sunday afternoon when I didn’t want to work anyway. But this design was really fun!