Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

Janne from Sweden and Frank from England worked on my ancient perfing and gimping machine and got it working! This machine makes the little series of holes and/or the serrated edges that’s commonly seen on men’s dress shoes. And no, I don’t make men’s dress shoes but when I found this machine I realized I didn’t have one and therefore I must need it!

The Daily Oklahoman came by my shop because I called and told them about the shoemakers gathering. Instead of writing an article about the gathering they wrote an article about me. So far I’ve had two people call and ask if I could stretch their boots, two people call about having special diabetic shoes made, and one guy asking if I could make him sheepskin-lined house shoes. 

Marika, on the right, is from New York City. She came early to the gathering so she could take an inlay/overlay class. Here she’s teaching inlay/overlay to another attendee who’s from Oregon.

I have a look of surprise and delight on the my face because Janne fixed my machine. The photographer looks like he’s wondering what in the world the machine does.

Carina, master Swedish shoemaker, had lots of fun playing in my alligator scraps.

Paige is listening intently to Frank, shoemaker from England. Whatever he’s telling her obviously involved much hand-waving.