Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

I taught a leather inlay/overlay class in the Netherlands today, at Rene van den Berg’s shoemaking school. I started the morning with not being able to find my earrings and watch in the hotel room, and this made me feel sure I was late and unprepared. But I had the most wonderful students, I felt very welcome, and it turned out to be a fantastic class. I cannot wait to see their final projects when they are completed!

Also, I met a massive pair of scissors. My hands were not big enough or strong enough to use them.

Here are some photos from my presentation to the Annie Oakley Society and the opening of the cowboy boot exhibition at the National Cowboy Museum.

I inseamed the pair of boots on the right today; the pair on the left has not been inseamed yet.

I can’t believe I get to make this pair of boots. They’re a reproduction of a vintage pair that I have loved for years.

I was a little slow putting these together because I kept pausing to admire the colors and the effect of the cognac alligator with the chocolate boot tops.

These boot tops are making me happy.

This set of boot tops has been incredibly bossy about how they’re going to be brought into the world.

Completed set of inlaid and stitched boot tops, with pulls

The second photo shows what the inlay looks like from the back, before it’s lined and stitched.

I’ve really been in the mood to cut, skive, and sew boot tops and shoe uppers recently. At some point I’m going to have to begin lasting everything and building boots! In the meantime, here’s the next set of uppers on the work bench.

I finally got these shoe/boots on the last today! I’ve been quietly terrified I’d forgotten how to last shoes, but they were so compliant. Maybe this means I’m also getting better at patterning.

While these will be made on a cowboy boot last, they are shoes and they are patterned like shoes rather than cowboy boots.