Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

OK everyone, I may need your thoughts and prayers with me as I attempt this pair of shoes, featuring Spring vegetables for a chef.

I’m preparing for a show and trying to get several leather bracelets made for my booth. I made these three today; they took longer than normal because of all the different colors.

Vamp stitching and wingtip for the “Kansas City Star” boots

Wingtips and countertips are my favorite thing! I love how beautiful they are!

Also, wingtips are my least favorite thing! I worry that I’ll get them in the wrong place!

Completely stitched tops for the “Kansas City Star” boots

I would rate this design as Advanced. I don’t normally think of stitch patterns that way — either you can accurately sew a line of stitching right next to another one or you can’t — but this design has some challenges. 

Another art piece, entitled “Whispering Hope”

This one was kind of scary because I did all of the inlay/overlay work successfully, then took a deep breath and stitched gray lines over all of it in the hope it would look like rain. It does, but since I’m doing a type of art that (as far as I know) no one’s ever done before, I’m never sure if the completed piece will match my vision. I love gray and drizzly days and I can almost smell the rain when I look at this piece.

I’m flying to an event in Idaho this weekend so I’m stretching my completed art pieces over stretcher bars. I’ll put everything I want to take into my suitcase and then if there’s space left I get to take some extra clothes; if not, look for me wearing the same thing all weekend. Once I return I’ll have everything framed nicely, which will cover up any unevenness around the edges.

I tell my students that the ability to convey light and shadow with leather inlay/overlay is very limited, and it is, but I guess I’m a rebellious student who pushes against boundaries even when I’m the teacher. We have a beautiful pond next to our house and my favorite time of the day is early morning or late evening when the wind dies and the water is still and the pond perfectly reflects the land above it. I’ve always wished I had the ability to capture those moments but assumed that with my medium I could not — until recently, when I started thinking, “But what if I could? Is there anything I could do within my own craft to convey a reflection?”

Introducing: “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand”

The scene above the waterline is leather overlay, the reflection in the water is entirely stitching, done on my old non-computerized Singer 110W with its antique clutch motor.