Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

Usually I have every detail planned in my mind, but I was uncertain about the beading color on this pair for quite a while. I normally wouldn’t bring in another color that’s not being used for inlay somewhere on the boot, but this pair has multiple rows of stitching in an avocado green color that’s exactly the shade of the leather I decided to use for the beading. 

Now I gotta stitch them. I can skive for hours — I find it endlessly fascinating and meditative — but multiple rows of stitching bore me. I’d rather be skiving like the leather working definition OR skiving like the goofing-off definition, but progress requires that I stitch a whole bunch of leaves now.

“Skiving” is thinning the leather along the edge so there are no bumps or ridges where the pieces join. “Skiving” also means goofing off in England, but yesterday I did the first kind of skiving, not the second one. Although honestly, I love skiving leather enough that it feels like playing.

Leather bracelet I made for a friend who loves Christmas

I made a YouTube video today about welt; how to slash it and why it’s slashed. I’m thinking perhaps I should change the title of my videos from “Shoemaking Tools” to “Lisa: The Intermittent Shoe Maker.”

Link to video

I’ve gotten to work in my studio today!

I made a tiny little Art. It’s 4×6″Title: “Next Go Round”

I’m very pleased with the toe on these.

Inlay always looks better when it’s stitched.

I wanted these shoes to be brown but they insisted upon being black, which is funny because usually when I try to design anything black it insists upon being brown. Sheesh. You bring something to life and the first thing it does is start talking back.