Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

This is the art piece I’ve had in my head for months; it feels good to get it out. It will be one of the most complex projects I’ve tried so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I have some busy days ahead and it will be weeks before I get to work on it again.

The whole time I was making the Fender tweed shoes, I was keeping a secret: I put the new owner’s name on the outside of the left shoe. I wanted to surprise him which meant I couldn’t post pictures that revealed the name. I tried to do the letters in the same font as the Fender logo but given that the words “Dallas Wayne” and “Fender” only share two letters (not counting the letter D because I needed to capitalize it), so I had to make up most of it.

New YouTube video on using Crimp Screws

Shoemaking Tools

Close-up picture of an upcoming project

Introducing “Before The Next Teardrop Falls”
(because that song was sung by Freddie FENDER — get it?)

I spent Sunday afternoon with Satan; I’m trying to finish my shoes before I see The Malpass Brothers in concert on Sunday. (Taylor Malpass owns the “Satan Is Real” cowboy boots — they’re fellow Louvin Brothers fans.) Today I finished the sole edges, finished the soles, and laid the first heel layer (if one’s going to try to not stick, it’ll be that one, so I like to get it done). Since it’s rarely ever efficient to work on one pair at a time, the Fender tweed shoes came along for the ride. Now all I need to do for both pairs is finish building the heels and they’ll be done!

I put the toe boxes in my Louvin Brothers shoes. The “toe box” is a stiffener that holds the shape of the toe and also protects the wearer’s toes. This particular shape is a cowboy boot style I learned from my mentor; when I put this toe on cowboy boots I’m careful to create very sharp, defined corners. I’d planned and assumed that I’d be putting sharp corners on this toe shape for shoes, but once I started making shoes on this last the toes informed me that they wished to have softer, rounder corners and who am I to argue with my craft? So my shoes have a streamlined square toe, but with soft corners.

I came into the shop today to do some rearranging (it’s my hobby) and realized I’d forgotten to peg the soles on these shoes on Friday. They were in a plastic bag so they wouldn’t have dried out, but leaving them all weekend is an excellent way to get mold. So I pegged the soles with a double row of pegs and shined the forepart of the sole by rubbing it. See the three black dots on the sole on the left? Here’s the story on that: I’ve been waiting six months for a huge shipment of kangaroo leather, and it arrived on Friday while I was working on these shoes. I was So Excited I laid the shoes down on my bench — not realizing they were touching a metal tool — and rushed up front to help the truck driver bring in my leather. By the time I got back the metal tool had permanently stained the sole leather. I know better, but that’s what happens when I get a shipment of colored kangaroo, I guess.