Lisa Sorrell, cowboy boot maker

My apprentice Flora has finished her first pair of cowboy boots!

I’ve been trying to get back into the shop and inseam these boots for a week now. Today I sternly told myself I was not allowed to go home until it was done. I finished one this morning, and starting the second one at 5:15 was an incentive to work quickly!

I had issues (all of the self-inflicted variety) getting these boots on the last, but once I solved those the boots lasted in about 10 minutes. I think they were happy too.

Close-up of an art/just for fun piece I created recently

Strapping a pair of boots after lasting (that leather piece wrapped over the boot) is almost an admission of defeat for me; it means that I wasn’t able to last it quite as well as I wanted and I’m trusting the strap to do the final bit. On the other hand, ostrich leather is usually a pain to last and often requires a strap. The good news is that the boots are standing up straight! With a boot this tall, if they’re at all crooked it shows up in a big way.

If I get to work in the shop tomorrow (no promises) I’ll put these two pairs of boots on the last.

“If Heartaches Had Wings”
Link to song

I took a break from creating boot tops and inseamed a pair of boots today.

You really needed to see the back side of the purple stained glass boot tops.

You remember how I announced that the Thunderbird tops were completed? Yeah, there’s been a small wrinkle. The client has one Short Heel measurement larger than the other, so not only are these tops asymmetrical (Thunderbirds reversed to face each other), there’s a defined Right and Left boot top, and I got the back panels reversed. I can trim the larger one down to make it the smaller one, but I have to remake the larger one. I wonder if the client would like to have the now absolutely useless wrong way one as Art? 😁