customboots.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

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.

submitted 143 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 147 days ago • 0 comments

These boot tops are making me happy.

submitted 150 days ago • 0 comments

Sincere question: How many things could we destroy and how much good would it do if all of us requested new gender IDs and changed our name to something stereotypically the gender we’re not?

submitted 153 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 153 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 153 days ago • 0 comments

I'm not sure I'm tough enough to maintain this level of rage for four years, but... deep breath... I'm willing to try. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. And if it kills me, just remember that I died mad.

submitted 156 days ago • 1 comment

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.

submitted 156 days ago • 0 comments

For several years I've been trying to come up with an alternate name for evangelical christians. They're nothing like Christ so they don't deserve to be called Christ-followers, but what else should they be called? It finally hit me this morning! From now on, let's just call them Church Nazis.

submitted 156 days ago • 1 comment

I 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 I'm also getting better at patterning. While these will be made on a cowboy boot last, they are shoes and are patterned like shoes rather than cowboy boots.

submitted 162 days ago • 0 comments

"When you get a job in a boot shop you are trained to do your job. No one's going to pay you to learn to be a boot maker." Interview link with Mark Beador of Today's Wild West, and it opens with this curmudgeonly quote. Check it out for more sunshine, rainbows, and life in a boot shop!

submitted 162 days ago • 0 comments

I love it when my customers prove me wrong. When this client chose the colors, I thought it would be bland and I wished he'd chosen brighter colors. I was mistaken! I love how deep and rich and elegant these colors are together! #lisasorrell #cowboyboots #leatherart #bespoke #itsabootlife

submitted 167 days ago • 0 comments

If you look closely you'll see that there are four of the larger pieces stacked on top of each other; the design is cut completely by hand with an X-Acto knife. The top one is upside down because one is a mirror image of the other. Initial pulls are not reversed.

submitted 168 days ago • 0 comments

Finally starting a real pair of cowboy boots

submitted 169 days ago • 0 comments

It's not quite a Derby and not quite an Oxford. I prefer Oxfords but I hate the way the tongue lining is done and the closed, fixed lace gap. On the other hand, I don't like sewing the quarter over the vamp on a Derby. This design solves both those issues for me.

submitted 170 days ago • 1 comment

All four bluebird top panels are stitched. Considering each panel took me around an hour, I'm pleased to have them finished. My usual goal when designing and stitching a boot top is to be able to start, stitch the entire boot top, and finish right back where I began without stopping.

submitted 189 days ago • 0 comments

I have one (1) of the four (4) bluebird top panels stitched. This is going to take a while.

submitted 191 days ago • 0 comments

Hey corporate media, Thou shalt not spend thousands of hours on one CEO’s shooting and only one hour on a classroom of children.

submitted 192 days ago • 664 comments

My original plan was to introduce the color lavender in the shaft of the feather. Friday I flirted with making it purple instead but I hated it, so I took out all of the purple leather and replaced it with lavender. It looks so much better. I'll do all the stitching with lavender also.

submitted 192 days ago • 0 comments

Today's work: shoe uppers and cowboy boot tops

submitted 195 days ago • 0 comments

More little birdies and butterflies and flowers are stitched.

submitted 197 days ago • 0 comments

I'm working on another small pair of shoes with teeny tiny birds and flowers. I'm ready to make shoes or boots for someone who's a size 12 now, please.

submitted 198 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 199 days ago • 0 comments

My reflection art piece, titled "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand," has gone to a new home. He's promised to love it and take care of it and allow me to visit when necessary. I need to make more art pieces. Maybe then I won't be so emotionally attached to each one.

submitted 199 days ago • 0 comments

The little birdie uppers are together and ready to be put on the last. I have one more pair of shoe uppers to make before I begin lasting though.

submitted 199 days ago • 0 comments

Half the workforce in both the farming and construction industries is comprised of undocumented workers Plus-most Americans have NEVER shown any inclination to do these jobs If-before the election-you were complaining about the price of eggs or the cost of housing Just wait x.com/atrupar/stat...

submitted 200 days ago • 65 comments

Took me a bit but I've found the framing to put into words a way to express to the people fretting about the death of the UHC CEO why we just aren't heeding their admonishment: The social contract stipulates that all life is sacred, and Brian Thompson violated it. But it's more than that.

submitted 204 days ago • 79 comments

All the little birdies are stitched.

submitted 203 days ago • 0 comments

"Little birdie, little birdie Won't you sing to me your song Got a short time to stay here And a long time to be gone"

submitted 204 days ago • 0 comments

Well gang, Looks like we have to fight, and defeat, a compilation of history’s greatest evils all at once. Civil War, WW2, the Cold War, greed, racism, sexism, ignorance, fascism…hell is empty and all the demons are here. Let’s fucking go.

submitted 206 days ago • 634 comments

The day America decided to ignore Jared Kushner's $2 billion from the Saudis, and put an insurrection-inciting convicted felon back in the White House, is the day I stopped giving a shit about any "moral high ground." I hope President Biden takes his "presidential immunity" out for a fucking spin.

submitted 206 days ago • 1529 comments

This is controversial, it IS extreme, and we will fight this tooth and nail. Fuck this bullshit.

submitted 206 days ago • 1634 comments

I cut out the shaped holes in the shoe quarters. Next I'll layer in all those randomly-shaped bits like little colored puzzle pieces and they'll become bluebirds and feathers.

submitted 206 days ago • 0 comments

I sold both of these art pieces today and as always, it feels like a little piece of me leaves with them. I'm a cowboy boot maker, known for intricate inlay, overlay, and stitching work, and I use the same techniques for my art. There's no painting, only different pieces of leather.

submitted 206 days ago • 0 comments

Looks like I need to pop some popcorn and settle in with an entertaining book or three. “A History of American Manufactures” 1608 to 1860, Volumes I, II, and III

submitted 206 days ago • 0 comments

I made those boots for him.

submitted 207 days ago • 0 comments

LIFE HACK: Answer your phone "Hello you're on the air" and 99% of the time people will just hang up.

submitted 208 days ago • 615 comments

I'll be curating a museum exhibit next year, featuring my boots and their links to country music, and I have my first pair committed for the exhibit! I made this pair in 2012 and they're titled "Boulder to Birmingham."

submitted 208 days ago • 0 comments

american schools: on the first thanksgiving, the pilgrims and native americans shared dinner to celebrate their peaceful coexistence in the new world 😊 me: that sounds nice! what happened next? american schools: uhhhhhhh. dessert

submitted 210 days ago • 260 comments

Our London vacation was cancelled (thanks, United) so I spent two days at my son's house painting and hanging wallpaper followed by one day feeling every minute of my age. Still sore, but showing signs of recovering.

submitted 209 days ago • 0 comments

I grew up hearing things like "fruits of the Spirit" and "try the spirit to see if it's of God." The American evangelical christian stance on LGBT issues brings forth violence and death. That's how I know it's evil. Y'all shouldn't have taught me from the Bible if you didn't want me to believe it.

submitted 214 days ago • 0 comments

I’ve been creating patterns for upcoming boots, and it’s one of my favorite things. I truly enjoy patterning but every time I make a pair of boots, there are always things I wish I’d done better. At this stage the tantalizing promise of perfection still exists. Maybe one of these will be perfect!

submitted 217 days ago • 1 comment