Finest Fashions: Bootmaker Lisa Sorrell

Q: How did you become a cowboy boot maker?

A: I was raised in a conservative little church where the ladies all wore long hair and long dresses. As a girl, I was expected to graduate high school, marry, have babies, and take care of a home, so when I was 12 years old, my mom began teaching me to sew clothing. By 14, she was coming to me for sewing tips; at 15, I started sewing for women in my church, and by 18, I was making prom and wedding dresses. I could look at a picture of a dress in a magazine and understand how to recreate it.

I married my husband Dale when I was 20, and we moved from Missouri to Guthrie, Oklahoma. I’d left my sewing customers behind in Missouri and wasn’t having much luck restarting my business in Guthrie, so after six months in a three-room apartment, I got bored and answered an ad in the newspaper looking for someone to “stitch boot tops.” I had no idea what that meant, and I’d never worn cowboy boots.

As fate would have it, the ad was placed by Jay Griffith, a legendary cowboy boot maker. He was also an alcoholic who loved to scream and cuss. Since I’d never been around anyone who drank or swore, I used to hide in the bathroom and cry. But as soon as I figured out what we were doing, I knew I’d found my craft. Jay hired me as an employee — that means he only taught me what I needed to know to do my job. After I left Jay’s shop, I paid another bootmaker, Ray Dorwart, to teach me boot making, and I opened my shop in 1996.

Q: Do you have a favorite piece or project?

A: That would definitely be Taylor Malpass’s “Satan Is Real” boots. The “why” is kind of a long story.

My daughter Paige started working with me in the shop at age 12. She had drive, passion, and talent, and she was becoming a fine shoemaker, but she died of suicide at age 20 because she also suffered terribly from depression and anorexia. I was just drifting and going through the motions of living after she left.

A year or so after, I attended a Malpass Brothers concert and really liked their music. I approached Taylor and Chris after the show and asked if I could make them each a pair of boots. I think they were somewhat suspicious of this strange lady offering custom-made boots, but we began chatting about possible boot designs. Chris said I could design whatever I wanted, and he’d be happy, but Taylor asked if I could make him a pair of “Satan Is Real” cowboy boots. I was raised on the gospel music of the Louvin Brothers, and I’d occasionally considered making a pair of “Satan Is Real” boots, but I’d never pursued the thought. It was a moment of serendipity that confirmed my decision to approach them, and making those boots for Taylor was what began bringing me back to life.

Since then, I’ve become obsessed with making “Satan Is Real” boots and shoes because they’re so fun, and they also function as a friend detector. If someone likes my “Satan Is Real” shoes, I know they’re friend material. Q: Tell us about your studio. A: I like things to be neat, and efficiency is important to me. I don’t necessarily consider speed as a virtue — as a one-person shop, I can never make footwear as quickly or as cheaply as a factory, so speed is never my goal. But I like for each of my tools to have a defined resting place, and my machines are arranged in order of flow. Things can get pretty messy when I’m in the middle of a project, but I’ll clean and straighten after I finish and before I begin a new project.

Q: Do you teach or accept students?

A: I occasionally teach leather art and design techniques at craft colleges, but I don’t teach in my studio anymore. I started a business selling leather, tools, and supplies to boot and shoemakers; that business has grown so much that I no longer have the time to devote to a student in my shop. What I do now is occasionally accept an apprentice. I require them to have some boot or shoemaking experience and be able to work alone and unsupervised, but they get to be in a studio full of tools and equipment, and I’m there to answer questions or make suggestions. Some apprentices come to me for several weeks or months; others have very specific goals or techniques they wish to learn and only stay for a few days. I charge enough to cover the materials used. It’s my way of contributing to the longevity of my craft without the full-time responsibility of teaching.

Q: Are there other ways you contribute to the craft?

A: I sell my entire boot-making class on video, and I’ve written a book on creating art with leather -- “The Art of Leather Inlay and Overlay” (Schiffer Publishing). Besides making boots and shoes, my absolute favorite things to do are public speaking and writing. I often give lectures and seminars, and writing my book was an incredibly fun challenge. Imagine writing a cookbook for an audience who probably doesn’t have a stove and may never have used or seen one, they don’t know what measuring cups or spoons are, they have only the vaguest idea of what flour, butter, and sugar are and where to buy them, terms like “mix” “stir” and “beat” are complete mysteries, and also you need to describe all of the hand motions necessary to pick up, hold, and use the measuring cup or the mixer. That’s what writing a book about footwear techniques is like; it has to convey information for complete beginners but also be interesting enough for more experienced readers.