Inlay on ostrich never looks good to me, but this looks GREAT! Ostrich is a thick, bumpy, soft leather… which is precisely why customers like it… but it makes almost all inlay look clunky.
But wait! This marijuana leaf is perfect. Cannabis Sativa with its jagged spiky leaves. The folks at Little’s know a good heavy stitch can be better art than adding more cut outs.
I spent a week staring at this pot leaf wondering how the tight right-left stitches were done. I know the folks at Little’s are remarkable, but this seemed otherworldly. When I emailed Sharon Little, I got this reply…
“I showed the photo to my guys. Juan, our stitcher, said they did that with an old zigzag machine.”
Man, that’s perfect… anyway you look at it, right? 😉
#Trending. With weed becoming a legal big business, I predict we are going to see marijuana leaves stitched up on pair-after-pair of custom cowboy boots… just like we used to see oil wells.
There are a handful of men I trust to repair my boots, and even fewer willing to do it.
(FACT: If you buy custom cowboy boots this isn’t a problem. Your bootmaker will resole, repair and re-ink any boot he/she makes. They will charge you money for this service and some may grumble in the privacy of the shop, but that’s the deal.)
Okay. Now, this is where we separate the boot nerds from the rest of the internet. Look at the this photo. See the WHITE stitches around each toe? See the NATURAL colored leather welt where the stitches sit? And, see the edge of the welt? It is inked BLACK …just like the heel and sole… then coated with a thin layer of wax… then buffed and burnished.
This is the AFTER shot… not the BEFORE. I want them just like this.
It would be very easy to make this all go away.
Why does it matter to me? Because, it’s beautiful… Because this is a handmade boot and I love to look at its parts. There is a special tool to press the ditch between each stitch. I like to look at the contrast between the heavy thread and the leather. I like to look at the tiny shadows.
The natural welt acts like chrome on a cool car… especially on a brown or black cowboy boot. It lets you see the boot’s shape, angles and curves.
So, I fret about boot repair. And I wait too long. I dodge the guy at the airport with the shoeshine stand… and the guys at the mall. And anyone who has a brush in their hand and is pointing at my feet… yelling… “¡Ma’am, Ma’am!!”
I box up my boots and send them to a friend… who knows exactly how I got to be this kind of crazy. And I get the boots back, not with an invoice… but a play-by-play of the day I missed at the shop. .. with a star written in all caps.
“CLEAN BOOTS WITH LIQUID GLYCERIN. LEVEL HEEL BLOCKS, NEW HEEL PADS 18 SOMETHING SOMETHING HEELS. SCRUB WELTS AND SOLE STITCHES. *TAPE WELTS OFF TO KEEP SOLE STITCHES WHITE.APPLY 2 COATS SOMETHING .”
… what Brian C. Thomas actually said to me, “I SCRUBBED THE SNOT OUTA THEM.”
I paid Brian C. Thomas cash money to repair my boots … enough cover his materials, but probably not for all his trouble. Brian is a longtime friend. He fixed my boots without any expectation I would write about the work on my blog.
I love the word “toebug” …Toebug …toebug …toebug. I say it every chance I get. #Toebug. Bootmakers know what I’m talking about, but everyone calls the crisscross of thread something different, like…
Most cowboy boots have a four-piece top. The piece of leather that surrounds the wearer’s heel is called the “heel counter.”
On most boots, the heel counter is just an echo of whatever is stitched on the toe. Not nearly as strong or as clear. Simple repetition …or all together plain.
A few boots do it better.
A working cowboy boot has a plain toe destined for muck and trouble. Schwarz Custom Boots put a pair of horse heads on the heel counter of these stitched boots. Shadows. Matched in color to the sole, heel and counter, the horse heads are hard to spot …hard to forget.
Rocketbuster Boots (El Paso, TX.)
Just married. Rocketbuster Boots made these white-on-white wedding boots. Instead of tying cans to a car bumper… Nevena Christi stitched these boots with good luck horseshoes, hearts and sparkles. Perfect.
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”
