Ask the Bootmaker podcast with Chase DeForest
- raised on farm, had horses
- studied art in college
- built custom furniture for a few decades
- private clients
- met a customer bootmaker at a party
- can’t really just watch YouTube videos and figure it out [???]
- took a two-week course
- “giving up wood for leather”
- “much more forgiving medium”
- shop space, dangerous tools, hard to ship, IKEA competition, hard to exhibit
- boot structure always the same, creativity in what you put on it
- don’t need to reconsider the structure every time
- Carl Chappel’s two-week course
- recently passed away
- after that, to Wyoming to apprentice with couple
- people generous, but tricky to bring someone into your studio
- teachers mostly custom makers, but also did cowboy work for some clients, seasonally
- lots of art, too
- still makes primarily working boots, even though clients not working cowboys
- no preference between traditional working boots and dress
- recently was fun to do a traditional pair with several rows of topstitching
- laser cutter
- GlowForge
- more hobbyist level
- not on every pair
- used more for artwork
- loves having it
- makes the job easier
- super detailed stuff that takes forever by hand
- not hours and hour of saving
- just a tool
- vents out the window
- sunflowers, cut for outline, engraved for detail lines, stitched down in the center
- did a pair of boots with family tree on them, stitching names
- doesn’t do any tooling or carving right now
- can laser etch patterns to cut
- leather art
- separate websites for art and boots
- boots came first
- can do art fairs, exhibitions
- have had boot clients buy artwork, but not yet the other way around
- only doing art 2 or 3 years
- not trying to get boot clients to put her art on their boots
- people always come with an idea
- leathers
- primarily cowhide
- sometimes alligator
- sometime ostrich
- little bit of goat for inlay
- no favorite
- not big into exotics
- clients aren’t asking for them
- not sure where exotics are coming from, how harvested
- how are we getting elephant hides?
- we’re not farming elephant
- “I’m glad my clients aren’t asking for them”
- most enjoyable part
- getting the call from the client when they fit
- finally decide on design, actually getting to making
- music in studio
- jazz classical ambient fan
- no lyrics
- morning radio new music program from Wyoming radio station
- mostly online, Spotify
- avoid the ads
- favorite boots made
- really simple army green with suede turnouts, black and white cock feathers
- how many boots made for self
- about six pairs
- first pair sitting in the shop
- perfectly wearable
- need a pair in shop to explain things
- pair for competition
- wanted a black and a blue pair
- next: experiment with different making process, maybe a zipper, maybe a two-part boot
- something to offer to clients
- compromise in the fit because you can’t pre-stretch the same way for the pull-on
- Washington, DC
- “plenty of cowboys in this town”
- iconic boots, people want ’em
- entire country represented here
- has done boots for reps
- can’t say more about them
- don’t talk politics with reps while fitting them
- no preference working with men or women, all about personality
- usually tries to encourage people to go as distinctive as possible
- generally need to fit in person
- a couple times haven’t been able to meet, could get measurements that trust
- not really nervous when people come to try them on
- not the nervous type
- guarantee fit
- only a couple times didn’t work out
- show a sample, so they know what they’re going to look like
- get a little more comfortable with each pair that fits