Saboteuse

Finishing, waxing, and polishing takes more time than I expect - I love pulling out all the irons ❤️

Wonderful Opening Reception for Point of Entry, an exhibition at Brown University’s Lindenman Performing Arts Center on view through May 28. 10 artists were chosen to make works of art using wood from the elm tree cut down on Brown’s main green in 2024. I carved a pair of boot lasts and displayed them on a stacked leather heel.

“Lasts are the solid three-dimensional forms around which we build shoes and boots. They are an indispensable tool. A last is one of the most critical elements of bootmaking, because it informs every aspect of both design, aesthetic, and construction. The form represents the negative space inside a boot. A Last is NOT a one-to-one replication of a foot, but rather the solid volume of the space that a foot in motion needs.

Lastmaking is its own sophisticated knowledge set, one that has been so driven by fashion aesthetics for so long, that good lastmaking – a practice that considers the foot, and fit, in tandem with design aesthetics – is its own endangered art.”

One of the many steps in this public art process: today I selected a granite block that came out of the foundation of Salem’s Old Town Hall during its renovation. I used this 3-D print of the bronze boot to choose the right granite piece, and also made a mockup of the cage that I’ll compress inside the boot to keep leaves and garbage out. This hardware cloth has been outside for 13 years and is still holding up well, so it served as a material test for long term durability.. the trick will be the compression/rebound shape that makes it difficult to remove 🤔 the cage is pulled half-out in these photos, it’s just a prototype - stayed tuned for the summer installation!

I am thrilled to have work in Salem’s public art collection!

Honored to be a part of this tree’s story 🌳🪾

Once in a LONG while I’ll agree to fix someone’s machine when I can get into that mental space in a way that complements my practice… I lucked out having a tool & die maker for a dad so it’s a handy skill set being able to deconstruct and fix most machines…. I haven’t worked on this Tippmann Boss in a long while, 3 yrs at least, but a cobbler friend needed it back up and running again. Problem? The inside of the bobbin case had a rust spot big enough that it stopped the bobbin from spinning freely

Point of Entry
Brown University
Lindenman Performing Arts Center
April 23 - May 27, 2026

Opening Reception April 23 5:30 - 6:30

“In the Fall of 2025, I was among 10 artists selected to make pieces with a 120-year-old American elm that was cut down on Brown’s main green.
When the value of art is reduced to aesthetics of the surface - to its static image - it decreasingly serves as a point of entry into anything beyond itself. Divorced from the social and material conditions that surround it, its meaning becomes self-referential or entirely subjectivized in the eye of the beholder. Instead, this show sought works that expand the horizon of significance beyond the local and immediate, bringing engagement with a work of art out of the privacy of the individual and into the public.”

I answered this call for art because the ideas behind it aligned so well with my life’s mission - to reconnect different publics with our footwear-making systems in order to change them. I felt it was also a perfect opportunity to carve a pair of wooden lasts to the measurements of my feet from scratch. This elm tree provided critical and meaningful material that will now serve as a tool to build long-lasting repairable boots and facilitate all the macro discussions that this simple and complex act represents.

Fun Saturday night tool patent search inspired by the bootmaking hive mind! Check out ‘s post with these cool 1869 shank lasters patented by Frederick Henderson of Marietta Ohio. While hunting for this patent I came across all these other designs. This was my favorite part of the work, seeing the human innovation and problem@solving through rapid tool development. Thanks for tagging me

STUDENT WORK - Cali

offered The Cowboy Boot 101 this Wintersession for the second time with critical support from

Each student built boots from raw materials over 5 weeks: 11 classes with me and so many hours working on their own. They all used Chromexcel vamps for and Cali used leather her grandmother tanned for the tops.

The students had the option of inseaming or a whipstitched cemented construction dress boot.

We started with measuring feet and ordered Krentler 3705 Combination lasts from ; each student built boots for their own feet.

At we value learning through making. I tried to impart respect for this traditional art of bootmaking, stress that where/how we learn this craft is not typically in an institutional setting, and that the larger implications of reconnecting design to how things are built and what knowledge systems are preserved are critical lessons to all. The students accomplished an extraordinary amount of knowledge absorption.