Saboteuse

Nice little score!! Read this Barbara Brackman essay a while back via LisaRanee Sorrell and went hunting for it to quote in an essay I’m working on myself… found a reprint of this Kansas State Historical Society publication… Seeing this bootshop photo reinforces my theories on the architectural similarities of Ten Footers and bootshops contributing to the longevity of bootmaking whereas Eurocentric style shoemaking all but died out in North America…. I really need to get back on the agenda to write my own book 😂

A time of transitions!!

I wrapped up the incredible Peabody Essex Museum Residency with a final fitting of the Salem as Muse boots to Paula Richter feet. Photos by Kathy T who was among so many in the PEM community that made working there such a joy. Thank you all!!
Stay tuned as I finish these boots in my new studio in Beverly MA. I am suddenly an empty-nester with my youngest kid off to college, I’m contemplating the future of the Ten Footer at home, but for the moment I really like working around other people!

I’m teaching again at RISD Apparel Design RISD Industrial Design this fall, a full workload, and snuck into one of my studio classrooms this week. The shoemaking class and the cowboy boot class have long waitlists, it’s thrilling to see the desire to learn shoemaking but also heartbreaking to say no to so many. We need more stable and available educational systems when it comes to footwear! Drawing a sketch is not enough!

And I return to being a student myself this fall. So excited for this professional development opportunity with Bill Bird, acquiring this orthopedic knowledge set will enrich both my Bootmaking practice and my teaching skills.. I cannot wait! This opportunity is available to me thanks to a grant from Boss Mares, Inc. - supporting women in the western arts. What a wonderful overlapping of worlds ❤️❤️ Thank you!

It was a bittersweet last day today at my Peabody Essex Museum residency in the Lye-Tapley Ten Footer Shoe Shop. I’m going to miss this place and all the wonderful community at PEM and locally around Salem so much. I felt like I just belonged here, not sure how else to describe it.

So many people stopped in to say good bye, leave me with thoughtful cards and gifts, or a hug and a See You Soon! This experience has been one of the great joys of my working life, and I hope it’s just the beginning of more to come. In the meantime I will continue to work on the Salem as Muse boots, and start another semester teaching Apparel Design next week - also part of the larger mission!

Super excited to have my first published work in a book finally released! I wrote this 4 years ago, and had the incredible experience of working with gifted editors. These passages feel extra poignant now as I wrap up this residency Peabody Essex Museum, and have lived what I only theorized about in this essay. Buy your copy from Historic Deerfield now!

Making art Peabody Essex Museum with Perry Hallinan

More wonderful photos from Kathy T (except for the selfie with Lynne Francis-Lunn visit today!) as this residency Peabody Essex Museum slowly wraps up.

I’m here 11-5:00 August 21/22 and 28/29, come visit!

Don’t miss your chance to see our bootmaker in residence before her pop-up workshop closes!

Every Friday and Saturday this summer from 11 am–5 pm, artist Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin has been taking over our Lye-Tapley Shoe Shop to demonstrate her leatherworking and heritage shoemaking techniques. Located at 9 Brown Street, Lye-Tapley is a ten footer, a small wooden shop primarily used by shoemakers. It’s the perfect backdrop for this contemporary art practice rooted in North Shore history.

⌛Catch Guerin in this pop-up workshop for two more weekends before it closes on Saturday, August 29. This experience is part of our Salem 400+ programming and is free and open to the public!

📸: Kathy Tarantola/PEM

Side seaming the Salem as Muse Boots under the Sourwood Tree, while chatting up tourists and locals Peabody Essex Museum