Cowboy Boots

Today, I updated my bootmaker map and my big list of bootmakers… with 5 “new” shops.

Al’s Handmade Boots (Houston, TX); Candela Boot Co. (Weimar, TX); Mark James Designs (Rome, GA); R.L. Boyce Handmade Boots (Winthrop, WA) and Tim Alden Custom Boots (Rogue River, OR.) Go visit their websites. Like. Comment. Reshare.

Photo of Alvaro Rivera courtesy of Al’s Handmade Boots.

I’ve posted a new version of my big-list-o-bootmakers. Sorted by state; alphabetized by shop name.

Please don’t click all the links in one sitting …you should get some sunshine.

Behold! It’s a brand new look for dimlights.com. I’m excited. Hope you are too.

Look at my bootmaker map! Isn’t that somethin’? It’s got web links and driving directions …just what you’ve always wanted.

Explore the tabs at the top of this page and the links along both sides. Type something into the search box. All your favorite pages and posts here, just moved around a bit. Send me an email if you can’t find something. I’ll try to lend a hand.

I’m gonna go up to Michael Anthony’s boot shop today. I packed up my tools last night….I could use a cup of coffee.

I got a fortune cookie in my e-mail.Now, I want a cup of tea…could be my cold…or the rain, I guess. I’ve put all my boot tools in a sack to take up to Michael’s tomorrow. I’m going to try and work on that table leg with a bit of sandpaper tonight…And I’m carrying along a copy of a “Request for Proposal” from the California Arts Council via the Fund for Folk Culture for Michael and I to talk about. (more later)

I’m back in California…back at my day job. Today, I feel a little less like a bootmaker…more like a cross between a computer geek and a bureaucrat. I’m sure my mood will improve once I’m back at home sorting through the tools and thread I brought home with me. I’ve been a little slow to unpack my suitcases after this trip. I think I miss Texas…or maybe I just miss being in a bootshop. It’s hard to tell.

Today was a big day…a long day…a long day that’s not over yet. The day started with me waking up on the wrong side of the time zone this morning. I was late. No biscuits and gravy for me, nope…just down to the hotel lobby for a bowl of Frosted Flakes and black coffee…back to the hotel room for some phone calls, then off to the Coliseum. I walked through the front doors of the show and took a beeline to Wild Bill’s booth (a.k.a. Bill Niemczyk). Bill has old tools…good old tools. They’re good because he fixes them up after he finds them, he shines up the metal and smoothes the handles. You pick up the tools and they seem kinda warm, like they’ve been in someone’s hand. The handles are worn down in all the right spots. I bought 5 small hand tools: a saw-tooth tack puller, 2 peggin’ awls, a sewing awl haft, and a rand file. They fit in my hand just right, I snagged everything with a small handle. (Can’t do that on e-bay.)

And then I think I spent the whole day talking…talking to everybody I knew…and everybody I didn’t. I talked about boots all day long. I looked a lot like a bootmaker today… I had on a red name tag, some fancy foxing on the toes of my boots, and I was carrying around a cigar box with a bunch hand-me-down tools rattlin’ around inside. I’m having fun alright.