The history of cowboy boot making in the U.S. has been lost to time, but some women are still crafting the iconic Western gear. For this episode of Expressive Idaho, we go back to a 2022 gathering of artisans called the "Cowgirl Congress."
The Idaho Commission on the Arts and traditional artists will hold a Cowgirl Congress in June in Ketchum as part of an America 250 celebration.
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Lisa Sorrell: Cowboy boot making is a uniquely American craft. You can't say that about too many crafts. My name is Lisa Sorrell and I'm a cowboy boot maker from Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Morgan Buckart: I love custom boots because I grew up around custom boots and custom gear. I am Morgan Buckart and I live in Hailey, Idaho, and I build custom cowboy boots.
Natalie Teichert: I'm Natalie Teichert, I live in Mackay, Idaho. My husband Seth, and I build cowboy boots. We have a business called Teichert Boots.
Lisa Sorrell: The way that cowboy boot tops are decorated is with stitching, but also inlay and overlay. So inlay is where you would, for example, cut out a flower shaped hole and put a different colored leather behind. And that's an inlaid flower. Or if you cut out a flower shape and laid it on top, that's overlay. The foot it has to fit. It has to fit in a stirrup. You have to be able to walk in it. All of those things. But the top of a cowboy boot is just a space for canvas, for celebration, for art. They had eagles and butterflies and flowers. They were worn by male cowboys. It wasn't considered feminine. It was nature. And another thing that I think people don't realize about cowboys is they were incredibly vain. They liked bright colors. They liked the pointy toes and high heels. Women wear high heels because it makes their legs look longer and their butt look smaller. And cowboys knew that they were very vain and they wanted to look nice.
Morgan Buckart: It's color, it's design, it's vibrancy. It's when Westerns were popular on television and in film. And you think of Roy Rogers and, you know, these singing cowboys with beautiful bedazzled outfits and custom boots and country singers and all of these people, and it just is representative of who I am. I love bright, I love colorful, and I love creative. And so that postwar era is really, really what draws me in. I use a lot of color and do a lot of inlay and overlay, and do a lot of designs that are representative of where we live. I love to do mountain ranges and flowers and all sorts of things that make Idaho, Idaho.
Natalie Teichert: My husband's been building boots for nearly 20 years, but and I, of course help out in the boot shop, do little parts here and there. But when I finally started making them all the way, that's when I've taken a lot more active role in our boot business. And so I built a lot of pairs of boots since then. I can't even tell you how many. And it has just been a really good growth for me in each pair trying to improve on something. I found that this Cowgirl Congress does not make any sort of competition, but makes a lot of collaboration and inspiration. I was able to meet so many women that are involved in all sorts of different gear making and craft making, and I've created lifelong friendships.
Morgan Buckart: I am always an enthusiastic volunteer, and the Idaho Cowgirl Congress is something really important passion project for me, because I think that it's so important for us to promote women in these male dominated crafts and make sure that young women are welcomed into our crafts and make sure that they're carried on into the future. There's not that many of us, so it's nice to have the opportunity to really overlap each other. And we're able to refer customers to each other and, and it's just really building community here.
Lisa Sorrell: I get to make something pretty, but it's also very physical. I'm pulling and stretching leather. I'm hammering. It's a very physical job and I like both aspects of it.
Morgan Buckart: There is nothing else I've done in my life that really creates that full body experience like boot making does. Making boots is really hard. Physical labor, everything is difficult about it and that's why I love it.
This Expressive Idaho episode was produced by Lauren Paterson, with interviews recorded by Arlie Sommer and edited by Sáša Woodruff. Music by Mr. Smith and Lowtone Music.
The web article was written and edited by Katie Kloppenburg and Lacey Daley.
Expressive Idaho is made in partnership with the Idaho Commission on the Arts’ Folk and Traditional Arts Program. This program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
