One of humanity’s most ancient materials, leather’s versatile properties give it a place in both the worlds of art and functional craft.  It can be soft and buttery, malleable and moldable, stiff and sculptural, all while maintaining a durable, hard-wearing quality.  

With a background in sculpture, fiber arts, and upholstery, I gravitated toward bootmaking and leather craft as a medium that could marry all my favorite aspects of these various disciplines.  It takes over 100 distinct processes to make a pair of boots, from measuring feet to building up the “last” (the form that a boot is made around), forming and carving a channel into the thick leather insole, mathematically patterning the upper and assembling it on the sewing machine with great precision, to “lasting” the boot–stretching it around the last to create the three dimensional shape desired–and finally constructing the sole and bottoming the shoe, which require great strength and a keen sense of geometry.  The skills involved are highly varied, keeping the work engaging and the learning process endless.  I also enjoy applying the techniques toward other leather crafts, such as bag making and smaller leather goods.  

I am honored to carry on a tradition that has been built over countless generations, incorporating methods and techniques from many makers that I have studied with or come to know.  I am grateful to those master craftsmen and-women who have come before me, to their own devotion to the work, and to the history of apprenticeship and shared knowledge that this craft has long upheld.  I feel deeply humbled to craft objects that can stand on their own as pieces of art, as well as functional tools that can help the wearer fully embody and express their personality. 

mayamiel@gmail.com

(510)-599-4464