FLORA’S BOOT CAMP

Iwas born in Ontario but my family moved to Dunedin when I was six after my dad got a job at Otago University.

When I left school I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I did a couple of arts papers and messed around for a year – let’s just say I wasn’t really focused – before moving to Lyttelton and playing fiddle full-time with Christchurch alt-country band The Eastern for about three years.

I’d played since I was little and had all but given it up. But I became obsessed with Appalachian fiddling –rican ed ut out r the years k and ween the ralia s this that h the oots in h it. n urch, ake s to pair d talk “

pp g trad itio na l old-time A me r fi ddlin g – and really wan t to fin d ou mo re abo it, so ove n ext few I w as bac fo rth betw Cana d a, t US, Austr an d Ne w Ze alan d. There’s aesthetic g oes with m usic; b o g o h an d ha nd w ith During my time i C h ristchu I w ould ta my boots a little re p sh o p an d

Flora at work. Top: Her beloved fiddle is a gift from her father. Lisa experienced some challenges when she started out; she is very generous in wanting to make it easier for today’s young bootmakers. I guess you could call it a four-month self-funded study period. Lisa offered her space and resources and gave me free rein to work independently. At the same time she would guide me through things.

To have this person showing me how to do something that I’d had to scrape the bottom of the barrel of the internet trying to find answers to was amazing. There’s so much you have to learn that you just can’t learn from a book – how a tool feels, how there’s an emotion in which your hands work.

There’s no room for messing it up with cowboy boots. You have to be very exact about the fitting because they pull on, whereas with other styles, such as lace-up boots, you have room to tighten or loosen them.

Lisa’s boots – works of art really – start at $10,000 a pair. That’s not necessarily a market I’m trying to corner, or one I’d be capable of cornering at any point soon! I want to go somewhere in between art and practicality – so something that is beautiful but that’s also very to the owner about wanting to make shoes. They gave me my first job, part-time on the boot patcher, which is like an old treadle sewing machine, replacing zips in ladies’ boots.

I was doing similar work back in Dunedin when Lou Clifton, who had set up a shoemaking school, came in. We started to chat and Lou offered to teach me the basics in exchange for me volunteering my time. It was through her I got to make the ladies’ Victorian boots for The Luminaries mini-series. They were pearl-buttoned with scalloped edges.

When Lou moved her shoe school to Wellington, I was left to my own devices so I started trolling the internet, writing to bootmakers overseas, reading books... It was pretty frustrating because I really value the oldfashioned hands-on teacher/ apprentice style of learning. I felt like I was at a bit of a standstill with my skills.

Lou knew I had interest in cowboy boots and put me onto Lisa Sorrell in Oklahoma, one of the best custom bootmakers in the world, who has made boots for people like Arnold Schwarzenegger. She names all her boots after classic country songs, so that was totally up my alley!

It was a bit scary, but I emailed her and asked about learning opportunities. It was about 18 months from the time I wrote to her to the time I got there. Flora traded a pair of custom boots for a Harley, having being taught to ride by her US boyfriend.

A once rundown garden shed is now a workshop filled with bootmaking gear, including lasts and industrial sewing machines.

hard-wearing and long-lasting. Bespoke bootmaking requires quite a big investment. I’ve got two industrial sewing machines, grinders, finishing and sanding machines, lasts, various irons for finishing, dyes, glues, thread, leather… My workshop is a little brick garden shed at the back of my house. It was in ruins but I replaced the dirt floor with a wooden one and had friends come over for a re-mortaring party to fix the walls. It’s a pretty grassroots little place. I run an extension cord from the house, and I’m constantly blowing the mains by plugging in too many sewing machines. Coincidentally, a worldfamous fiddle player who I had listened to since I was a teenager had a music store two doors down from Lisa’s. I couldn’t believe my luck. This town in the middle of Oklahoma had this vibrant little world for me! I told him I’d pay him to teach me, but he said no, so we did a trade. I made him a custom pair of boots and he taught me some fiddle. I also fell in love with someone while I was there, so there’s even more of an incentive to go back!” # As told to Julie Jacobson

THEY’RE YOUR STORIES weekly PEOPLE

A FOOT IN FIDDLER AND BOOTMAKER FLORA KNIGHT (28) WENT TO OKLAHOMA LAST YEAR TO LEARN TO MAKE COWBOY BOOTS. SHE ALSO FELL IN LOVE The person you’d most like to make a pair of boots for? My mother. She is an incredible artist and craftsperson who taught me so much about creativity, and I would love to see her wearing something that she inspired. Your favourite campfire meal? A cup of tea made from river water after sleeping under a blanket of stars. Your most treasured possession? My fiddle. It was a gift from my father who taught me to play music, and music is responsible for most of my friendships and good times in my life. It was made in Dunedin by friend and luthier, Peter Madill. Quick-fire: How I live...

Flora’s boot camp

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