Mats Theselius

Mats Theselius' Cowboy Boots

Traditional arts and crafts have always been a great source of inspiration for me. They exist all over the world. They are usually concerned with everyday objects. The materials, techniques and the motifs - mythological, naturalistic or religious - vary, but the objective is always the same, as I see it: To decorate, to make important, to reflect the greatness and richness of life in a better order, to turn the objects into something else, to raise the eye above the "here and now".

For the past few years, I have pursued an interest in the work of Texan boot and saddle- makers. The leather saddles, spurs and boots they make and the way they decorate them can be likened to how the Sami craftsmen in Sweden make knives, for instance: a traditional craft, featuring reindeer horn, tin-thread embroidery and with its own specific world of ornamentation.

My boots were made by James Leddy of Abilene, Texas. He is one of the masters of boot-making, with John Wayne and Jerry Lee Lewis among his clients. Ordering a pair of boots from him involves having your measurements taken for the crafting of a pair of blocks, replicas of one's feet. It is around these blocks that the boots are then built up. They are always made to measure in this way. The blocks can subsequently be used for making further pairs of boots without new measurements. The type of leather and its colour are then selected, the height and shape of the heel decided as well as whether the toe should be pointed, rounded or square. Last but not least, of course, comes the style of the boot legs. The shape and decoration of the legs are what gives a pair of boots individuality. Usually patterns are sewn, sometimes in combination with different-coloured patches of leather. Since I am used to designing objects myself, it seemed natural that I should also design my boots. Besides wanting a slightly different shape from what Leddy usually makes (to achieve purer lines), I also suggested that the decorations be made à la Mats Theselius, of silver. I wanted the silverwork done in Sweden, partly because I had recently begun a collaboration with W.A. Bolin, jewellers to the Swedish court, and partly because the boots in this way would be even more "my own".

My collaboration with W.A. Bolin came about after a visit to Moscow a few years ago, during which I was introduced to Christian Bolin at the residence of the Swedish cultural attaché, Johan Öberg. The firm of W.A. Bolin was established in St. Petersburg in 1796 It was jeweller to the Tsar and, with Fabergé, the great patriotic gold and silversmith of Russia. W.A. Bolin left Russia in the wake of the 1917 revolution and resettled in Sweden, where a branch had been established earlier.

Christian Bolin, who is the sixth generation of his family to be running the firm, was in Moscow to borrow certain pieces from the Kremlin (for Bolin's bicentenary exhibit at Livrustkammaren, the Royal Armoury at the Palace in Stockholm, in 1998) and to get in touch with designers and others for a planned "comeback" in St. Petersburg.

My love of Russia and of all things Russian and my passion for craftsmanship are thus neatly united in these,
my own American cowboy boots!