Bio
A bicultural artisan, Sarah builds Western boots by hand with the passion of a New England work-ethic and her French design sensibilities. A graduate of programs in Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and Intensive Footwear at London College of Fashion’s Cordwainers College, Sarah’s design skills were complimented by years of training in a variety of hands-on workshops culminating in one-on-one training with Western bootmaker Jim Covington. She established the atelier Saboteuse in 2015.
Driven by creative process, Sarah intentionally combines bootmaking, artmaking, historical research, and public engagement to better understand relationships between knowledge and quality. Steeped in tradition, her work illustrates meticulous craftsmanship and the unique, thoughtful creativity that makes Saboteuse boots stand apart.
Sarah’s provocative bootmaking practice is but one part in a life-long body of work. With every stitch and decision, Sarah slowly builds beautiful handmade boots that tell a good story - as her clients become collaborative co-authors of this traditional American craft narrative, and her artwork critiques whose voices are heard within our footwear traditions.

ABOUT
SABOTEUSE
Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin,
Artist, Bootmaker & Scholar




Artist Statement
Over 35 complex and labor-intensive processes go into handmade footwear. I build leather Western boots by hand using traditional tools, taking over 100 hours to complete each pair. My work reflects meticulous technique, material awareness, and my creative drive to produce unique designs steeped in tradition.
Handmade Footwear straddles the worlds of art, craft, design, and apparel without any discipline claiming this extraordinarily complex set of processes. I research the globally significant footwear history of Massachusetts and relationships to our contemporary living traditions in my process-driven practice. To keep this knowledge alive, I educate different publics on footwear craft.
Fundamentally I think through making, using this iconic American craft to articulate my experiences as an authentic practice that seeks to answer the questions life presents. Leaving a deliberate footprint is my philosophical and literal goal.
My work is more than the handmade footwear and art pieces I produce, it is a quest to understand how this beautiful unforgiving craft fits into the human story.

2023
Lynn MA Cultural Grant
Lynn Shoe Stories
2023
Lynn MA Cultural Grant
Shoemaking in 2022
2023
Lynn MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” and Bootmaking
2023
Stoneham MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” and Bootmaking
2023
Haverhill MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” and Bootmaking
2023
West Newbury MA Cultural Grant
"Ten Footers" & Bootmaking
2023
Artist’s Resource Trust Fund
Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
2022
Puffin Foundation Grant
Puffin Foundation Ltd.
2022
West Newbury MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2022
Lynn MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2022
Georgetown MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2022
Stoneham MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2021
Cerf+ “Get Ready” Grant
Cerf+
2021
Public Artist Learning Fund Grant
New England Foundation for the Arts
2021
Lynn MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2021
Stoneham MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2021
Georgetown MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2021
Marblehead MA Cultural Grant
“Ten Footers” & Bootmaking
2020
Artist Relief Grant
United States Artists
2020
Cerf+ Artist Safety Net Grant
Cerf+
2020
Cambridge Artist Relief Grant
Cambridge Community Foundation
2018
The Knitting Guild Assn.
1st Place Footwear Design
2018
Footwear Makers Guild Symposium
1st Place in Mens Footwear
2018
World Leather Debut
2nd Place in Cowboy Boots
2017
Awesome Foundation Grant
“Ten Footer” Zoning Project
2017
World Leather Debut
2nd Place in Boots
2022
Traditional Arts Finalist Award
Mass Cultural Council (MCC)
2013
Vogue Knitting Live
Design Contest Finalist
Awards
Exhibitions
2023
New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
“Flags of our Foremothers Boots” in
Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour
2023
Center for Design and Material Culture at University of Wisconsin
5 works in “Hand Made in America: Contemporary Custom Footwear”
2022
Piano Craft Gallery Boston, MA
“CHEZ PRAS Boots” in SPEAK UP
2022
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
“Flags of our Foremothers Boots” in
“Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour”
2021
The Harlow Gallery Hallowell, ME
“LEAN” - sculpture in “art + gender”
2021
Marblehead Arts Association
“LEAN” - a sculpture in “Variations – Art in a Spectrum of Style and Substance”
2020
Society of Arts + Crafts Boston
*Cancelled due to Pandemic
“CHEZ PRAS Boots” in KICKS!
Programs of Note
2023
The Dublin Seminar - Historic Deerfield
Practitioner's Talk & Published Essay in
'Tools & Toolmaking in New England'
2021
Mass Cultural Council Apprenticeship Program
Traditional Arts “Mentor Artist”
2020
Cicada Boston
Art at a Distance Grant
2020
Society of Arts + Crafts Boston
*Cancelled due to Pandemic
Artist in Residence
ENGAGE WITH SABOTEUSE
Schedule a lecture on Massachusetts’s footwear history, book a presentation on my work as an Artisanal Keeper of Tradition and a contemporary working artist, or arrange a live bootmaking demonstration.

photo credit: Ally Houghton Photography


photo credit: Casey Curry at the Piano Craft Gallery
STEP INTO THE TEN FOOTER WITH SABOTEUSE
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