Griffox

Okay. Thanks for the tip. I would not have known that.

Oh, okay. I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying to just forgo the brown altogether and just do black. Now that I know what you meant, I'm glad you think that would look okay. I had thought of that, but was afraid people would find it clash-y. So it's good to know that you, too, think it's an option. Leatherimages, that's interesting. I didn't know you could do that with leather. I'll have to try it and see how that works. Thanks! Art, is Tanner's Bond a contact cement? I couldn't tell from fiebing's description. I've been using weldwood gel contact cement which works okay, but I'm not married to it (I couldn't marry anything that smells that bad). Is Tanner's Bond as strong as contact cement? I'm not stitching it after gluing so I'm completely relying on the glue to hold forever. Thank you all for all your suggestions. It's good to be able to hash it out with other like-minded folks. I sure appreciate it!

Thanks for the quick reply! You're right about the black, but I also make brown collars and that's where I'm running into problems. I probably need to just take the plunge and quit fretting.

I am pretty much settled on purchasing Wicket and Craig's English Bridle in both Black and Dark Brown (although I keep wondering if I should do Latigo instead). I am making dog collars like this: Beads are sewn onto the front of the collar, so I glue a liner to the back to cover the stitches and burnish the edges to (try to) make the seem invisible. On my first batch of collars, I just used Tandy veg tan and lined with their tooling goat. I dyed them myself, so I was able to match the brown of the goat lining to the hide. My predicament here is that W&C doesn't sell goat, so I'm afraid I won't be able to match their brown if I dye the goat myself. Is this a legitimate concern? I would like to avoid having to dye ANYTHING if at all possible...it just adds more work. I also considered scrapping the goat idea altogether and just using the english bridle for both front and back, but then I'd have to buy two hides and have one split to 2-3oz which seems wasteful and I'm afraid that it won't mold (or stick with all that oil & wax) to the leather as well as the goat does. Basically, I'm at the jumping off point where I need to make a decision, but I'm too afraid to commit. Any chance you all could talk me through this?

Bigcartel.com caters to artisan crafts. They don't take a percentage of your sales and have reasonable monthly fees depending on how many products you want to list. I'm paying about $10/month. You can use your own domain name, too, so it's not like being on esty where you're competing with other artists. Your site is yours alone. So far I'm really happy with it, especially since I am not really good with html and I am not selling enough to justify paying a web developer.

I'm a dog groomer so I think I can answer this question for you. The answer is yes. The issue isn't the material involved (nylon or leather), but the fact that any harness/collar on long hair creates friction when the dogs move. When the hair is rubbed, it will create small tangles that if not brushed out will eventually mat. My advice to her would be to only use the harness when they are out walking and to brush their hair as soon as the harness comes off to remove any tangles that may have formed. From my observations, usually the dogs that get matted from collars or harnesses are the ones who wear them for extended periods of time and especially those who wear them 24/7. Rolled leather may cause less friction than nylon, but the difference between the two is negligible if the dogs aren't brushed everyday. I hope this helps!