A standard-weight cotton rope lead, hand-spun in Cambridge by Gem Bowes from coloured cotton strands twisted into a three-colour lay: deep blue, leaf green, and black. The colour shifts as the rope turns, so the palette reads as a quiet stripe rather than a block.
Cotton rope at this gauge has a particular give. Gem controls the tension on the spin so the finished rope has a small amount of bounce, forgiving on the hand and on the dog when something darts. It is not a thin lead. At 20mm it sits substantially in a closed fist.
The hardware is 100% stainless steel and the rope is finished with an eye splice rather than a knot. An eye splice is the strongest finish in the rope-makers' vocabulary, formed by tucking the strands back into themselves; it carries more load than any knot of the same fibre. The lead is built to take a serious dog leaning into it.
Approximately 1.2m end to end, with about 1.03m from the base of the handle to the metal clip.
This palette is made in both widths, standard 20 mm and slim 12 mm; photographs of it are to follow. To see the slim width on a lead, view the red, white and black lead.
Gem Bowes · Tightrope KnotsA standard-weight cotton rope lead, hand-spun in Cambridge by Gem Bowes from coloured cotton strands twisted into a three-colour lay: deep blue, leaf green, and black. The colour shifts as the rope turns, so the palette reads as a quiet stripe rather than a block.
Cotton rope at this gauge has a particular give. Gem controls the tension on the spin so the finished rope has a small amount of bounce, forgiving on the hand and on the dog when something darts. It is not a thin lead. At 20mm it sits substantially in a closed fist.
The hardware is 100% stainless steel and the rope is finished with an eye splice rather than a knot. An eye splice is the strongest finish in the rope-makers' vocabulary, formed by tucking the strands back into themselves; it carries more load than any knot of the same fibre. The lead is built to take a serious dog leaning into it.
Approximately 1.2m end to end, with about 1.03m from the base of the handle to the metal clip.
This palette is made in both widths, standard 20 mm and slim 12 mm; photographs of it are to follow. To see the slim width on a lead, view the red, white and black lead.
Gem Bowes learned to make rope at Arthur Beale, the Shaftesbury Avenue chandlery that has been splicing line since 1500-something. She works now from a Cambridge studio, hand-spinning flax and dead-stock yarn for dog leads, doorstops, juggling balls.
Gem Bowes learned to make rope at Arthur Beale, the Shaftesbury Avenue chandlery that has been splicing line since 1500-something. She works now from a Cambridge studio, hand-spinning flax and dead-stock yarn for dog leads, doorstops, juggling balls.
