LOL, I didn't really think about if anybody else would want one... but that's high praise indeed if some of you are interested! I'll tell Nikko when he wakes up from his nap that he should feel special
Let me attempt to answer some questions - be warned, this'll probably end up pretty long-winded.
1. The leather is vegetable-tanned kangaroo hide, the finest leather and tannage for high performance braided whips. I don't know if it would be the best leather possible for a harness, because this is obviously the first harness I've never made - and Nikko doesn't even get to wear it all the time yet, because he still has a tendency to chew on his lead & harness occasionally. BUT, the reason veg-tanned 'roo is great for whips might also lend itself to being suitable for harnesses - 'roo is by far stronger
and more flexible than cowhide at the same size. The only thing I would really be worried about is if the dog is a harness-chewer... The leather is certainly strong, but it's not puncture-resistant of course - after all, it is still leather, and purposefully split down thin to be comfortable for a dog and pretty too. :-)
2. Veg-tanned 'roo in a braid like this does feel much softer than cowhide of similar tannage, probably because of its flexibility and the braiding soap I use to make the plaiting nice and tight. The braid itself is totally flexible - it would take no effort to wrap the braid around your finger, and no effort to bend it back to straight. It will become even softer with use, and the tan colors (obviously not the black) will also darken gradually with use and age. It's definitely not as soft or fuzzy as something like suede though. Nikko tends to be an itchy guy, and not fond of things like belly bands, but he is accustomed to wearing a harness... Once I got this one on him (he's a squirmer, lol), he didn't even notice it was there any more than the red one we bought from the store that he normally wears.
3. I could probably work something out to make the top bits solid leather with decorative knots instead of the cloth stuff with decorative knots. Certainly it'd be a bit more difficult and time-consuming with all the things that have to be attached sturdily along that strip (which is why I took the easy way out with my first one and left those pieces original and just covered a bit of them with knots to make them look fancier), but I'm sure it'd probably be possible.
4. As for selling them? Honestly guys, they'd have to be kind of expensive - definitely out of my price range, if I had to buy one and couldn't just make it myself.
This first one took me about six hours, maybe more - definitely a full long day... add to that the price of a harness to canabilize ($6-12 I think?), and the imported kangaroo hide... I'm afraid I'd have to sell them for somewhere around $90-110 as a guess, depending on the colors and patterns. Also, I could try to squeeze in an hour or two of working on them in the evenings some nights during the week to get one done quicker, but I couldn't absolutely promise it - you might end up waiting in line with my whip customers, which is about a three month wait list right now.
5. Matching or separate leads are definitely possible, and pretty simple to make too - round braid, flat braid, whatever. A good bit quicker and cheaper to finish than a harness, for sure. Whatever design you can find on the internet (I've recently learned there are different styles of how to attach the lead to the dog), or just the basic type of lead you'd find at a local store. Shoot, making a lead with a little fancy knotwork as decoration would be a welcome break every once in a while from making full 12-16 plait whips, lol, and I can't imagine it would be difficult to get my hands on some of the little clips to attach it to the harness. The only reason Nikko doesn't have a braided lead yet is because he likes to chew on his when he gets fiesty.
6. Colors vary based on what we can get our hands on... it's not easy these days with the drought in Australia to get good quality hides in fancy colors, but we try to keep a good variety in stock. We pretty much
always however have the basic tan colors, black, a brownish red, and bright red. Here's a link to the page on our website that shows our colors:
MidWestWhips Leather Colors.
PM me if you're interested, assuming you've made it all the way down through this massive post to the end here.
The options are practically limitless - I've been poking around on some leather dog collar/lead sites on the net, and I haven't seen even half of what can be done if you want to get creative!
Lauren & Nikko