The most painterly of the four-colour leads. Burnt orange, deep purple and forest green, spun together so the colours twist around each other instead of stacking. The rope reads jewel-toned in flat light and almost autumnal in raking sun.
Same hand-spun cotton construction as the rest of the colour leads. Gem measures each strand by hand, loops them on the rope-walk, then twists them together under controlled tension. The give in the finished rope is engineered for the moment a dog spots a squirrel.
20mm diameter, approximately 1.2m end to end, approximately 1.03m from the base of the handle to the metal clip. 100% stainless steel hardware. Eye-splice finish, stronger by some margin than any knot tied in the same fibre.
The lead pictured here is the standard 20 mm width. Both widths are made in this palette; to see the slim 12 mm width, view the rainbow lead, style 1.
Gem Bowes · Tightrope KnotsThe most painterly of the four-colour leads. Burnt orange, deep purple and forest green, spun together so the colours twist around each other instead of stacking. The rope reads jewel-toned in flat light and almost autumnal in raking sun.
Same hand-spun cotton construction as the rest of the colour leads. Gem measures each strand by hand, loops them on the rope-walk, then twists them together under controlled tension. The give in the finished rope is engineered for the moment a dog spots a squirrel.
20mm diameter, approximately 1.2m end to end, approximately 1.03m from the base of the handle to the metal clip. 100% stainless steel hardware. Eye-splice finish, stronger by some margin than any knot tied in the same fibre.
The lead pictured here is the standard 20 mm width. Both widths are made in this palette; to see the slim 12 mm width, view the rainbow lead, style 1.
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.
