My point was more that harmful chemicals in the sense of chromium salts etc. aren’t present in veg tan which, for the most part, is boiling it in a load of tree bark.

Since I adopted the mantra of ‘block early and often’ things have been much better and nothing of value has been lost.

I do hobby-level leatherworking and I’m all here for real non-animal leathers but yeah, basically all of them, cactus, mango, pineapple leaf etc. all just get put on a PU backing…

I got excited for cork leather at one point but turns out that is also either PU backed or fabric backed (which is better but doesn’t really work as a direct replacement for leather, especially structurally).

There are a few I’m more excited for and I would love to get hold of but they still seem either experimental or used directly by the makers for their own finished products. Most are fungus based, so one is SCOBY leather, basically the big blob of microorganisms used to make kombucha can be grown in big flat sheets, dried and treated to make a leathery material but I’ve not seen many applications of it yet…

But mushroom/mycelial leather is the one I’m most hopeful for. Not only do some of them look like real leather but the random ‘grain’ of the mycelium has the potential to ape the natural fibrous grain of leather that gives it its strength. That is the one I’m really excited for.

And veg tan? I try not to use chrome tan in stuff I make for both environmental reasons and the fact its a pain to work with but we have been veg tanning for thousands of years.

You would be shocked how fast objects get lost in even a small handbag… So many panic attacks thinking ive lost keys