Beading the Tiger

I've been continuing to work on my tiger pendant, and here it is with the background bead embroidery completed.  I'd say it was between 5 and 6 hours of work, but, amazingly, I find it relaxing to sew those tiny beads on one by one!  After a bit of work, I kept thinking that I had used the wrong color of green.  This is so "sea-foamy" and shouldn't it really be more of a yellow-green, more "jungley?"  (At which point I thought how fun it would be to make a Siberian tiger in the snow...)  But, by that point there was nothing I could do about it, so...onward!

Then my thoughts turned to the cord.  Nice as they were, I wanted something more cruelty free than the braided leather cords.  Then I found some pretty silk cords which I thought I could use in a bunch or maybe braid them.  I wondered about the drape - would it be too soft?  It would definitely be softed than the leather.  Hmmm.

So then one night while I was reading a wonderful new novel, "The Silkworm," I ran across the distressing news that silk comes from silkworm coccoons (I knew that) that they drop in boiling water or pierce with a needle to kill the moth larvae (I hadn't thought about that)!  Yikes!  So silk is not cruelty free after all.

So what is there that's cruelty free?  Cotton?  Linen?  Hemp?  I'm almost back to the leather.