Orange Peel Leather

Hi! Im looking for an alternative to real leather and plastic based leathers. When i was eating some oranges I saw that they had a fairly similar texture to leather. I was wondering if their would be anyway to use orange peels in crafts to replace leather. I know that their are methods of turning the peel into pulp and mixing that with plastics to creat a faux leather, but im interested in using the whole peel/ not processing it super heavily. I was thinking if their was some way to make them not rot or go bad while still keeping them flexible enough to see with.

Also let me know if their are any other places i should go to seek more guided advice!

Thank you!!