Spider Silk Tapestry created by duo cost half a million dollars
The American Museum of Natural History in New York unveiled something astounding this week: an 11-by-4 foot tapestry made completely of spider silk. Textile maker Simon Peers and fashion designer Nicholas Godley splurged half a million dollars from their own pockets to create this inventive tapestry which could be one of the very first in the world.
Weavers in Madagascar took four years to make it, no wonder its now in a safe glass case at the museum. The color is a radiant gold — the natural color of the golden orb-weaving spider, from the Nephila genus, one that’s found in several parts of the world. The golden-colored silk brocade, featuring stylized birds and flower patterns, has been made from silk harnessed from more than one million female golden orb spiders in Madagascar. It required the efforts of more than 80 people to collect the spiders, harness the silk, and then weaving the silk using a century-old Madagascan technique into the final tapestry.
Golden orb spiders, famous for their outrageously huge golden webs some of which can span a one-lane road, are found in the tropics, and their webs are common sights in Madagascar, hanging between telephone and electrical wires. Unlike silkworms, spiders are rarely raised in captivity for silking because they will just end up eating one another. However, it has been found that spider silk has a much higher strength-to-weight ratio, compared to steel, and besides it is also highly elastic. In an interview with US-based National Public Radio, Peers said: “The first panel that we wove, we were quite stunned by the fact that it sounded a bit like guitar strings, pinging like metallic guitar strings. I mean, it is a very, very unusual material.”
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