1.08.2010

silken wonder of the natural world

From Wired:
A rare textile woven from the silk of more than one million spiders is currently on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The incredible textile measures 11 by four feet, and is the largest piece of spider-woven textile in the world. Woven by golden orb spiders from Madagascar, the project took 70 people four years to collect enough spiders (not to mention the dozen people who spent 4 years extracting 80 feet of silk filament from each arachnid).

Lots of photos of the amazing fabric are here. That stunning gold colour is not dyed, it's the natural colour of the silk.

I think the spiders themselves are beautiful, too. To me they look both delicate and powerful, and almost other-worldly. However, arachnophobes should not click.



Thanks to redsock for knowing I would love this.

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