Spider Wranglers Weave One-Of-A-Kind Tapestry - (out of spider silk)

[P]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=113223398

This week in New York, the American Museum of Natural History unveiled something never before seen: an 11-by-4-foot tapestry made completely of spider silk.

Weavers in Madagascar took four years to make it, and the museum says there's no other like it in the world.

It's now in a 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.

Simon Peers, a textile maker who lives in Madagascar, conceived the project. Weaving spider silk is not traditional there; a French missionary dreamed it up over a century ago but failed at it. The only known spider silk tapestry was shown in Paris in 1900 but then disappeared.

Peers researched previous attempts, then teamed up with fashion expert Nicholas Godley to hire local weavers to try the near-impossible.

"They did think we were insane," Godley says. "It was actually hard to find people who were willing to collect and work with spiders. I think most people are arachnophobes. I mean, I am, and they bite."

The task of silking a spider starts with a small machine — designed centuries ago when the first attempts to silk spiders were begun — that holds the spider down.

"The spiders are harnessed ... held down in a delicate way," Godley says, "so you need people to do this who are very tactile so the spiders are not harmed. So there's a chain of about 80 people who go out every morning at four o'clock, collect spiders, we get them in by 10 o'clock. They're in boxes, they're numbered, and then as they get silked, about 20 minutes later, they get released back into nature."

Simon Peers (left) and Nicholas Godley stand in front of the tapestry at the museum in New York. They say they spent a half-million dollars of their own money to make the tapestry.

"It's called dragline silk," he says. "A spider can produce up to seven different types of silk. The dragline is what frames the web; it's the thicker silk on the outside. Also, it's extremely strong. 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."

A very careful person simply pulls the thread out of each spider and wraps it on a spindle. It's then put on a hand loom and woven.

The main threads consist of 96 twisted silk lines. The brocaded patterns in the tapestry — stylized birds and flowers — are woven with threads made up of 960 spider silk lines.

Peers says they never broke a single strand, yet the tapestry is as soft as cashmere.

Peers and Godley say they spent a half-million dollars of their own money to make the tapestry, which is on display at the museum for several months.

I think it is safe to say this is the single most pimpin' garment created in modern times. Sure its going to sit in a museum, but it could be a garment. I'd wear it.

So now I want to know when we can expect to see the woven spider-silk suspension bridges I've heard so much about.

[Praise the Lard]

If those spiders all over my damn porch would make me a nice blanket once in awhile I'd be a lot happier.

[Lagduf]

What is really striking about the tapestry is its color. That's just pure awesome. Anyone have links to images of the "machine" they use to hold spiders down with?

[Domino-chan]

That is amazing. I too would like to see how they managed to hold down the spiders without hurting them.

[SPINMASTER X]

awesome thread....

[P]

Originally Posted by SPINMASTER X

awesome thread....

lol killer pun

But really it is legendary thread.

[Phyeir]

That is a rediculous process... for a blanket that won't be used for it's stated purpose... but very cool.

[ki_atsushi]

Once they perfect the process they'll be kicking out spider silk suits for Pimps across America.

[AncientFlounder]

I just keep thinking it would be all sticky, like how spider webs usually are. Then again, they mentioned that they can make several different types of lines, so I would assume this wouldn't suffer from that.

Still, that color being produced naturally by the spider is amazing.

[skotgun]

didn't some country use spider silk for sniper-scope cross-hairs back in WWII?

and that blanket is fucking ridiculous.
that is some SERIOUS dedication right there.

[Bobak]

Half a million. Wow.

[Asmoday]

I am with Bobak. Yeah, its nifty, but a half mil on this? Really?

[P]

I look at a little differently.

Only half a million dollars?

Lots of people can afford that kind of investment in a more or less useless hobby. I bet the price of making something like this is going to absolutely skyrocket since plenty of people would actually wear it and as a result the spiders will become endangered and a high price commodity.

Can you imagine if Veruca Salt's father's factory was full of spider-silk weavers instead of chocolate bar unwrappers?

"DADDY I WANT A GOLDEN SPIDER COAT!!!! NOW!!!!"


But she has to wait 4 years unless her Dad buys the whole island of Madagascar, which would be unlikely.

[bloodhokuto]

That's bloody awesome.

I wonder what it smells like? Probably needs a touch of Fabrize.

I wondered why manufacturers haven't looked at ways of synthesising spiders web properly.

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by bloodhokuto

I wondered why manufacturers haven't looked at ways of synthesising spiders web properly.

They have. No one has succeeded, so far as I'm aware. The last serious attempt I heard about involved genetic modification of goats, so that the mammary glands would produce it. The results turned out to be less-than-desired. I think the product turned out something like cheese curds.

[Bobak]

Originally Posted by Deuce

They have. No one has succeeded, so far as I'm aware. The last serious attempt I heard about involved genetic modification of goats, so that the mammary glands would produce it. The results turned out to be less-than-desired. I think the product turned out something like cheese curds.

Awesome.

Experiments like that seem promising for either developing the sought-after breakthough, or resulting in some hilariously inept failure.

[Phyeir]

Originally Posted by Deuce

They have. No one has succeeded, so far as I'm aware. The last serious attempt I heard about involved genetic modification of goats, so that the mammary glands would produce it. The results turned out to be less-than-desired. I think the product turned out something like cheese curds.

That can go very wrong VERY quickly, using animal extremities to try and product spider silk. Before you know it, they'll try to modify male horses to do it. The result... well, I don't need to say it, but it'd be a mess.

[P]

Originally Posted by Phyeir

That can go very wrong VERY quickly, using animal extremities to try and product spider silk. Before you know it, they'll try to modify male horses to do it. The result... well, I don't need to say it, but it'd be a mess.

They would weave huge webs in the forest and become high order predators.

[neojedi]

Spider Horse! Spider Horse! Does whatever... ah, too cheesy, I can't finish.

I'd like to see a formal men's suit made out of that stuff. Guy wearing it would be the golden pimp. Now that I think about it... there's a video game character with one of those:

[Abasuto]

Originally Posted by Deuce

They have. No one has succeeded, so far as I'm aware. The last serious attempt I heard about involved genetic modification of goats, so that the mammary glands would produce it. The results turned out to be less-than-desired. I think the product turned out something like cheese curds.

I actually took part in the very early research gathering of that project.

[Phyeir]

Originally Posted by Poppy

They would weave huge webs in the forest and become high order predators.