Spider Wranglers Weave One-Of-A-Kind Tapestry

The_Minister

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=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.

Enlarge Simon Peers and Nicholas GodleyTwo Nephila madagascariensis spiders that were used to create the golden tapestry.

Simon Peers and Nicholas GodleyTwo Nephila madagascariensis spiders that were used to create the golden tapestry.
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."

Peers picks up the thread of the story.

"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.

That looks beautiful.
It's hard to imagine the effort that took.

rizzee

4 years of work? Spiders? Fcuk that.

The_Minister

Here is a close-up of the middle section fo the tapestry.

and here is a blog by someone decrying the cruelty of it. :rolleyes:

rizzee

Fair play all the same.

Fracture

nice blanket.

we'llallhavetea_old

its lovely... but a bit mingin like..

The_B_Man

would it not be a bit sticky like? Imagine all the flies that'd be stuck to it after a while!

DazMarz

Fúcking spiders.... brrrrr. awful, horrible, things. I don't care how beautiful it is, that it was made by spiders makes me wanna burn it.

slipss

Ah enough of that man, the spiders get a bad rap. Anyone that's out there killing flies day in day out is ok in my book.

Wazdakka

That's pretty damn cool..

Fun Spider fact #23:

Spiders silk is stronger than steel cable.

Depending on the weave, that Tapestry is probably bulletproof.

Jumpy

The_B_Man wrote: »

would it not be a bit sticky like? Imagine all the flies that'd be stuck to it after a while!

The yellow strands arent sticky from those spiders. We had St Andrews cross spiders in the backyard all the time and you could make a noise from pinging the yellow threads. Only the white ones stuck.

Sleipnir

The_Minister wrote: »

and here is a blog by someone decrying the cruelty of it. :rolleyes:

Who could better understand the emotional and physical well-being of a wild animal than people who work with clothing?

Fcuk me, that's quite sad.

General Zod

The_B_Man wrote: »

would it not be a bit sticky like? Imagine all the flies that'd be stuck to it after a while!

Draglines aren't sticky, it's the really thin ones that are the sticky ones. Draglines are the type that frame the web and are the ones that the spiders walk on.

Sleipnir

Can you wash it at 40 degrees?

davyjose

Yeah, I guess it's kinda good.... do you have it blue? My colour scheme is all about the blue...

wudangclan

The 'Amalgamated and United Union of Spiders' has just announced a series of one-day strikes in protests over pay and conditions.

fryup

did the spiders get paid?

Gulliver

The Spiderians, though weak and gilrly in combat, are masters of the textile arts. Taste like king crab, by the way. The lazy bugs actually wove this tapestry celebrating my victory as I was killing them.

- Zapp Brannigan.

AnonoBoy

So Spider Slave Labour is that the new thing now, is it?

Wazdakka

AnonoBoy wrote: »

So Spider Slave Labour is that the new thing now, is it?

Black widow?

Jumpy

Wazdakka wrote: »

Black widow?

Line --> | . <--you

Banter Joe

It seems kind of similar to pulling the legs off of Daddy Long Legs, except on a massive scale. It's fairly pointless and cruel.

Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you when this guy comes along and says "Oh, hell no!"

General Zod

Banter Joe wrote: »

It seems kind of similar to pulling the legs off of Daddy Long Legs, except on a massive scale. It's fairly pointless and cruel.

Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you when this guy comes along and says "Oh, hell no!"

how is it any different to milking a cow?

Turd Ferguson

It's nice but I'd prefer a slanket

wudangclan

It's a pretty neat tapestry ,alright.
Nice design.
I wonder what would have happened if they had given the spiders some LSD like in the famous experiments with the wood spider from the 70s'....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feg8UACqlJk&NR=1

Banter Joe

General Zod wrote: »

how is it any different to milking a cow?

Come on, that's udderly different.