Posted on 09/28/2009 6:30:35 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
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.
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."
Looks like a heart in the middle of the Benzedrine web! :)
I LOVE that video... SO hysterical!
“For more information on the ....” That part always gets me!
Thought you might be interested in this.
in Australia...they eat birds!
Oh, sorry; I meant #38, not #35.
OMG! That settles it, I am NEVER moving to Australia! Are there giant spiders in New Zealand too (I’m thinking those spiders can probably build their own ships at this point! LOL)? Seriously though, I’ve spoken to a few folks in Australia who have lost their dogs to those spiders — a scary thought.
ARGHHH!!! I wanted to post a photo, but photobucket is down right now... I’ll be back! :)
you've been nowhere if you haven't been to a canetoad race!
http://www.pchelpforum.com/lounge/70116-deadly-australian-2.html
Large graphics. Hard to believe but true. Outback Australia.
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