The Only Big Silk in the World Woven from the Natural Silk

The unique masterpiece in this world is the shiny gold silk cloth woven from the silk of a million spiders on Madagascar. This article explains the key facts and context behind spider silk.

Key Facts About Spider Silk

In 2009, the American Museum of Natural History in New York exhibited the world's largest and rarest silk fabric produced entirely from silk of the golden globe weaver spider. This is said to be the only large cloth that exists in the world today woven from natural spider silk.

Artisans weave and embroider silk silk scarves.(Video: Vimeo.)

Simon Peers, an English art historian specializing in fabric research, collaborated with American businessman Nicholas Godley to produce this masterpiece cloth. After 5 years, a 3.4 x 1.2 meter fabric made of a yellow brocade shawl was born with a production cost of USD 395,820.

Silk silk scarves are displayed in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.(Photo: Blogspot.)

The idea of producing spider silk fabric originated from a French record of the 19th century. The record describes the exploitation and production of silk fabric of a spider species available on Madagascar's father French missionary name Paul Camboué and a businessman named M. Nogué.

Why Spider Silk Matters

Roll of golden spider silk into many rolls.(Video: Vimeo.)

Peers rebuilt a copy of the spider silk mining machine invented in history by Nogué. It is a small machine controlled by hand, which can simultaneously pull the threads of 24 spiders without hurting them.

Spider silk mining machine.

The red-spotted weaver spiders (Nephila inaurata), the native creature in some of the western Indian Ocean islands, including Madagascar, the eastern and southeastern regions of Africa, are used to produce cloth. Only the female spider of this species can release silk. They only release silk in the rainy season and use bright nets under the sun to attract prey or to disguise.

One million female spiders have been taken to release the silk, creating enough cloth to make scarves. After running out of silk, the spiders are released to the wild and after a week they can produce normal silk.

A golden spider weaver spider.(Photos: Wikipedia.)

The birth of a yellow scarf proved that spider silk can actually be used to produce fabrics. Spider silk is very strong but very light and elastic. But mass production of spider silk fabric is very difficult because spiders tend to eat at the same time when they are together.

Cloth weaving loom has 1-0-2 in the world.

Picture embroidered on the silk shawl surface.(Photos: Wikipedia.)

The shawl is made of spider silk.

The cost of producing this special shawl is USD 395,820.