I highly recommend the Golden Spider Silk exhibition at the
Victoria and Albert Museum, where the world’s largest piece of
cloth, made entirely from spider silk is being exhibited. The
exhibition will run from the 25th January to the 5th June.
Spider silk is an extremely strong material and on a weight
basis is stronger than steel. These spiders are found throughout
the tropics, in countries such as Madagascar, and are known as
Gold orb weavers because of their gold coloured web. These
spiders, large enough to fill the palm of your hand, are in fact
blind. Their eyes are only able to vaguely detect changes in
light. Instead they rely on a keen sense of touch to feel
vibrations on their web and track down the entangled prey. The
work of producing golden silk is completely a female endeavour!
– the male spider does not produce silk – and it is a completely
environmentally friendly process. However, as they are cannibals
the spiders cannot be in close proximity to one another. It took
eight years to make the clo