Making of Dress from spider web:
The silk fabric was created by British textile artist Simon Pierce and his American business partner Nicholas Goodley and took five years and a big amount of 300,000 Pounds to complete and a 3.4/1.2 meter piece of cloth was ready.
This silk fabric is made in the form of a shawl and is inspired by a nineteenth-century French company that made spider silk, although in the past many fabrics were made from spider silk. Efforts were made and the artist who succeeded in this endeavor was named Father Comboy. In ancient times spider webs were also collected for use in many other works. The ancient Greeks used it to treat wounds. Father Camboy owned a church in Madagascar and used a special kind of spider found on the island to make silk.
Together with his business friend, he started a company there whose complete set of bed sheets made of spider silk was also on display at the Paris Expo in 1898. Although their products no longer exist, a hundred years later, Pierce and Godley, inspired by them, began their work in the industry.
Another extraordinary task was to build the machine that he had built himself. This machine was hand operated and was capable of collecting silk from 24 spiders at a time without any damage. Pierce built a new machine, similar to the one used in the 19th century, to begin the production of spider silk, but before that, there was an even more difficult stage in catching spiders. The spiders used for this purpose were found in some islands, including North and South Africa, including Madagascar, and their legs were red and their net was golden silk, but only lady spider was the source of silk and It was in the form of nets made by them. These nets were so bright in sunlight that the prey gets stuck in them because of their brightness.
Pierce and Godley needed millions of female spiders with these red-legged golden nets to make their shawls. These spiders were abundant on the island and when there was a shortage of silk they would go into the wilderness after a few weeks, they would regenerate the silk as they make silk only in the rainy season to catch them. The need lasted from October to June.
Finally, four years later, a golden shawl was produced, which was first exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and later at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, attracting the attention of the audience. It was believed that spider webs could also be used for wearing.
But it is not possible to make more of this fabric because if they are reared on a larger scale, they will start eating on their own. Surprisingly, the silk of spider webs is soft and strong despite being loose. This task has become a challenge for scientists around the world, and they are looking for different ways to develop it, one of which is to create a web by inserting spider genes into other animals, such as scientists on sheep and goats. They have tried that which failed and if you have this desire in your heart and you also want to wear this rare and very beautiful golden silk then surely you have to collect a large number of spiders which is not so easy.
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