MADAGASCAN SPIDER SILK ON DISPLAY AT THE V&A EXHIBITION
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Now this is one not for the faint at heart! Love spiders? Neither do I BUT I absolutely love this! On show at the V&A Museum in London is an exhibition which displays the world’s largest pieces of cloth made from spider silk. On show is a brocaded shawl made from the silk of more than one million female golden orb-weaver spiders which have been collected in the highlands of Madagascar, Africa. Also on public display for the first time is an amazing golden cape. At the exhibition you will also find on display a short film that features background material which reveals the process.
Made by Englishman Simon Peers and his business partner American Nicholas Godley who both lived and worked in Madagascar for quite a few years you will see a hand woven textile that is four-metre-long (13-feet-long). Appearing in the wildest, most vivid gold colour, is this fabulous silk created by more than one million female Golden Orb spiders in the highlands of Madagascar. It is an extremely laborious process as it was collected over five years by 80 people! According to the V&A on average it takes 23,000 spidersto create about one ounce (28 grammes) of this beautiful silk.
25 January – 5 June 2012
Free admission
Opening times
10.00 to 22.00 – Friday
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