During one of our jaunts to London we spent a morning at the V & A to see this. The Golden Orb Spider Cloak. We had heard of this exhibition some six months earlier and had eventually managed to fit it in just before the exhibit closed. It was as beautiful as you might imagine, I loved the embroidered spiders that ran over the shoulders front and back. It took eight years to make and fascinatingly the spiders only produce their golden fibre in one season of the year.
There is a video which tells you a little more about it, Golden Orb Spider video.
I’ll leave you to enjoy the photo’s.
The densely patterned woven two metre shawl that was also made from the Golden Orb Silk.
My breath was taken away with the amount of work and skill involved in this venture.
It takes 23,000 spiders to weave 25 grammes of silk and there are 1.5 kg of silk in the cape. I would have loved to have felt a sample of the thread or fabric but at the price it would have been, I very much doubt I could have afforded to do so.
blossom and sunshine 