Weaving a web of exotic luxury
THE silk from more than a million spiders has been woven together to create an elaborately embroidered golden cape which goes on display in London next week.
Bianca Gaurilas is pictured wearing the garment which was created by harvesting Golden Orb spiders in the highlands of Madagascar.
The Golden Spider Silk exhibition opens tomorrow at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and continues until June 5. It features the cape and a four metre (yards) long scarf which has been spun from the silk of 1.2 million spiders. It took a team of 80 people five years to collect the spiders, and the naturally golden hand-woven textile took more than four years to create. According to experts at the V&A Museum, spiders’ silk has not been woven since 1900.
PICTURE: IAN WEST/PA WIRE.