Weird Wednesday ~ Rare Spiderweb Textile

An 11-foot by 4-foot textile is the only large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk existing in the world today.

How did spiders produce this unique golden cloth?

• 70 people spent four years collecting golden orb spiders from telephone poles in Madagascar

• A dozen workers carefully extracted about 80 feet of silk filament from each of the spiders 

“We built a replica of a hand-driven 24-spider-silking machine that was used at the turn of the century,” said Nicholas Godley, who co-led the project with Peers. To test the machine, an initial batch of about 20 spiders were collected. “When we stuck them in the machine and started turning it, this beautiful gold-colored silk started coming out.” 

But the silk experts had to drastically scale up their project. Fourteen thousand spiders yields about an ounce of silk and the textile weighs about 2.6 pounds. 

Spider silk has incredible properties; it's stronger than steel or Kevlar but far more flexible, stretching up to 40 percent of its normal length without breaking. 

Unfortunately, spider silk is extremely hard to mass produce: Unlike silk worms, which are easy to raise in captivity, spiders have a habit of chomping off each other’s heads when housed together.

By the end of the project, silk had been extracted from more than one million female golden orb spiders, which are abundant throughout Madagascar and known for the rich golden color of their silk. Because the spiders only produce silk during the rainy season, workers collected all the spiders between October and June.

Then the hand-powered machines extracted the silk and wove it into 96-filament thread. Once the spiders had been milked, they were released back into the wild, where it takes them about a week to regenerate their silk. 

“When we talk about a spider spinning silk, we’re talking about how the spider applies physical forces to transform a liquid in their abdomen to a solid of silk,” said spider silk expert Todd Blackledge. “Science simply can’t replicate that as well as a spider does it."

article source

***the item described in this post in not the same as the clothing described in THIS POST!***

And don't forget to enter my giveaway! CLICK HERE!

Weird Wednesday ~ Cobweb Clothing

Zheng Xianwen, a known television broadcaster and TV journalist, has made a shawl out of real spider webs. Xianwen used 300 spider webs to complete his shawl which honors ancient cultural traditions of the Kucong Tribe in China.

As a senior reporter of the Simao Television, a local TV broadcaster in southwestern part of Yunnan, Zheng Xianwen has also developed a longstanding interest in the life and culture of Kucong tribe, an ethnic minority neighboring his region in the province. According to Zheng, Kucong people were so poor in the past and their clothes were mostly made of cobwebs and banana trees leaves. However, such techniques are on the brink of extinction nowadays as making cobweb clothes is barely seen around anymore. Even younger Kucong people don’t even know about the existence of the once popular special clothes among their ancestor. 

Zheng once worked in the region in the 1960′s and bore a strong sense of keeping the rare techniques of cobweb clothing making handed down. According to the amateur collector, his only collection of spiderweb clothing made of 300 cobwebs took him two days to finish during his designed trip to the Kucong tribe last November. In addition to the cobweb clothes, Zheng has also collected many living tools once used by the ethnic tribe. Zheng has not let anyone in on the ancient clothing-making secrets.

Spider and the Goddess Project

I received the most lovely of surprises in the mail yesterday! A package came from my Sister in New Mexico. She sent the cutest Halloween card to our Family. And all the Grands were at my house when the package arrived, so We were all able to enjoy the Greetings. The Girlz thought the "Kittens" on the card were quite adorable!

She also sent me the loveliest of Four Corner Spiders! Fear not those of you who don't like those of the arachnid family, this little guy is a pendant. Don't I have the BESTEST Sister?  Thank You so much!!! 

My wonderful Sister also included a brochure about a fundraising project for the "Four Corners Goddess Temple". This Temple will be located approx. 20 miles south of Bloomfield, NM (Four Corners Region) and, once built, will be open to the public and provide a spiritual retreat where any deity may be honored. The project is being undertaken by the Order of the Cauldron of the Sage - a spiritual coven located in the Four Corners region of New Mexico. If anyone would like more info, feel free to ship me an email.

Spider Alert!!!

Just trying out my new camera .... Yep! You can see the hair on his legs! Remember, you can click on the photo to enlarge it!

LOL Spiders

Most of you out there in Blogland have heard of LOL Cats. 

Well there is also a SPIDER version - called ROFLSpiders.

Not for the faint of heart!

Creepy Crawlies

And what would Halloween be without some CREEPY CRAWLIES to look at?
(Beware! - there will be a spider amongst the pics!)

Tidbits

A little humor to brighten your day.....

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With warm weather just around the corner, I decided to move most of my plants out of my greenhouse. My dear Hubby offered to help with the really large pots (He's such a sweety!).


As he set down the last one and looked at it, he exclaimed, "Good Grief! That spider web is large enough to swallow Frodo! " (His philosophy regarding spiders - the only good spider is a flat spider)


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My studio is upstairs but during the winter months I usually work downstairs because it is warmer. Needless to say, the floor is not always the cleanest in the area where I work. There is often paper or fabric scraps, bits of tinsel or glitter laying about.


Hubby (He's the BEST!) said, "Our house has more glitter on the floor than a Strip Club!" (It's not glitter or Faery Dust to him - it's Stripper Glitter) When I inquired as to how he knew about such things, he replied, "I seen it on TV." Hhhhmmmm.........

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Because I would rather be creating than cleaning house, quite often the Dust Bunnies get rather large before they are whisked away. (We have A LOT of Hairy Animals!) But I don't worry until they threaten to take one of the Cats hostage!


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Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have the film.

Tombstones, Graveyards, and the Grim Reaper

That is the HAGS theme for this week, October 5 - 11. How creepy is that! Be sure to check out all the wonderful creations from this group on EBay.





















Here is a picture of a Fairy Door that belongs to the Grim Reaper. Sorry this Fairy Door has already been purchased.





And here is another Fairy Door entitled The Crypt . It too is sold.



But here is a Fairy Door which I made especially for this week's theme. It's entitled Spook Night. It is available on eBay.

Happy Haunting!

Ghosts, Spooks, Haunts

One of the Art Groups to which I belong on eBay is called HAGS - Halloween Artists Gathering Spot. The Group has had a new theme every week beginning the end of September and continuing to October 25th. The members will create something in keeping with the current theme and then list the item(s) on eBay.

This week's theme is Ghosts/Goblins. I created three Fairy Doors with Ghosts for my submissions. All three of these Little Doors for the Fae Folk are currently listed on Ebay.

Even the Fae Folk celebrate Halloween! Happy Haunting!!