A stunning golden tapestry rug woven from spider silk at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City after four years of work — and the help of more than 1 million spiders.

On display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York is an 11 x 4 foot rug / tapestry made completely of spider silk.

It took 4 years (and half a million dollars) to weave this one of a kind rug / tapestry. The only other known spider silk rug / tapestry was shown in Paris in 1900 but has since disappeared.

Two of the over one million Nephila madagascariensis spiders that were used to create the golden tapestry rug.

This radiant gold rug is made from the dragline silk from golden orb weaving spiders of the Nephilia genus, known for the impressive webs they weave. The name of the golden silk orb-weavers refers to the color of the spider silk, not the color of the spider itself.

96 twisted silk lines compose the main threads while the brocaded patterns (Malagasy motifs of animals and birds) are woven with threads made up of 960 spider silk lines.

The production involved 70 people who collected spiders during the rainy season, the only time when they produce silk. Dozens of native Malagasy “handlers” are employed in the spider collection, harnessing, silk extraction and weaving. A dozen more people were needed to draw the silk from these giant spiders with hand-powered machines, with each spider producing about 80 feet of silk filament.

Spider silk tensile strength is 5-6 times that of steel by weight yet this rug is soft as cashmere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/design/23spiders.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp

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