golden orb spider silk cape by godley & peers

‘golden spider silk cape’ by nicholas godley and simon peers © V&A images all images courtesy of the victoria & albert museum

the victoria & albert museum (V&A) in london presents a showcase of the world’s largest piece of cloth made from spider silk. created by godley & peers (simon peers, textile artist and nicholas godley, entrepreneur) the golden cape took eight years to develop, using the silk of more than one million female golden orb-weaver spiders that were collected in the highlands of madagascar. each morning the spiders were removed from their webs, whereby the threads they produced were then extracted by hand. once this 20 minute process was complete, the eight-legged creatures were then returned to nature. approximately 1.5 kg of the resulting silk was used to produce the work.

the vibrancy of the garment is natural, and has not been modified or dealt with by godley and peers – the arachnids’ threads are naturally of this golden intensity. hand-woven on looms, the resulting brocade cape is embellished with floral and spider details.  the ‘golden spider silk’ cape is on show at the V&A until june 5th, 2012.

detail simon peers and nicholas godley at peers workshop antananarivo, madagascar © V&A images

fabric with spider and floral details © V&A images

modelling the cape © V&A images

the golden orb spider image © john brown

golden orb spider weaver image © john brown

spider silk being woven image © john brown

golden spider silk hand-woven brocaded textile image courtesy simon peers and nicholas godley

the alpaida latro spider held in place for silk extraction raimondo maria de termeyer, opuscoli scientifici d’entomologia di fiscia e d’agricoltura dell’abate, milan, vol.1, plate vi. 1807 simon peers collection