You know I am a textiles geek, well my fascination with this proves it. I've been meaning to post about this for weeks but the throttling of the internet meant I could only look at the articles on my iPhone and then I forgot to check it out when the power returned.
This is a garment made from spider silk. Yes you read that right- spider silk. In fact the silk of 1,000,000+ Golden Orb Spiders, hence the very beautiful yellow colour. If you look closely at the embroidery below you can see the variation in the shades of yellow. The fabric was handwoven and then embroidered before being made up. It is currently on show at the V and A in London, these photos from here and there is a video here.
I have an overwhelming desire to touch it. I'm known for being able to pick fabric content by touch (99 out of 100) and I want to store that one away, spider silk ✔.
This also amused me- Panda Tartan! Did you know clan tartans are a big fraud created by two brothers in the 1840s? Amusingly the fraud and Queen Victoria's Balmoral fashions are how we ended up with tartan today, tourist fashion you might say! Original tartans are far more beautiful, simple setts (patterns) created through the intersection of yarns naturally dyed with the vegetation of a local area.
See I am a total nerd.
I better get to the studio and put my NerdPower™ to use.
wow that is totes amazing! Imagine working with that fabric... sigh...
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