Spider Silk

Spider Silk

We held down a spider, strapped its legs to a board, and reeled out its silk, for our silk spun hoard

Our knit originates from the silk gland of a spider, carefully placed in the milk duct of a goat. The single filament is reeled out of the goat millimetres at a time to produce the most difficult to obtain fibre in the world. Having secured 2 skeins of the silk, each many thousands of metres long, we spent 4 days unravelling it to prepare for knitting. A further week was spent gently coaxing two filaments into the knotted web of these garments... And then another week convincing it to become the emperor's new clothing. Weight for weight, silk is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar.

Photography - Marinó Thorlacius

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