Spidey crafts

If you are planning for Armageddon, have a lot of time on your hands, don't mind being bitten by gigantic spiders and have a desire to weave yourself the strongest clothes ever,.....then this is the story for you.

Researchers and a team of 70 people spent four years harvesting spider silk from these gigantic spiders in Madagascar in order to weave one big (11' by 4") golden cloth.  So, now they have the only  large piece of cloth made from natural spider silk in the world.  Which is sort of cool in a geeky scientific way. But four years gathering spider silk....

Handlers had to extract the silk by hooking the spiders to a silking machine.  That's right.  They built a special contraption from designs from the late 1800s when some French dude had this clever idea to weave spider silk.  You are wondering how such critical technology could be allowed to fall from every day use, aren't you?   Well, the  experience of this intrepid band of researchers is telling. Researchers experienced trouble recruiting spider handlers who were OK with being bitten by these beauties. The biting part may be the  downfall of spider farming becoming a hot fad or growth industry.

That and having to wait four years for your next piece of spidey wear.