This strength means that it would be great fibre, which properties which would be perfect for a number of uses. Such as being sustainable, biodegradable, lightweight, strong and natural. It would be a better replacement for kevlar, however because of the way it is produced, it cannot easily be harvested, and would not be humane for the spiders.
This means that it has become an interest for biomimicry, and people are interested in finding a way to mimic the qualities of spider silk.
This image is of a golden cape made by the artist Simon Peers and designer Nicholas Godley. It took 8 years to create because of the amount of silk needed to produce it. However they state that they were humane to the spiders which they used. They took them from the forest but returned them after a day.
I think this is an interest use of the silk, but it is obviously such a time consuming process. It is just something else which we can think about.
Kennedy, M. (2012, January 24). Spider Silk Cape Goes On Show at V&A. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jan/24/spider-silk-cape-show
Jennifer
Its interesting to look at an actual garment that has been produced using spiders silk. I'm glad that people are trying to develop new ways to create a similar type of thread without having to exploit spiders. Despite the fact that this project was deemed to be humane, I still don't think its completely ethical that spiders should be taken out of their natural environments and the silk extracted from them as this weakens the spiders. It makes me think that there must be so much within nature that we haven't yet discovered that could be used or mimicked to produce amazing products and materials...
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