Spider silk is 5 times stronger than steel, and it is fibre optical. I
know of its components, the synthetic construction of it through goats
milk, etc. What I am looking for is a manufacturer who can provide me
with a swatch sample of the woven silk itself. I am not looking to
purchase wholesale, but merely would like a test sample at cost.  I am
a design student, and I am an excellent researcher and have spent
hours of time researching this "product" and have been unable to find
a source that is reliable. Several universities study spider silk and
its effects, as well as Cornell, and other research based schools
including The School of Chemistry in Europe. Any help regarding
tracking down a sample swatch asap would be great. Thankyou.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Apr 2005 05:02 PDT

You might want to try contacting this research team at the textiles
department in Ghent University:

http://allserv.ugent.be/~kgellync/sem-conferentie.pdf

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIDER SILK FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

E. Van Nimmen1, K. Gellynck1, D. De Bakker2, T. Gheysens2, J.
Mertens2, P. Kiekens1, L. Van Langenhove1

1Ghent University, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of
Textiles, Technologiepark 9, B-9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium

2Ghent University, Faculty of Sciences, Laboratory of Ecology, K.L.
Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium

ABSTRACT In January 2002, a 4-years project started at Ghent
University concerning research on spider silk for biomedical
applications. This project aims at the development of a textile fabric
from spider silk...



Other than that, I haven't seen very much to suggest that there are
many folks involved in the production of such fabric, yet.

Let me know how that works out, or if you need additional contact
information for the Belgium team.


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by fashionkatherine-ga on 19 Apr 2005 20:20 PDT

Spider silk is 5 times stronger than steel, and it is fibre optical. I
know of its components, the synthetic construction of it through goats
milk, etc. What I am looking for is a manufacturer who can provide me
with a swatch sample of the woven silk itself. I am not looking to
purchase wholesale, but merely would like a test sample at cost.  I am
a design student, and I am an excellent researcher and have spent
hours of time researching this "product" and have been unable to find
a source that is reliable. Several universities study spider silk and
its effects, as well as Cornell, and other research based schools
including The School of Chemistry in Europe. Any help regarding
tracking down a sample swatch asap would be great. Thankyou.

Clarification:

I have found that "biosteel" is the most recently manipulated idea of
spider silk, and I have looked into the companies that seem to be
creating it, with no luck in finding contact information regarding
their product. I assumed that perhaps someone had the spder silk
itself on hand, as I know that in Morocco, for example, people are
spinning the fibers, as well as dying them, and winding them onto
bamboo stocks for sale and for personal use. However I don't know any
of these contacts. Perhaps an individual, is doing this in a more
communicative way. Since spider silk has been manipulated and used for
over 1000 years, I believe it must be more available than we realize.
But perhaps not. Thankyou for any help and assistance!

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Apr 2005 20:26 PDT

Do I take it from your comment that you're not interested in
contacting the researchers in Belgium who are creating a textile from
spider silk?

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Clarification of Question by fashionkatherine-ga on 19 Apr 2005 20:39 PDT

I most definitely am interested in contacting them, of corse. I want
to relay also, that since I have heard of the spider silk being
produced in other areas, it seemed that perhaps there would be a way
of contacting a textile mill/ company that produces samples. I am very
interested in the researchers in Belgium. Any direct or at that
indirect contact information would be excellent. Thanks so much!

HI Fashionkatherine, 
Have you tried to contact Nexia Biotechnologies Inc.?  This Canadian
company seems to make it:   
http://www.nexiabiotech.com/en/03_bio/05.php

INteresting stuff, and I'd never heard of it before.  goat herds could
come back into style ...

Good Luck

yes, I have hear of Nexia actually and have contacted them! Thankyou
for your ideas!!!

Yes, I second the suggestion to try writing or calling Nexia
Biotechnologies, who developed goat-produced spider silk and market it
as biosteel.  Tell them you are a design student (in textiles,
hopefully).  Suggest that you are thinking about potential new
applications for their product, and ask for a small sample.

The point is, you want to imply that you can help find new
applications for their product (e.g. help SELL it) but to explore this
possibility you just want a small sample of the woven fabric.  If you
talk/write to the right person, it should be easy.  I think this is
your best bet.

Good luck.

For the record, spider silk is not five times stronger than steel. 
Its strength depends upon the throwing/spinning/weaving processes, and
also what kind of strength you are speaking of (tensile, compression,
et cetera).  It is also not very good as a fiber optic, either.  The
cells break down very quickly when not cared for properly, and one
necessity of the silk is ventilation- it cannot be protected with a
plastic insulator, and unprotected, it would not survive what fiber
optics must environment-wise.  The reason few people have heard of
Nexia is that it has not ever put out a final product-  they have
spent a lot of money to make the stuff- but still do not even have a
process for spinning it into single threads.  Even if they did, it
would be inferior to the real thing.  There are countless companies
attempting this, but none have even been close to succeeding yet.

Yes, I know. It's been almost a year since I posted this
question....Thank you for your input!