GRADO ZERO ESPACE PRESENTS SPIDERWEAVE!The first spider-web fabric.
Astonishing result and extraordinary performances : it looks like silk, is as elastic as nylon and is thirty time stronger than Kevlar.
For years, textile research has attempted to integrate the DNA of a particular spider species, the Nephila Clavipes, into other organisms, in order to obtain organic material with the performance features of a spider web: elasticity, lightness and unrivalled strength. So far, however, no significant results have been achieved and the only possibility today involves working with the actual spider web, a solution with numerous operating difficulties. Grado Zero Espace, in collaboration with the University of California, has created the world's first spider-woven fabric produced using modern processes.
Previously, the process was done by hand and is unfeasible today. During the last century, the spider webs were gathered in the Solomon Islands and were used to made work bags and fishing nets. However, the technique involved a hand-weaving process. Grado Zero Espace's workmanship process for this fabric is instead done entirely by machine, using state-of-the-art techniques.
These extraordinary results have been achieved using the web produced by Nephila Clavipes spiders bred as part of an experiment conducted by Dr. Cheryl Hayashi to discover new super-light and ultra-resistant fibres. The spider variety - also known as the golden silk spider - produces a web that is the quintessence of the incredible and unique characteristics of spider webs. It feels like silk, is as elastic as nylon and is thirty times stronger than Kevlar.
These results potentially pave the way for a full-fledged revolution in the textile field, given the fact that the performance features of this particular type of fibre, as natural as animal fibres like wool and silk, surpass the ones achieved using the top technical materials currently available on the market.
Grado Zero Espace confirms its particular vocation for research - continuously striving to integrate past and future, craftsmanship and industry, natural and synthetic - and it always selects the very best solution in relation to product objectives.
