GOLDEN ORB SILK-WEAVER SPIDER

Leaning over our verandah this morning I saw this impressive web just below me. The Golden Orbs are common in warmer climates. [For you entomologists she comes from the genus nephilidae.] Mrs G is many times larger than MrG. He lurks at the edge of this magnificent web, though I couldn't see him.

Couple of years back I read an article that astonished me. Seems a couple of chaps had hoarded hundreds of webs and had the fibres spun then woven into a literal cloth of gold cloak. It was, or is, practically weightless and was exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Extra shot is a heavily cropped close-up.