Move over Stradivarius! Spider-varius instrument is made from silk spun by the Australian Golden Orb Spider.

Vibrations in webs alert spiders to captured prey, but now a postgraduate student at the Dyson School of Design and Engineering at Imperial College in the UK has harnessed the acoustic properties of spiders’ silk to create a new kind of violin. Luca Alessandrini built his prototype instrument using a composite material made from spider silk fibres mixed with a binding agent. The silk of the Australian Golden Orb spider was chosen as it is one of the strongest in the world. In addition to the silk fibres, Alessandrini’s violin features three strands of golden silk embedded in the instrument’s top side.

“The amazing properties of spider’s silk mean that it serves many purposes,” Alessandrini said “It’s a home, a net for catching food and a means of communicating – via vibrations – when prey is ready to be pounced on and devoured. Spiders’ silk has only previously been exploited as string in bows for instruments, but I’ve discovered that the amazing resonating property of spiders’ silk has massive potential uses in instruments themselves.”