Oct 14, 2025
Some glamor shots as i fill out more of the Rectangle. Also a look at how i store the spider silk (if it works, it works)
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seen from United States
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Some glamor shots as i fill out more of the Rectangle. Also a look at how i store the spider silk (if it works, it works)
Jorō spider wallpapers
Made from my photos of them x
Formatted for iPhone 14 pro
The weather was crisp and fine, the first hints of spring mingled with cool breezes under a Wedgewood-blue sky, and the first proofing of Aziraphale’s caramel cinnamon loaf was almost done when the shouting started, At first the angel sighed – Crowley had promised to stop scolding his plants, but it was a long-ingrained habit – and then the shouting became more frantic, drawing nearer. Aziraphale set down the half-washed dough hook.
“Godblessitgerroffgerroff – ah! Ah!”
(READ AND COMMENT ON AO3 if you prefer)
Had Heaven – or Hell – broken the pledge to leave them be? There was always that urge to look over one’s shoulder, which Aziraphale suppressed for Crowley’s sake; the demon had always been the suspicious one, checking every utterance and promise for loopholes (it was probably a professional practice). The – bellowing, there was no other word for it – drew closer, to a counterpoint of pounding feet (it was always a bit of a mystery to Aziraphale how Crowley could run at all), and the angel’s husband hurtled through the gingham-curtained door, turning every which way to smack at his shoulders, his shirtfront, and his own hair while shrieking “Getitoffmegetitoffme!”
“Dear. Dear, what’s the matter?”
“Cantyouseeit helpangel Ithinkitsinmyhair GETITOFFME – “
“This?” Aziraphale circled behind Crowley, saw the problem, and gingerly lifted a striking, mottled black-and-yellow spider away from the demon’s collar. It was about the size of his palm, if you counted in the legs, and the red band around its midsection was reminiscent of an obi.
“Aren’t you pretty?” he said.
“Thassitthassit putitdown aghaghagh angelputitdown – “
“It’s a perfectly lovely little child of God. It means no harm, and seems to have no way of hurting a human corporation. Angels can sense these things.”
“ – issafuckin giantfuckinSPIDER – “
“Dear, you’re a demon. And a gardener. When did you start being afraid of spiders?”
Crowley’s breathing slowed, but his blown-wide yellow eyes remained fixed on the spider investigating Aziraphale’s palm.
“You were in Hell, you must’ve seen Jorogumo – “
“Crowley, dear, no one came up to introduce themselves. It was a large crowd rather. And it was dark down there, and almost the only light was on me. Well, you, so far as they knew.”
“Spider demon – be glad they din’t have her tie you up – unbreakable bonds – do anything they want to you till she cuts 'em – less she eats y’first – they get y’a new corporation but y’feel it all – angel, this is me begging you, get it out of here – “
“Darling. I had no idea. I’ll just be back in a tick then.”
“Now, my dear,” said Aziraphale when they were a good distance from the cottage. The spider seemed to regard him with what might have been eyes and what might have been yellow markings. “You know and I know that you’re perfectly harmless. In fact, if that bit of web I see on the privet is yours, you’re a very talented weaver. It’s like a piece of gold lace.”
The spider beamed, or did something that an angel, with his etheric vision, could interpret as beaming.
“I believe I saw something about you on Channel One. Webbing parachutes, traveling on the updrafts. I thought it was only in the States, but I suppose eventually you would get everywhere. The aerial feats are quite impressive.”
The spider now was, etherically, shifting from foot to foot (to foot to foot to foot) and blushing.
“But I must ask you as a particular favour. My husband has had some difficult experiences with his former employers that mean he simply won’t be able to warm up to you. I suspect you eat all sorts of other horrid bugs, and you’d be very good for the garden, but he’s going to be quite mortified at the way he reacted to you, and I don’t want him to have the experience again. I should be reassuring him night and day that he’s a very brave demon, which, by the by, he is. It’s just in the matter of spiders. Do you understand?”
The spider emitted a general aura of sulkiness.
“I really must insist. Crowley means Heaven and Earth to me – well, more than Heaven, quite frankly. I won’t have him put out.”
The spider seemed to sigh.
“If you have family you wish to relocate, I can spare a small miracle. Egg sacs or what have you. Mrs. Detwiler next door never really looks after her garden properly, it’s her rheumatism. So you won’t be disturbed.”
He held the spider up to survey a back garden full of barely curated perennials and leggy hedges. She nodded assent, in whatever spiders project that stands in for a nod.
“And if any more like you are in the area, simply inform them that this garden is off limits.”
The spider’s aura drew itself up, as if to attention.
“So. Off you go.” Aziraphale tossed the spider lightly in the air, and instantly – miraculously, one might say – a gossamer parachute of pale-gold threads bloomed from its body. Aziraphale pursed his lips and blew. The tiny airfoil drifted away on the breeze.
“Sorted,” he said, walking back into the kitchen and washing his hands with lavender soap. “We’ve come to an agreement. There’ll be no more trouble.”
“Gssythnkmshitedemn,” mumbled Crowley, chugging hard off a pottery jug of cooking sherry (the large one, not the smaller vial glazed with the label “Cook’s Nips,” wedding gifts from Madame Tracy).
“Come again, dear?”
Crowley’s cheek blazed – his head was turned away, and that was all the angel could see. “Guess y’think I’m a shite demon.”
“Dear, you know I think you’re the very best sort of demon.”
“Scared’ve spiders.”
“Hell doubtless has given you good reason. I must say I was quite shaken by the place myself. I gave a good show of bravado, you know, just as I’m sure you would, but I still have a shiver now and then when I think about it.”
“You, angel?”
“Why shouldn’t I? They were trying to kill me. Worse, they really were trying to kill you. The only thing that kept me going was how furious I was.”
Crowley’s arms stole tentatively around his shoulders.
“So let me make some tea and fortify it with something a bit nicer than cooking sherry, and we will drink to Petunia’s new home while the caramel buns finish proofing.”
“Petunia?”
“Well, dear, I had to call her something. It’s only civil. Here – -Crowley, let me fill this kettle – mmph!”
“Angel. You’re ridiculous. I love you.”
Now common in Georgia, invasive Juro spiders eventually could move through the East Coast.
Venomous, but not to humans. From Korea originally. They compete with our native spiders in catching and eating bugs. Some people like them, some hate them. I think they’re cool looking and would welcome one to my yard just to scare the shit out of my wife, my daughter and my grandson.
Please tell me you have a video of your spider silk collection process
It's a bit difficult to film with one hand, but here's a video of one of the support threads of a particularly huge and easy to collect web. This whole web was easily 10-12ft wide, and had these support threads you could literally just twirl onto a stick:
Most of the webs aren't *this* big and easy to collect, but for most of them it is just as easy as Grab Support Threads and hope the wind doesn't blow it all away. If i'm winding two threads together, it can get a bit tricky, but it's still surprisingly simple!
Not all webs can be collected like this. Some of them have very thin supports, so you have to use your judgement on how "ripe" a web is to get a thread from it.
The spiders get a bit pissed but they just kinda crawl to the opposite part of the web and chill there. I've never had any issue from them over the years. They either repair or rebuild the webs when i'm done depending on how much i take
Ever wonder what happens when joro spider silk is put into hot water?
it "shrinks," and almost looks like folding proteins!
It'll dry out and go back to normal size. In the meantime it gets a soak to loosed up debris.
One thing that's pretty cool is that the yellow color of the silk seems to come off in the water. The color below is all from the string that's soaking:
Different batches seem to have lost different amounts of color, probably due to water temp:
I ended up tying the ends of all the strings together to make one big mega string as well, and hopefully I'll be able to add more as i twist more webs. All the string so far is two-ply.
I tried to show what it looks like under three different light sources here. It's all yellow/tan/brown/grey depending on the section and how much dirt it still has. Pretty rugged looking to say the least:
So that's the progress on my spider string! still not sure what i'm gonna do with it; probably weave something super tiny, or embroider something. Leaning towards the weaving, but we'll see!
(first post)
yesterday, i went to the store and i bought orange marmalade, irish breakfast tea, and hot dogs with buns. i don't even like tea. i was only meant to buy arugula and club soda, but i forgot both
yesterday i saw some sort of swamp wasp eating one of the invasive joro spiders like it was a bucket of fried nutria nuggets and also happy thursday imaginary constructs