Summer with the Selvedge Archives: Golden Fleece
The Mystery of Sea Silk
Written by Sarah Jane Downing for Selvedge Issue 113, Raw
Once thought to be the substance that created the mythical golden fleece of Greek legend, sea silk is so rare that it has been surrounded by mystery for centuries. Sometimes known as mermaid silk, one theory was that it came from tiny sheep that could live under the sea; another was that sea creatures came out of the ocean to rub themselves on the rocks leaving the silk behind. The silky fine fibre in shades of gold and bronze is secreted by the noble pen shell, a giant Mediterranean bivalve mollusc growing over a metre in length.
The mollusc (Pinna nobilis) secretes a protein that solidifies on contact with seawater into a soft golden filament with which it secures itself to the ocean floor. Finer than human hair, the fibre named byssus in the 16th century is incredibly light as well as strong and beautiful. Sea silk was known in the ancient world and thought to be the “byssus” that made the cloak worn by King Salomon in the Bible. Indeed, the golden bracelets of Queen Nefertiti were sea silk byssus, as were the gloves that Admiral Horatio Nelson sought for his great love Emma Hamilton when staying at sea between Sardinia and Corsica, describing them in a letter in March 1804 as “a pair of curious gloves, they are made only in Sardinia of the beards of mussels … they tell me they are very scarce, and for that reason, I wish you to have them.” Sea silk has been gathered for over a thousand years in a process described by Chiara Vigo, the last surviving sea silk master who set up the Byssus Museum at her workshop in Sant’Antioco, Sardinia.
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Further Information:
Issue 113 Raw is available in print and as a digital download.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Cover image for Issue 113 Raw. Artsi Ifrah for Maison ARTC. Model: Tilila Oulhaj.
All further images as credited in captions.