The Spider Map
This is the second cobweb I have made, only this time I decided to carve a fly caught within it. The process of carving something as delicate as this is an intellectual as well as a technical challenge; I could certainly carve it in even finer detail but then it would not be so easy to see which would be pointless. Partly because of the visibility and also the fact that I want the viewer to understand that this is indeed carved from a solid piece of material. I have also left the web unstained. Although not nearly as fragile as it seems, it is still necessary to insert it deep inside -to protect it from inquiring fingers. This, however has been more of a problem than making it. The first web was inside a broken flute, (as you will see in these pages), and here it is inside a rolled-up map.
Further investigation inside the map reveals a date, 1917, although you have to look hard for it. So, this is a map of a battlefield with arrows and regiments which has been stored for some time, hence the web. At one end lurks a large black spider, carved in situ, which by virtue of its colour can be overlooked quite easily. Since it can give quite a shock when it is eventually seen, I used to ask people to look at it over a table as it was dropped quite often! The spider is obviously too large to have spun the web, so it too is an invader. The war is over and yet in a sense it continues still.