{"id":642,"date":"2020-11-02T19:02:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T03:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/wordpress\/?p=642"},"modified":"2026-08-20T19:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:50:34","slug":"642","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/02\/642\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider Webs are Complicated (and Amazing)!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_flex_row\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et_flex_column_12_24 et_flex_column_12_24_tablet et_flex_column_24_24_phone\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p>This drawing is from a nature journal entry I did back in November of 2020 when I saw this amazing spider web in some grapevines. It was backlit by the sun such that all the threads sparkled with a rainbow of colors, and I felt compelled to try to do a drawing of it and find out more about it.<\/p>\n<p>After a little research, I learned that spiderwebs come in several general patterns, and the one I saw is called an orb web. It has an inner empty circle followed by a small spiral followed by another small gap and this is all followed by a much larger spiral that constitutes most of the rest of the web. However, the large spiral does not go to the very edge of the web. Instead, there is an outer ring that a few threads from the main part of the web hook up to, and this is what attaches the web to its surroundings. The other thing I didn\u2019t realize, that of course makes total sense, is that the threads on both the top and the bottom side curve downwards as if pulled by gravity (duh). You always see them drawn with the threads all curving inward, but this is not the case in the real world.<\/p>\n<p>I also learned that this type of web is often repaired or rebuilt daily \u2013 that\u2019s a lot of work for the little spider! Imagine having to rebuild your house every day. The rainbow effect comes from little sticky droplets that dot the web and are used to catch bugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Per my journal entry, I never thought it would take me so many tries to draw a spider web. I spent over an hour just trying to make a simple sketch that looked right and still wasn\u2019t totally happy with the end result. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t take a picture of it, and the web was gone the next day, so this was the only drawing I got. Funny that while I am writing this, I see a spider climbing up the wall!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"et_pb_column_1 et_pb_column et-last-child et_flex_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et_flex_column_12_24 et_flex_column_12_24_tablet et_flex_column_24_24_phone\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_image_0 et_pb_image et_pb_module et_flex_module\"><span class=\"et_pb_image_wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Terri-Rottman-NJ-Spiderweb-2020-Watercolor-Pencil-770px80q.jpg\" title=\"Terri-Rottman-NJ-Spiderweb-2020-Watercolor-Pencil-770px80q\" width=\"595\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Terri-Rottman-NJ-Spiderweb-2020-Watercolor-Pencil-770px80q.jpg 595w, https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Terri-Rottman-NJ-Spiderweb-2020-Watercolor-Pencil-770px80q-480x621.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 595px, 100vw\" class=\"wp-image-1119\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This drawing is from a nature journal entry I did back in November of 2020 when I saw this amazing spider web in some grapevines. It was backlit by the sun such that all the threads sparkled with a rainbow of colors, and I felt compelled to try to do a drawing of it and find out more about it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","category-nature-journaling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1202,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/1202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowsongways.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}