Shani BensimonMainStudio Blog/ Work in ProgressAboutContact


Shani Bensimon




Silk–Mulberry


Mulberry trees evolved iminosugars and phenolics to repel herbivores; silkworms evolved enzymes to bypass them. In nature these materials never meet structurally - fibroin is synthesised in isolated silk glands; mulberry chemistry stays in the gut. Their co-evolution is a long antagonism without fusion.

Here, fibroin I extracted from discarded silk garments is brushed onto mulberry fibers. Chemistry that evolved as defence becomes structural cross-linking.




 2025-2026

Mullberry fibers, silk protein, rose madder pigment
In traditional Silk Damask, image is made not by pigment but by the direction of the weave - light falling differently wherever the thread changes course. A mould taken from an oil painting transfers its brushstrokes into cast silk: a structure for light, its colour shifting with the environment around it.
 2026, ongoing







SHANI BENSIMONwalslzr@gmail.com