Course sample

Textiles 1: A Creative Approach to Textiles

Pat Moloney Sue Black

Sue Michaelson

The authors of this course book, Sue Black, Sue Michaelson and Pat Moloney, all have wide experience both as textile designers and university lecturers. This revision has been done by Pat Moloney with valuable advice and assistance from OCA tutors and students. OCA acknowledges with thanks those artists and designers (many of them tutors and students) who have provided illustrations for this book. Much of the student work was photographed by Stephen Taylor. The copyright of illustrations remains with the artists. The first edition (1989) was edited by Sasha Young; subsequent revisions have been edited by David Davies. Front cover: A sample of Soumak weaving

Contents Preview: A Creative Approach to Textiles An Outline of the Course Working Method Using the Text Your Timetable Where to Work If you are Attending Tutorials If you are being Tutored by Post Help from Family and Friends Keeping a Logbook Understanding the Textile World What you need for the Course Some Artists to Consider Recommended Books Summary of Assignments

1 Building a Visual Vocabulary: Drawing, Mark-making and Stitches

Understanding the Textile World The Design Process The Personal Element Looking at the Outside World Your Inner World Source Material A Way of Approaching Drawing Working with a Camera

Project 1: Making Marks What you need for this Project Stage 1: Preparation Stage 2: Making Marks in an Expressive Way

Stage 3: Using Marks to Create Surface Textures Stage 4: Working from your Sketchbooks What have you Achieved? Some Notes on Stitches

Project 2: Developing Marks into Stitching and Making Textures What you need for this Project Safety Procedures Optional: Sewing Techniques for Machine Embroidery Stage 1: Preparation Stage 2: Exploring Marks and Lines through Stitch Techniques Stage 3: A Sample Stage 4: Preparing to Create Textures Stage 5: Stitches which Create Texture Stage 6: Using Thread and Yarns to Create Textures What have you Achieved?

Assignment 1

2 Building a Visual Vocabulary: Colour, Design, Printing and Painting

Project 3: Colour What you need for this Project Stage 1: Introduction and Preparation Stage 2: Colour Perception Stage 3: Recording Colours Accurately Stage 4: Colour Moods and Themes Stage 5: Coloured Stitches Stage 6: Combining Textures and Colour Effects Machine Embroidery (alternative activity) A Note on Colour in Sketchbooks What have you Achieved? Understanding the Textile World

Project 4: Developing Design Ideas What you need for this Project Stage 1: Introduction and Preparation Stage 2: Looking for Shapes and Drawing Stage 3: Selecting from your Drawings Stage 4: Developing Design Ideas Working in Sketchbooks What have you Achieved?

Interlude: Experiments with Printing and Painting What you need Stage 1: Preparation Stage 2: Experimenting with your Equipment

Project 5: Painting and Printing What you need for this Project Stage 1: Reviewing your Collection of Fabrics Stage 2: Selecting you Design Ideas Stage 3: Printing and Painting on Fabric Stage 4: A Larger Sample What have you Achieved?

Assignment 2

3 Creating Shapes and Three-dimensional Forms with Fabric

Understanding the Textile World

Project 6: Manipulating Fabrics What you need for this Project Stage 1: Preparation Stage 2: Developing Ideas Stage 3: Applied Fabric Techniques Stage 4: Raised and Structured Surface Textures What have you Achieved?

4 A Piece of your Own Understanding the Textile World

Project 7: A Piece of your Own What you need for this Project Making you Textile Piece What have you Achieved? Starting a Theme Book

Assignment 3

5 Textile Structures Understanding the Textile World

Interlude: Analysing Colour, Texture and Proportion Project 8: Yarns

Stage 1: Collecting Yarn and Exploring its Qualities Stage 2: Experimenting with Structures What have you Achieved? About Weaving Tapestry Weaving

Project 9: Woven Structures Basic Terminology: A List of Weaving Terms Stage 1: Preparation Stage 2: Basic Tapestry Weaving Techniques Stage 3: Experimenting with Different Materials Stage 4: Developing Design Ideas into Weaving What have you Achieved?

Assignment 4

6 A Design Project Project 10: A Design Project Stage 1: Reviewing your Work so Far Stage 2: Focussing on your Theme Book

Stage 3: Developing Design Ideas Based on Drawings Stage 4: Making a Storyboard Stage 5: Translating Ideas into Textile Samples Stage 6: Planning and Making a Finished Piece What have you Achieved?

Assignment 5

Appendix 1: From First to Second Level Appendix 2: For Students Tutored by Post Appendix 3: Note on Yarns and Fibres Appendix 4: Suppliers of Materials and Yarns Appendix 5: Museums and Galleries Appendix 6: If you plan to submit your work for

formal assessment

Sample: extract from Textiles 1: A Creative Approach to Textiles We will explore constructing a textile in an experimental way – looking at the process of interlacing which includes weaving, plaiting and some forms of knotting. The basic process, whatever the technique, is about converting line into area. Line represents materials like knitting wool, ribbon, torn strips of fabric, dried grass, plant fibre, animal hair, pliable strips of wood, wire and so on. On their own or in combination, these materials can be manipulated into constructions that will hold together by themselves and form flat two-dimensional fabrics or three-dimensional structures. There are many techniques you can use to achieve this, using elaborate equipment, simple tools or none at all. The apparent complexity in a textile structure does not necessarily depend on complex equipment.

Spine, and detail, by textile artist Shuna Rendel. Three-dimensional sculptural

forms using textile techniques. Look around your home and try to identify how furnishings, household articles and clothing have been constructed. Your experience of handling fabrics in earlier projects will have made you familiar with different types and weights of cloth from your fabric collection. Many of today’s new developments in textiles relate to the innovative use of raw materials and

processes, but the basic constructions are centuries old. New technology has enabled these processes to be speeded up. Craft processes and ‘ethnic’ designs have had a profound influence on the design of fabric in recent years. Contemporary work offers possibilities for textile structures from the past to be re-discovered – this results in ideas which can be both futuristic and nostalgic. Further reading and research will enable you to extend your knowledge and understanding of the great diversity of textile structures. This will help you think about how you might form your own textile structures. (see Techno Textiles in Recommended Books in the Preview)

Structures may provide you with ideas

Until now, you may only have constructed textiles by following patterns for knitting, crochet or rug making. We want you to keep an open mind and develop an imaginative approach to the exercises and sample making. You will be asked to develop your own ideas from the materials themselves, by using traditional techniques, by inventing structures and from visual source material. Everything you have learnt so far is basic to all textile design – that is, your growing understanding of colour, texture, scale, proportion and composition. Many constructed techniques need some skill so you may need to practise in order to improve your technical abilities, but keep in mind that the effect of what you are doing is paramount. Don’t let the technique of how something is made overwhelm your creative judgment. The skills are there as a vehicle for your ideas giving form to your thoughts and feelings. Since the techniques tend not to be image-based, it is sometimes difficult to associate them with working from a visual source. Textile structures give scope for exploring colour relationships in a very particular way. As one colour crosses another in either a weave or plait it is often quite difficult to predict the resulting effects and you will find that your sensitivity to the use of colour is often heightened by this experience. Similarly, the tactile quality becomes more evident as a result of making a structure from the basic elements. Through the physical handling of materials you will become more sensitive to feel and to texture. Some people will be stimulated by the inherent qualities of the basic materials. The colour and feel of some yarns are enough to excite an imaginative response; the sheer sensual appeal of fibres like mohair, silk, cashmere or alpaca can motivate some people very strongly. As you will have discovered already, combinations of yarns and threads can express different moods and atmospheres.

Examples of traditional objects showing the use of textile techniques.

However ‘hands on’ this process may seem you will still need source material to stimulate ideas for colour, contrasts of texture, proportion and shapes. Good sources of inspiration come from images that are rich in colour and texture. Some people are inspired by looking at structures which already exist, such as those found in architecture, iron work, the roots and branches of plants and trees or bone structures. Working with structure is essentially an interplay between working with visual source material to analyse colour, texture, proportion and composition and allowing an instinctive response to this in your selection of the raw materials.

Examples of traditional objects showing the use of textile techniques.

This is a sample from Textiles 1: A creative Approach to Textiles. The full course contains

10 Projects and 5 tutor-assessed Assignments.