Course description
Foundation Textiles
There are many ways to look at textiles: a universal language; a history of mankind and history in the making; a necessity and a luxury; an individual concern and a global industry; something that is ever evolving.
This Open Foundation course will help you develop your visual skills and explore different ways of using materials and tools to develop your own textile ideas.
Once you have been introduced to the nature and context of textiles, you will go on to build up mark-making techniques, explore collage as a means of creative observational drawing for textile-based work, discover the properties of materials and expand your visual vocabulary through drawing, collage and manipulation techniques.
On completion of the five parts of the Open course you should have gained sufficient skills and enough confidence to go on to further study with the Open College of the Arts, and be able to decide on the nature and direction of your future studies and art practice.
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Course Outcomes
Through the course, you will:
- Acquire new ways of working creatively.
- Develop your observational skills.
- Explore some manipulation techniques.
- Learn more about material properties.
- Gain an understanding of the creative design process.
- Extend your awareness of contemporary textile artists and designers.
- Develop textiles based on your visual vocabulary.
- Gain greater confidence in your potential for textile-related work.
Training Course Content
The course is split into five parts, each representing a particular project which you’ll tackle through a series of exercises. At the end of each part of the course you’ll gather together your practical work for these exercises to make up your assignment submission. You’ll then send this to your tutor for review. The course comprises:
Introduction: About textiles and warm-up mark-making
Here you’ll be introduced to the nature and context of textiles and how this relates to the course. You’ll also do some warm-up exercises to help you loosen up and enjoy experimenting with a range of mark-making using conventional and unconventional tools in preparation for Part One: Line. The warm-up should help you to become more aware of the relationship between your perceptual and physical self when drawing.
Part one: Line
Part One aims to build on the mark-making techniques from the warm-up and introduce you to new ways of drawing which lend themselves to some of the more expressive ways of working in textiles. You’ll explore a variety of conventional and unconventional tools and media.
Part two: Collage
Part Two will introduce you to collage as a means of creative observational drawing for textile-based work using primary objects as a starting point. You’ll creatively explore colour, form, line and tone using a variety of plain and patterned papers.
Part three: Materials
Part Three will help you discover the properties of materials using exploratory construction and manipulation techniques and will reinforce the importance of simple, design-led sampling as a basis for fabric ideas.
Part four: Sketchbooks
Part Four will allow you to work in a variety of sketchbook formats and take inspiration from the work of other artists to prompt new approaches in conjunction with previous drawing techniques. You’ll be encouraged to expand your visual vocabulary through drawing, collage and manipulation techniques.
Part five: Textile solutions
Here you have four options. Each option has a particular textile focus and will give you a feel for the ways in which you might work should you decide to enrol on the Textiles degree with the OCA. You’ll be developing textile ideas based on your visual vocabulary and using a sketchbook to build creatively on a previous project of your choice.
Expenses
- Fees for UK students: £900 per course
- Fees for students outside of the UK: £1,050 per course