Textiles Welcome Guide

Preparing for your course

We're delighted that you've chosen to join our creative community at Arts University Bournemouth. We can't wait to see what you'll create.

Welcome to BA (Hons) Textiles

This welcome pack is designed to give you an idea of what to expect during the first weeks of your course. Please take the time to read it carefully and take particular note of the pre-course preparation. We hope that you'll enjoy a happy and productive time with us, and we look forward to meeting you in October.

A message from your Course Leader

Congratulations on gaining your place on the BA (Hons) Textiles course at Arts University Bournemouth – we are excited for you to join us!

This course endeavours to provide you with the necessary tools to enter the creative textiles industry. Your experience will combine workshops, studio design and the skills required for your potential employment. Your three years will be hard work, yet very rewarding! The course will reflect the challenges that textile designers and makers meet and so will require the commitment and rigour that the industry demands.

Please take some time to look at our graduate's work on the AUB Online Summer Show and our Digital Catalogue.

We look forward to seeing you all soon.

- Anne-Marie Howat

Before you join us

If you're joining AUB in your first year, in preparation for the start of your course we would like you to make 5 x A2 drawings that celebrate your environment.

Be inspired by all the nooks and crannies of the world around you: natural or man-made, urban, rural or coastal landscapes, architecture and flora. Gather all sorts of ephemera to help and inspire you.

The drawings can be illustrative, or a series of impressions, shapes and colours, or you can build them up with collage using various layers of materials, textures and rubbings. Think colour, pattern and drawn shapes.

How to submit your summer project

These drawings will help you to introduce yourself to your fellow students at the beginning of term, and could be the start of your first project. The project is intended as a way of helping you to get to know each other, so you're encouraged to present yourself with your work creatively as part of a relaxed and fun ‘getting to know you’ activity when you arrive!

Bring the drawings with you during Welcome Week.

The Library is extremely well resourced and includes all key texts that you'll need. The list below indicates the key texts that will be useful throughout your studies. All of these are available from the Library at AUB. You might want to borrow a copy from your local library to look at before you arrive. A comprehensive reading list will be provided at the beginning of each unit.

In the meantime, here are some books to provide inspiration and information! All are available in the AUB Library.

Textiles Now, Drusilla Cole
Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge, Bradley Quinn
Digital Textile Design, Melanie Bowles
Textiles and Fashion, Jenny Udale
The Textile Book, C. Gale and J. Kaur
Sourcing Ideas: Researching Colour, – Surface, Structure and Pattern, Steed, J. & Stevenson, F.

The Textile Book and Textiles and Fashion will be beneficial to your studies throughout the three years and beyond. We recommend these as a sound investment for both your practical and theoretical studies.

We also recommend the compact pocket ‘Study Skills’ guides published by Palgrave Macmillan, as you may find these useful aids for your studies.

Please take the opportunity to maintain a contemporary interest in textiles and associated areas by reading articles in Selvedge, Crafts Magazine, Elle Decoration, Fashion periodicals, etc.

Crafts

British magazine covering contemporary applied arts including textiles. Includes an extensive exhibition and gallery listing.

Selvedge

British magazine covering textiles in all aspects of application. Good for contemporary and historical articles, events, exhibitions and book reviews. A ‘must read’ for textile students!

Current student work

Have a look through some of the work our current students are producing to get an idea of the type of work you may be making on our course.

Three rolls of fabric with different patterns.

Fabrics with different patterns displayed on top of one another.

A piece of fabric hangs against a roll of paper with a circle pattern.

A piece of fabric with an abstract pattern.

Two rolls of fabric, each with a different pattern.

Two display boxes containing photos and fabric samples.

Three samples of different patterned fabric hanging in a gallery space.

What to bring on your first day

On your first day, bring along a notebook and pen, your summer project, and a smile!

During Welcome Week, you'll be introduced to the course handbook and units, and timetable and information, helping you to acclimatise to the course and AUB, and your venture into the field of creative Textiles. It will also be great to get to know you and for you to get to know each other.

We suggest that you bring the following items with you:

A medium-sized art box to keep personal equipment in (a small tool box is ideal for this)
Memory sticks/hard drive for backing up your computer work Masking tape
Pritt sticks
Paper and fabric scissors
Scalpel
Drawing pencils
Gouache paints with primary colours
Set of brushes and palette
Dip pen inks and nibs
Metal rule 30 cm
Your preferred colour medium e.g. inks, watercolours, gel pens, coloured pencils
Sketchbooks - A3 or A4
A stock of A2 cartridge paper
Tracing paper - A3 pad
Sewing kit: pins, needles for hand-sewing and embroidery, stitch unpicker
Apron/old shirt for painting, printing and dyeing in
Black Indian ink
Pots with lids – start collecting plastic containers and small Tupperware
Cheap pack of spoons for mixing colour
Rubber gloves

We also recommend A2 portfolios for assessment and transporting work. Start collecting various fabrics, yarns and threads that inspire you. As a Textiles student you'll be expected to source and purchase fabrics, threads and yarns, etc., as and when you need them for a particular project. It may also be beneficial to collect and bring your own personalised bits and bobs, e.g.: buttons, beads, ribbons, trimmings, etc., to use as projects develop.

Specialist textile equipment at AUB is shared between all students and booked for access. We expect all students to use equipment and resources responsibly. We anticipate that you'll want to invest in your own specialist equipment towards the end of your first year. You can discuss suppliers with the technicians, e.g.: clam box portfolios, etc.

At times throughout the course you may need to buy fabrics or make payments for digital prints and this is paid through our online shop. This will be explained to you by our technicians and lecturing staff when appropriate. However this won't be a great amount in the first and second years, and you'll be given a free sample at the start of the course.

Additional materials fees include approximately £15 per digital print costs and specialist print finishing supplies (secondyear onwards).

You're encouraged to bring your own Laptop and Mobile device to AUB to support Online Learning, Collaboration and Communication whilst at University.

We provide access to a range of free software and discounts on Apple and Dell hardware. We recommend that you wait until you've set up your AUB IT account to access this free software and discounted hardware if you're planning on investing in a new computer.

Even if your course does not specifically use Adobe Creative Cloud, we recommend that you try to make sure your computer is able to run this software.

We recommend that you format any external hard drives/USB sticks to work on both Apple and Windows.

Please note, this course uses both Apple and Windows computers.

Potential study trip (2023/24 academic year)

Every year, we endeavour to arrange a suitable and affordable Textiles study trip. This coming year, we wish to look at a trip to Paris for the Textiles/Fashion trade show Premier Vision, or to Florence to soak up the historical influences on the textiles and fashion industry, e.g. The Gucci Museum, Pitti Palace Costume Museum.

You'll need some funds to attend this potential field trip in February 2024. So, in order to join us, we thought a heads-up on saving money would be helpful. We're looking to make arrangements for the trip in the autumn term, depending upon who's interested at that point.

The trip would be for approximately five days and would hopefully fall around the £500/£550 mark. We'd be looking for a deposit in the first six weeks, and final payment by the end of term.

This isn't mandatory, but has always served as an exciting experience for those wishing to go. Alternative suggestions will be made for visits locally for those not wishing to be involved.