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BA Contemporary Textiles Shetland College UHI

BA Contemporary Textiles
Shetland College UHI
Course leader: Angela Hunt
(01595)771503
angela.hunt@shetland.uhi.ac.uk

BA Contemporary Textiles

We build on the quality and range of textiles our island communities are recognised for with reference to international trends through visits to Premiere Vision and workshops with visiting professional designers.
Our small but well equipped course aims to build high skill levels in textile design and making techniques and train designers in CAD on Apple Macs, computerised knitting machines and looms.
Students can access our Textile Facilitation Unit which works with clients from local and national knitting companies to develop innovative designs on Shima Seki knitting systems, from swatch samples to whole garments and size grading.
Design and Fine Art methodologies are explored with opportunities to exhibit and participate in live projects with yarn manufacturers, retail and gallery outlets to develop understanding of professional practice.

Recommendations

Five graduates with strong design and making skills: Hilary Seatter, Marion MacPhee, Joan Manson, Jennifer Tait and Angela Irvine.

Particular note

Hilary Seatter is an outstanding designer with textile skills with weave, knit, print and new media. Her academic paper on animation in knitted textiles has been accepted for “In the Loop 2” the International Textile Conference which is being hosted in Shetland September 2010.
Hilary’s practice is informed by her experience of running a small business and her drive and motivation has led to inclusion in professional exhibitions such as Diaspora, and Gunnister Man for Shetland museum. Winner of the Bonhoga print prize of her own exhibition and she has sold textiles and artwork through craft fairs and exhibitions.

Angela Irvine is a very highly skilled designer of contemporary Shetland lace, who has taken traditional patterns and techniques forward with exciting combinations of new yarns. Her hand knitted snoods use diverse yarns and beading to re interpret Fair Isle patterns. Her sales to date through museum outlets have led to her inclusion in the new promotional film of contemporary lace knitting. In her final year project she has worked extensively with CAD to develop the lace patterns to engineered digital prints. Angela’s ability and commitment to study led to her becoming UHI student of the year.



Joan Manson is a highly skilled knit designer, working predominantly with Shetland wool, she has developed hand and machine knitted lace structures and translated this to industrial production on 12 gauge.

Jennifer Tait specialised in knit for machine and CAD, her interiors range of machine knitted products won the UHI Business Idea competition and she has furthered her experience of garment design in her final year.

Marion MacPhee completed an industrial placement for Pringle, developing scarves in cashmere and has developed he knowledge of CAD through design of knits in the Textile Facilitation unit