Masters Degrees (Embroidery)

The MA Embroidery course will provide you with an opportunity to specialise in stitch, in the broadest sense of the word. Embroidery has vast potential as a creative medium and can be used within art, craft and design outcomes. You will be expected to have an understanding of the context for your work and undertake appropriate visual research. Both traditional and digital technological processes are available in specialist workshops, including Cornely, Irish, domestic, and single head computerised machines. The studios and workshops offer a lively and supportive place to test out and visualise ideas.

Design Network

Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Embroidery is part of an innovative design network — a community of staff and students exploring design ideas in a discursive, cross-disciplinary studio environment. Critically informed practical designers, the group works experimentally, inspired by new insights and possibilities.

While studying towards a particular qualification at MA/MFA level, students experience their subject in the broader context of contemporary design practice.

Specialist Environment

Dedicated spaces for the postgraduate community have been developed to enable the postgraduate community to flourish. These spaces, for thinking and practice, are located centrally within the School of Art, allowing easy access to an extensive range of workshops where the combination of traditional and state of the art equipment opens up a world of exciting possibilities.

Course Content

The MA Design: Embroidery is made up of four units totalling 180 credits.

The programme is designed to help you acclimatise to the challenges of MA level research and practice, enabling you to identify and describe a clear direction for your postgraduate design study.

You will be encouraged to develop design propositions that encompass key design issues and have complexity and ambition, taking full consideration of the relative contextual drivers.

You will also be encouraged and supported to extend your experience in the professional sphere either through a practical project, research context, exchange, work experience, or other negotiated professional set of interactions with an external partner, groups of students and creative industry.

Towards the end of the programme you will undertake a major project to consolidate your past research and practice into fully realised collections, pieces, proposals, business plans, or exhibitions – what ever means is appropriate to the work. You will also have developed a strategy for the continuation of your practice located and contextualised to the profession or discipline.

If you choose to progress to MFA Design: Embroidery award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.

This award is focused on the continuation of your practice aligned to the research and selection of appropriate public or professional venues and platforms to disseminate a significant body of work. You will be required to produce work for a public audience in the most relevant and appropriate form along with any implicit publicity and dissemination material.

Resources

We have developed a dedicated postgraduate area occupying an entire floor of the main School of Art building, offering an exciting space to be, both intellectually and practically. The centre is located in the newly refurbished Chatham Tower with studios, design laboratories, seminar rooms and extensive workshops that form the nucleus of this vibrant, cross-disciplinary learning environment.

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This programme offers a rich and stimulating exploration of materials and textile processes with applications spanning a broad range of contexts, and challenging any boundaries which may define what textiles can be.

We’ll nurture the development of your interests through focused research. With subjects tailored to your own curiosity in and around textiles, this variety of approaches within each cohort creates a rich environment for innovation. This breadth is also reflected in the range of staff working on the programme, with a stimulating mix of backgrounds from print, embroidery, and woven textiles as well as graphics and jewellery.

While embedding the rudiments of the techniques and facilities of the discipline, we encourage you to embrace the possibilities available and consider the collaborative partnerships and excellent facilities that the wider design school and University can offer to enrich your projects. Through our links with the textiles and fashion industries, you’ll be supported to find a work placement during your studies, gaining valuable industry experience.

Programme structure

*Please note that the one year MA is under review for 2017/18. Applications are currently being accepted for the two year MFA only.

On the one-year MA programme, you will produce a body of work on an agreed proposed topic, culminating in resolved practical solutions. The longer MFA allows you to complete an extended investigation. Both are project-led.

Classes are offered in drawing skills, technical workshops in the dye lab, print room, and in our computer aided design (CAD) suite for digital printing and CAD embroidery. Your study will combine practical studio work closely entwined with theoretical and written studies, including professional practice elements to prepare you for employment in the industry.

A lecture/seminar series will help you examine the wider context for your project, and will help you to articulate your ideas through the written and spoken word.

Career opportunities

This programme can offer a route into careers in many areas, including the fashion, textile industries, and beyond. Our graduates have an excellent track record, going on to work directly in design studios in London, Paris and New York, in companies such as Red or Dead, Osborne and Little, Cole & Son, and Diane von Furstenberg. ECA graduates have become stylists, fashion buyers, illustrators or fine artists, while others have pursued careers in related design industries such as automotive interiors and interior design.

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Do you have a talent for turning textiles into works of art? Then why not make the most of your skills by working towards an MA in Fashion Textiles? We can help you explore your technique through applied print design (both traditional silk screen and digital) and surface decoration through applied machine embroidery, needle felting and garment construction. You can also develop your millinery skills thanks to our wide range of fabrics, materials and haberdashery.

With the outstanding facilities we have available, as well as our expert teaching staff, you'll quickly develop the knowledge and skills to produce truly beautiful patterns. We believe strongly in cross-discipline approaches, which is why we allow students from all art subjects to work together in inspiring designs and opening up to new methods. Make sure you have the skills to make a profession out of your passion by taking your love of fashion textiles to the next level.

Course outline

We actively encourage mixing different approaches, materials and techniques to create innovative fabric, such as print combined with embroidery, with opportunities to utilise laser cutting to create new fabrics and potential applique techniques. Our strong links with traditional Fine Art print techniques allow students to research and explore the graphic and textural potential of these alongside contemporary fashion and textile design.

There will be three studio modules throughout the first two terms. The first will look at researching aspects of fashion textile, experiencing the range of processes and materials available. This will lead to creation of a range of studio project proposals, equipped with a comprehensive understanding of the creative potential within the department. Finally, there will be practical MA Project Module which will culminate in an exhibition of work in an appropriate media.

The course allows great flexibility within the project proposals. These may range from full garment collections to fabric creation for clothing, printed fashion fabrics or accessories.

Graduate destinations

You'll be prepared for a range of careers in fashion and textile design, including working with pattern cutting and pattern design in all garment trades as well as film and theatre costume production. You might wish to enter garment manufacturing or textile fabric design, working in samples for mass manufacture. No matter what you decide to do, from interior surface designs to textile and fashion prints, your qualification will ensure you are ready for it.

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This course offers ambitious individuals the opportunity to become designers, designer-makers or textile artists, either within the professional industries or to set up small businesses independently or in small teams.

The programme of study allows you to freely develop creative design practice and valuable marketing and business skills, building comprehensive understanding, vision and direction.

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The course is developed through seminars, lectures, tutorials, visiting speakers, group critiques, market research and personal research. You will be introduced to research skills and methods, product development, design management and methods, with marketing and business skills. The emphasis of the course is learning how best to present ideas, and where and how to place them in the market.

Students develop and propose a personal route of study and explore and research an area of textiles in knit, print, weave, or embroidery for fashion or interiors, textile art, or in fashion design.

You are encouraged to trial a product in the market either through first hand experience, or through working with studios and agents for designers, shops and craft markets (for designer makers), or with galleries or public spaces (for textile artists).

MODULES

In the first trimester, you'll study Research Methodologies. This introduces generic methodologies and considers subject specific data retrieval analysis and evaluation techniques. You'll also study The Development of Product, Market Research and Product Ideas.

In the second trimester, you'll study Marketing skills. This about developing relevant professional skills and an understanding of marketing requirements for textile designers, makers and artists. You'll also study other modules such as Product Sampling and Development and Research.

The final trimester involves a practice-based Master's Project. This is about bringing ideas to a professional conclusion often in the form of an exhibition of finished wok and supporting promotional materials.

For more information on course modules please go to: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-design-fashion-and-textiles/

TEACHING METHODS

The course is developed through seminars, lectures, tutorials, visiting speakers, group critiques, market research and personal research.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The PG Cert is assessed by studio exhibition and/or portfolio presentation with a marketing assignment.

The PG Dip involves a written report including market analysis of your chosen product field. Practical work is presented by studio work and/or portfolio and an evaluative report.

For the MA you will present a cohesive body of creative work, supported by an extended report.

For more information on teaching and assessment, please view the course handbook via the website: https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/courses/pg-design-fashion-and-textiles/

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Graduates work in a variety of sectors and levels of different industries, these have included:

• Studio Designer
• Freelance Designer
• Industrial Designer
• Practising Textile Artist
• And, many more

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This course gives you the opportunity to explore and develop your skills in the specialist areas of printed, embroidered, knitted, woven, laser cut or multimedia textiles. You'll devise an individual project and we will support your creative thinking and experimentation, helping you to develop new or smart design concepts, fabrications and prototypes. Our extensive textile design facilities will give you the opportunity to use a range of traditional and computerised technologies.

Key features:

Devise an individual programme of study, based on your own interests and career aspirations.
Apply for one of our Paul Smith Scholarships and have the opportunity to travel to Japan and study at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo.
Have access to a wide range of traditional and digital textile design equipment, including laser cutting, multi-head embroidery, Jacquard weaving, and Shima Seiki and Stoll power knitting.
Benefit from the expertise of our academic staff, researchers and visiting designers such as Dr Sarah Kettley, Karen Nicol, Angharad Mclaren, Ryan Wayne, Professor Jane Harris, Jo Cope and Moxham.
Have the opportunity to join a European study trip to Antwerp and Paris.
Be selected to exhibit at New Designers in London, and SPINEXPO in Shanghai, China.
Work alongside other Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design students in our dedicated postgraduate studio.
Opt for a 20 credit point advanced research module if you're thinking of progressing to PhD or Professional Doctorate study.

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This course is for people who want to pursue their passion for particular areas of Fine Art, at an advanced level and with professional support.

Course overview

This course is built around your personal interests and aspirations. It allows you to push the boundaries of creativity, within a framework of academic rigour and contextual research.

Given the strong practical element in the course, we invite applicants to share their portfolios and aspirations with us at interview stage. We are eager to explore how to develop each person’s individual interests and passions in Fine Art.

During the course, we encourage you to develop your personal practice through research, critiques, analysis and questioning. We also tackle issues that face Fine Art professionals, from fundraising to self-presentation, as part of boosting your employability.
At Masters level, the specialisms of tutors are an important factor. Sunderland’s research expertise includes painting, printmaking, studio-based drawing and collage, sculpture, collaborative practice, art in architecture, video and digital art.

By the end of the course, you will have prepared and participated in a public exhibition. Your work will form a Masters-level portfolio that excites and impresses potential clients, collaborators and employers.

Graduates from Sunderland have gone on to work throughout the creative industries. A Masters qualification not only opens doors in the workplace but also helps you progress more rapidly once your career is underway.

To find out more about the part time version of this course, please view this web-page: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/courses/artsdesignandmedia/postgraduate/fine-art-part-time/

Course content

The content of the course is shaped by your personal interests with guidance and inspiration from Sunderland's supportive tutors. Modules on this course include:
-Fine Art 1 (60 Credits)
-Fine Art 2 (60 Credits)
-Fine Art 3 (60 Credits)

Teaching and assessment

Compared to an undergraduate course, you will find that this Masters requires a higher level of independent working. The course aims to stretch your creativity and maximise your sense of personal fulfilment.

We use a wide variety of teaching and learning methods which include lectures, seminars, critiques, workshops and practical demonstrations. These are supported by a range of guest speakers from diverse academic and industry backgrounds. You will also have high levels of contact with tutors who give regular feedback and support.

We organise field trips and visits to galleries and art events throughout the UK. Destinations include cities such as London, Edinburgh and Liverpool. There are also opportunities to visit international venues in places such as New York, Barcelona, Venice and Berlin.

Facilities & location

The facilities at our Priestman Building include state-of-the-art teaching space, generous studio space and a fantastic Arts and Design Library. Facilities include:
-Workshops for wood, metal and printmaking
-Project spaces
-Student gallery
-Digital studio with video, sound editing and screening facilities
-Digital suites with open-access Apple Macs
-Digital sewing and embroidery facilities

Arts and Design Library
Our Arts and Design Library has a specialist collection of over 120,000 books, CD-ROMs, videos, slides and one of the largest electronic information networks in the sector. The experienced library team provide a high-quality service and are sensitive to the requirements and working methods of Arts and Design students.

Journals and research
We subscribe to a comprehensive range of print and electronic journals so you can access the most reliable and up-to-date articles. Some of the most important sources for your course include:
-Art Full Text + Art Abstracts, which is a major resource for media and arts information
-Design and Applied Arts Index, which covers journals featuring both new designers and the development of design and the applied arts since the mid-19th century
-British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC), which provides resources for the production, study and use of film and related media
-JSTOR (short for ‘Journal Storage’), which provides access to important journals across the humanities, social sciences and sciences
-Lexis, which provides access to legal information as well as full-text newspaper articles
-Screen Online (BFI), which is an online encyclopaedia of British film and television, featuring clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive

Employment & careers

Postgraduates are highly employable and, on average, earn more than individuals whose highest qualification is an undergraduate degree. On completing this course, you will be equipped for roles throughout the media and cultural industries, for example as a practitioner, curator or educator. Opportunities could include arts development, public arts projects, community art organisations, social and art therapy support units, galleries and festivals.

Recent Sunderland graduates have also set up their own creative businesses, undertaken commissions and exhibited their work regionally and nationally.

During the course we encourage you to gain industry experience which will enhance your skills, build up a valuable network of contacts and boost your employability. Past placements have included exhibition work in a range of public contexts such as galleries, schools and hospitals.

A Masters degree will also enhance career opportunities within Higher Education and prepare you for further postgraduate studies.

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The MA in Fashion Textile Practices aims to cover a vastly changing environment. As a broad subject area this course allows you to explore a varied range of fashion and textile directions. It offers continuing or recent graduates opportunities to enhance their knowledge, skills, creativity and employment prospects, through imaginative enquiry into different fashion, textile and surface platforms and processes.
Our MA in Fashion Textile Practices aims to combine advanced creative, aesthetic and technical design skills. You will normally have a degree in a related subject (Fashion Design, Textile or Surface Design, Textile Crafts), may be seeking to develop fresh approaches to your subject (creative pattern cutting, design for fashion, interiors or exterior architectural surfaces, future materials, 3D printed textiles or surfaces, advancing your weave, embroidery, knit or print skills, or textile art), or may wish to build your portfolio for fashion, textile or surface roles in industry in the future. A portfolio of work or ideas is required for subject entry.

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Introduction

The course aims to develop confident and experimental practitioners who will push the boundaries of the subject of costume beyond its established traditional role.

Content

The course aims to develop confident and experimental practitioners who will push the boundaries of the subject of costume beyond its established role. Taught largely on a one to one basis, by international practitioners, experienced teachers and senior researchers, this MA will nurture your creative ideas about costume and performance.

You will design, realise and experiment with costume based performance ideas that enable you to define your inpidual voice in relation to contemporary culture and practice, while responding visually to the relevant performance context.
Beyond the understanding of performance and the role of character creation through costume, the study of Costume Design at MA level allows you to locate your practice within the wider realms of contemporary culture and art, as well as within the relevant dramatic, social and philological contexts.

The relationship between drawing, practical realisation and performance, is central to the way design is approached: ideas are developed on paper and through movement, as well as through pattern cutting, textile printing, dyeing and surface manipulation.

Practical experimentation is achieved through access to the extensive technical facilities available within the college, expanding knowledge of the uses of CAD, tailoring, print, knit and embroidery within costume. The costume studio in John Prince's Street is well equiped to enable students to develop their ideas into realisation, and expert technical support is provided for students on a weekly basis.

Structure

Full Time 15 months level 7 180 credits

Term One:

Costume for Live Performance (40 credits)
Research Methods (20 credits)

Term Two:

Costume for Film (40 units)
Collaborative Unit (20 credits)

Term Three:

Masters Project (60 credits)

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Introduction

Guided by experienced staff and resourced with state of the art equipment, this course nurtures talent and develops directional womenswear designers whose cutting-edge fashion influences the future of the industry.

Content

MA Fashion Design Technology Womenswear seeks to recruit ambitious, creative designers who have a long-term fashion focus and wish to work for a key brand or set up their own label. Based primarily in London’s West End at John Prince’s Street and resourced by the specialist equipment at our other central sites, contemporary technology is at the core of this course.

CAD CAM, state of the art knitting machines and facilities for digital print, rapid proto-typing and laser cutting allow students to produce womenswear collections that innovate in the field.

By nurturing creativity and specialist research, the course enables individuals to produce high quality and innovative work through illustration, design, cutting and modern manufacturing.

Students are supported to develop collaborations with industry specialists and international fabric suppliers, a process that not only builds important contacts for the future but one that enriches student experience and refines design sensibility. Using diverse production techniques - from couture craftsmanship to futuristic experimentation - students are able to explore their own perspectives to form the basis of their MA collection. Guided by experienced staff, this also has the potential to incorporate a further specialism such as embroidery, knitwear or digital concepts.

Structure

15 months level 7 180 credits

Term One

Creative and Technical Innovation (40 credits)
Research Methods (20 credits)

Term Two

Collaborative Unit (20 credits)
Technical Analysis and Development (40 units)

Term Three

Masters Project (60 credits)

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Whether you want to explore innovative design, promote fashion internationally or set up your own label, we have the world-class facilities, practitioners and industry expertise to prepare you for an exciting career. Students can choose to work in any of the wide range of fashion areas, covering Fashion Design, Fashion Communication and Promotion, Jewellery and Accessories, or Fashion Textiles – our MA Fashion is uniquely structured to enable you to specialise while drawing on a broad range of resources and expertise.


Why you should study MA Fashion at Middlesex?

At Middlesex we take an innovative approach to Fashion that enables you to specialise while collaborating, experimenting, and enhancing your skills with students and staff from across the department. Taught by some of the UK's leading practitioners and technical experts, you'll explore your chosen area of Fashion within a contemporary framework that will equip you with the practical skills, business acumen and industry insights you need to succeed in today's global market.

Based in our £80 million Art and Design School, our course features state-of-the-art facilities and specialist workshops fitted with both new and traditional equipment to enable you to fully realise your visions. Through a combination of workshop enquiry, in-depth research and critical understanding of your practice, we ensure that you graduate with the skills, knowledge and body of work to advance your Fashion career in new, challenging and imaginative directions.

Course highlights:

- Exceptional facilities that are among the best in the country, including traditional fashion workshops and equipment for screenprinting, knitting, weaving, digital printing, embroidery, metalwork, photography, reprographics, film, laser cutting, 3D printing and more
- Flexibly designed module content to enable you to bring your interests and ambitions to every assessment, whether that's making textiles, designing jewellery, creating a book, producing a magazine, evolving an existing specialism you have, and more
- Despite being a new MA course we have an international reputation for high calibre graduates from our BA Fashion programmes who have gone on to work for Givenchy, Kenzo, Vivienne Westwood, Preen, Aquascutum and ASOS
- Opportunities to start your own label with recent examples including Boudicca, Christopher Raeburn and Ashley Isham
- Access to networking opportunities, world-leading research and expertise through the Art & Design Research Institute (ADRI) on campus

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