The Textiles workshop at Goldsmiths Design has recently been renovated, and this week, our first class of MA Fashion students were introduced to some of the equipment in the workshop by Textiles lecturer Rose Sinclair. One of the tools that the students got to see at work was the embroidery machine, which transforms a digital design into stitches on fabric.
With digital tools, the most time-consuming part of the process is putting together the design on the computer. After that, getting to the desired result is quicker than what it would take just to set up a traditional process like weaving or screen printing; for example, in order to end up with printed fabric, the process of printing it with a special printer and then transferring it onto fabric using the heat press is a question of minutes.
“Digital allows for experimentation”, explained lecturer Rose Sinclair- it does not impede on the craft of the designer, but instead grants more freedom for the creation process. This, of course, does not mean that digital machines are always the right tool for everything; indeed, students were introduced to analog processes such as freehand stitching as well, and they were encouraged to combine digital and analog in their work.
You can see more pictures of the Fashion students in the lab on our Facebook page here.
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