Wymondham High A Level Art Textiles
Overview
This exciting and innovative course involves the creative use of Art Textiles. Students are taught industry standard Fashion Design and Textiles skills such as garment design and construction, surface manipulation and embellishment, printing techniques, digital pattern design and a wide range of traditional textile skills such as needlework and dyeing. The course emphasises an approach in which students develop their creativity as artists and designers and strengthen their technical skills in a range of practices. Student outcomes may take the form of garments, accessories, sculpture, jewellery, or home furnishing concepts.
Students are encouraged to experiment, explore new techniques, and develop their practice as they grow in confidence as Textile artists and Fashion designers – enabling them to produce work of high quality which is underpinned by technical knowledge and expertise.
Course Requirements
Students to have a Grade 6 in a GCSE Arts subject or above and a good portfolio. Students applying for this course should have a strong base of traditional skills learnt at GCSE level.
*Due to the practical nature of this course, students may wish to apply without having undertaken an Arts GCSE. Therefore, we advise that students wishing to apply for this course have a passion for fashion and textiles and some experience of textiles, sewing or making garments they could potentially present in a short interview.
Course Content
Component 1: Coursework – Year 12:
In year 12 students gain skills in a range of media through a series of 3 units. Each unit comprises a focus for recording, gaining inspiration by looking at the work of artists and creating a personal response in the form of a final outcome. Students will create outcomes based on the following skills: A garment based on print and pattern, digital design, an accessory showcasing surface embellishment and decoration and a sculptural fashion outcome showcasing construction techniques. Enrichment opportunities include visits to Fashion and Textiles exhibitions such as the New Designers Graduate Design Show and the Knitting and Stitching Show, both of which take place in London. Students will also have the opportunity to visit printmaking studios to learn screen-printing and fashion techniques from practising artists and designers. Students are taught how to develop critical and analytical skills and take part in group critiques to further their understanding of the elements of textile design and construction.
In the Spring term, Year 12 students develop a ‘personal project’ that enables them to work in an individual direction of their own choosing. Visits to artist studios and trips to galleries of national distinction are organised for the students to assist in their response to artists’ work. Students produce final outcomes for this project before the June half term in preparation to start their Personal Study in the summer term of Year 12.
Component 1: Coursework – Year 13:
Personal Study – Over the summer half term, students are taught how to analyse artwork and given a comprehensive grounding in art historical terms, concepts, and issues, as well as the influence of cultural, social, economic and political factors. Students are helped to develop ideas for their Personal Study. This usually takes the form of a written and illustrated essay in which students show the depth of understanding that they have about the ideas that inform and inspire their creative work, through investigating artists and designers. The Personal Study element is worth approximately 18% of coursework marks. Over the autumn term of Yr.13 students develop individual ideas and experiment with a range of media, culminating in an ambitious final outcome made before the Christmas holidays. Upon their return students spend the month of January writing and consolidating their Personal Study.
Component 2: Externally Set Assignment – Year 13:
A theme is provided by the Pearson exam board as a starting point for the students’ own ideas. Students begin work on this in February and generate a body of explorative and considered work in a new sketchbook or portfolio before producing a final practical outcome over 15 hours / three days in late April or early May.
Progression after A levels
At the end of the course students will have a very strong technical grounding and organised portfolio of work, which is essential for interviews for entry into higher education courses in the creative sector. Many students leave Wymondham High Academy 6th Form and gain places in the best Art Colleges in the UK, including the Royal School of Needlework. Students of Art Textiles can progress to many university and Higher Education courses with creative elements, such as fashion design, textile design, fashion communication, fashion business, interior design, costume design and theatre design to name but a few. Career possibilities within textiles are varied, for example: fashion design, craft practitioner, teaching, interior design, pattern and surface design, textile conservation, costume and theatre design, costume for screen, fashion communication and promotion, journalism, and merchandising.
*Creative Industries are worth £13 million an hour to the UK economy, outperforming all other sectors of UK industry. The creative industries contributed £115.9bn in 2019, 5.9% of the UK economy and accounted for 1.68 million jobs, 5.6% of all UK employment.