This course explores the tangled histories, patchworked mythologies, and the global intersections and connections of textiles through the lens of INDIGO dyeing practices around the world.The textile histories covered will spiral through the centuries to the present day, and, through individual place-based case studies, will consider the narratives of identity, labor, and process they express well beyond their regionality. Rethinking the “History of” survey model, we will investigate how deep research leads to holistic perspectives as we uncover global networks of knowledge-sharing embedded within specific “regional” textile crafts.

These narratives will unfold from objects selected from the collections of the RISD Museum that will be made available for consideration and study at close range as part of every class session. The firsthand experiences will be guided and enriched by guest lectures and workshops by visiting scholars and artists whose work centers on the particular histories examined, as well as potential field trips. Through active engagement with tangible objects and exposure to a plurality of voices, students in the course not only will gain an embodied understanding of the global interconnections of textile histories, but also will find space for moving through and beyond colonial inheritances.

Textiles Students can be pre-registered by the department.

Elective

Digital embroidery transforms hand-crafted couture into a work of fine art. Just like a tattoo where an image is created with needles and color, so embroidered fabric or paper is needle-stitched with colored threads. A basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop is helpful, but we will also cover the fundamentals of creating a preparatory design file in Adobe Illustrator. This vector design file will then be artistically translated into a Pulse embroidery file that can be saved and sewn out as as a multiple or repeat pattern. The resulting personalized textile can be applied to fabrics for apparel or interior applications as well as fine art. A series of small assignments will build up a repertoire of techniques and culminate in a final project that summarizes the student's ability and artistic innovation. This course will explore top of the line Tajima Pulse software with the goal of creating personalized images that will be sewn out on a 15-needle Tajima commercial embroidery machine.

Elective

Digital embroidery transforms hand-crafted couture into a work of fine art. Just like a tattoo where an image is created with needles and color, so embroidered fabric or paper is needle-stitched with colored threads. A basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop is helpful, but we will also cover the fundamentals of creating a preparatory design file in Adobe Illustrator. This vector design file will then be artistically translated into a Pulse embroidery file that can be saved and sewn out as as a multiple or repeat pattern. The resulting personalized textile can be applied to fabrics for apparel or interior applications as well as fine art. A series of small assignments will build up a repertoire of techniques and culminate in a final project that summarizes the student's ability and artistic innovation. This course will explore top of the line Tajima Pulse software with the goal of creating personalized images that will be sewn out on a 15-needle Tajima commercial embroidery machine.

Please contact the department for permission to register.

Elective

This hands-on studio is an introduction to the fundamental language of weaving —the warp and the weft—and the implications of weave structures as they relate to image, pattern, materiality, language, spaces and the body. This course will introduce students to equipment, weave structures, and materials in conversation with multiple weaving practices and histories across time and space. The range of equipment used will encourage students to explore the cultural narratives, socio-economic motivations and the histories of peoples and places embedded in the act of weaving. A variety of techniques including hand-manipulated tapestry and loom controlled patterns are taught and explored as a vehicle for the translation of ideas in this medium. The emphasis is on invention and developing a personal approach.

Readings, lectures and discussions will address the textile industry’s complicity in slavery and the environmental crisis as well as how past and present weavers, artists and designers embed stories, histories, and legacies of knowledge-making into their woven textiles.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

This hands-on studio is an introduction to the fundamental language of weaving —the warp and the weft—and the implications of weave structures as they relate to image, pattern, materiality, language, spaces and the body. This course will introduce students to equipment, weave structures, and materials in conversation with multiple weaving practices and histories across time and space. The range of equipment used will encourage students to explore the cultural narratives, socio-economic motivations and the histories of peoples and places embedded in the act of weaving. A variety of techniques including hand-manipulated tapestry and loom controlled patterns are taught and explored as a vehicle for the translation of ideas in this medium. The emphasis is on invention and developing a personal approach.

Readings, lectures and discussions will address the textile industry’s complicity in slavery and the environmental crisis as well as how past and present weavers, artists and designers embed stories, histories, and legacies of knowledge-making into their woven textiles.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

Starting with making their own screens, students learn various stencil making and printing of repeats using water based dyes and pigments. The focus is on an imaginative stencial (usually the repeating unit) and its application in creating continuous surfaces. Instead of considering the screen a tool merely to reproduce an existing design from paper, students are encouraged to think of it as a flexible means for creating totally new designs through experimentation at the print table. Engineered designs combining repetition and singular images is also explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

Starting with making their own screens, students learn various stencil making and printing of repeats using water based dyes and pigments. The focus is on an imaginative stencial (usually the repeating unit) and its application in creating continuous surfaces. Instead of considering the screen a tool merely to reproduce an existing design from paper, students are encouraged to think of it as a flexible means for creating totally new designs through experimentation at the print table. Engineered designs combining repetition and singular images is also explored.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

This course is an investigation of the technical, formal and material potential of multi-harness weave structures on 24-harness dobby looms. Through extensive sampling on the looms, students expand their skills in areas of pattern development, woven structure, color, material and fabric finishing while further developing their design concepts and their visual and material vocabularies. During the second half of the semester, stipulations derived from the intended end use of the fabric as well as production methods become a strong part of the design considerations in the development of fabric collection for an intended application. Exercises in drafting, both by hand and on computer, as a means of understanding woven structure in a three-dimensional way, will be an important part of the course.

Prerequisite: TEXT-4804

Elective

This course emphasizes the design process - how to come up with an idea and how to develop it into a finished design - as well as technical skills. Using tools, techniques, and materials from professional studios, students work on paper exploring and analyzing layouts, color, and other design elements within repeated patterns. As students develop their individual styles, they are exposed to design requirements stemming from production methods and the intended end use. Successful work from this course becomes part of students' portfolios.

Please contact the department for permission to register.

Elective

This intensive course moves from concept to design development and then onto digitally printed fabrics. Students start by creating presentation boards for color, pattern, and application in order to establish direction in their work. With Adobe Photoshop serving as the primary tool, the traditional techniques of drawing, painting, and collage are integrated with new design technology. Class instruction will lead students through the Adobe software in the development of design for extensive experimentation on the Textiles' Mimaki fabric printer. Students will be encouraged to go beyond the boundaries of traditional textile design to meet the possibilities of this exciting technology.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Elective

Students in this introductory course will learn the basic techniques of machine knitting and explore the possibilities of structural effects, color, pattern, and material quality within those techniques. They will also learn about finishing methods--such as felting, dyeing, and simple printing--that can be used on knitted fabric. Students will create a knitted fabric or finished piece for an end use, be it apparel, furnishings, or art pieces.

Elective

Students in this introductory course will learn the basic techniques of machine knitting and explore the possibilities of structural effects, color, pattern, and material quality within those techniques. They will also learn about finishing methods--such as felting, dyeing, and simple printing--that can be used on knitted fabric. Students will create a knitted fabric or finished piece for an end use, be it apparel, furnishings, or art pieces.

Elective

Through drawing and painting we will investigate different subject matter in the development of a personal vision and point of view to create meaningful and moving work. We will work from live models, still-lifes and objects, and explore the use of icons, symbols and images through experimentation with a wide range of media and processes including charcoal, pen and ink, acrylics, objects and collage. Beyond this, the main goal of the course is the development of a working process to strengthen conceptual and expressive abilities. This approach will allow students to communicate concerns with originality and creativity in ways that can later be applied to work in any discipline and medium.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

Through drawing and painting we will investigate different subject matter in the development of a personal vision and point of view to create meaningful and moving work. We will work from live models, still-lifes and objects, and explore the use of icons, symbols and images through experimentation with a wide range of media and processes including charcoal, pen and ink, acrylics, objects and collage. Beyond this, the main goal of the course is the development of a working process to strengthen conceptual and expressive abilities. This approach will allow students to communicate concerns with originality and creativity in ways that can later be applied to work in any discipline and medium.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. This course is a requirement for Sophomore Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Textiles

This course, a major component in the student's can entail two types of activity: 1. Participation in sophomore, junior or senior level courses to strengthen technical skills and design vocabulary; Including Design for Printed Textiles and Fabric Silkscreen and 2. Individual projects undergraduate advisors to clarify personal concepts and format of the work. This semester's emphasis is on enlarging and solidifying the student's background and defining direction for the work.

Please contact the department for permission to register. This course is a requirement for Graduate Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Textiles

This is an elective course for students who want to continue studying woven pattern. Using the NedGraphics software for pattern and Point Carre jacquard software for drafting woven structures, students will develop patterns through experimentation with material and color. The intended end use of the fabric will be a consideration throughout in the design decisions.

Prerequisite: TEXT-4820 and TEXT-4826

Elective

This course approaches the development of machine knit fabrics and forms as one process, where aspects of form are developed along-side fabric patterns and structures. Students learn advanced construction techniques and knit structure drafting and shaping, in order to further develop their design processes and ideas for knits. Emphasis is placed on experimentation, careful consideration of materials, and research. Ideas about color, pattern, texture, drape, concept and working large scale are explored. Fully-fashioned garments are the primary three-dimensional forms to which students apply their ideas. Throughout the semester, students bring their experience of garment building and shaping, their range of knitting skills and techniques, and their ability to express ideas in knitting to a higher level of resolution. Hand knitting, embellishment, dyeing, printing, finishing, felting and other processes are encouraged and can be integrated into the fabric design and construction.

Prerequisite: TEXT-4820 and TEXT-4826

Elective

This project represents the culmination of a student's study in the Graduate Program. The design projects can encompass various textile fields in the areas of interior or apparel textiles. A specific architectural context, an area of apparel design, an investigation of a particular technique, or a visual design sensibility and language can provide a framework for the project. The work, executed using any established textile techniques or technique that a student has developed, should manifest advanced original concepts, high quality of execution, and a strong commitment to the field. Written documentation and analysis of the sources of the work, how it relates to the textiles tradition or larger field of art and design, and of the development of the project should accompany the studio work.

Estimated Cost of Materials: varies depending on student projects.

Please contact the department for permission to register. This course is a requirement for Graduate Textiles Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Textiles

This advanced knitting course investigates the design and creation of knit fabrics using specialized software and a computerized, industrial knitting machine. Students deepen their understanding of a wide range of knit constructions, learn new structures, and experience a different method of creating knit fabric and forms through weekly sampling work and then a final project that is a collection of fabrics for interior or apparel applications, or art pieces. The intended end use will guide students' pattern and material studies. Students are introduced to the knitting industry and exciting examples of contemporary and historical knitting and encouraged to forge new paths in the medium.

Prerequisite: TEXT-4832 and TEXT-4826.

Elective

In this course you will learn about the material properties and design possibilities of fiber. We will explore how sustainable design practices are integral to the eventual end use of textiles, be it as yardage, fully fashioned garments, interior applications, structural use, or sculptural material. Via case studies from regional and international sustainable designers, we will investigate fibers. As a guidepost for our syllabus we will learn about the 17 sustainability goals articulated by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. With our focus on the textile industry, this course will introduce the theory and practice of circular design, regenerative agriculture, TEK, biomaterials, and manufacturing processes with reduced environmental impacts. Lectures and readings will be enlivened with in-class experimentation, guest speakers, weekly design assignments, and a materials journal. Over the semester we will investigate opportunities and solutions for creating art with a more positive legacy for our planet.

Elective