"This is Textile Design" Webinar Series July 13-17, 2020

Join us for 5 days of engaging talks and hands-on workshops centered around the practice and profession of textile design given by alumni of the Textile Design program as well as current students and faculty. Whether you are actively engaged with textile design on a daily basis or are interested but know nothing about it, we will have something for you. Each day during the first week of June at 4:00 PM EST, we’ll have a new speaker and a new subject. Check out the schedule below for details. Click here to register!

July 13 - 17, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Monday, July 13– “Textile Design Inspiration: The Path Forward” Keynote by Marcia Weiss, Director of Fashion & Textiles Futures Center and Textile Design Programs. Q & A to follow.

Tuesday, July 14 – “Paper Practice” by Nathalie Bouchard, Textile Design BS, 2021. Nathalie will take us through a collage workshop using cut and torn paper and other materials you already have at home. Q & A to follow.

Wednesday, July 15 – “Textile Design: A Day in the Life” by alum Jess Thies, Textile Design BS, 2017. Jess Thies is a Designer and Project Manager of Weitzner Design, Inc. Q & A to follow.

Thursday, July 16 – “Straight to Paint” with Julia Foster, Textile Design BS, 2022. Julia will show us how to execute beautiful watercolors using simple techniques and talk about how this process informs her textile designs. Q & A to follow.

Friday, July 17 – “Textile Design in Action” by alum Angela Leonard, Textile Design BS, 2010, MBA, 2012. Angela Leonard is the Manager of Product Development for T-Y Group & Harbor Linen. Angela’s talk will be followed by Final Remarks by Mike Leonard, Dean of the School of Design and Engineering.

Interview Series: Ben Jones

For the final installment of our Interview Series for this semester, we have an interview with Ben Jones, a weaver in the graduate program of Textile Design. Ben is a force of energy in the studio and his absence will be noticeable after he graduates this month but we are so excited to see where he goes from here.  Be sure to check out Ben and all of our graduates' thesis show at the Paley Design Center on Dec 13 from 4-7pm. Enjoy!

How did you choose Textile Design as a major?

I was interested in silk-screen printing as an art form. I wanted to gain more technical skills in printing on fabrics using newer technologies. When I took a class in weaving, I knew that I wanted to weave all the time, so I made that my major. Weaving also allows me to dabble in making images (like prints), but also textures, and forms with really cool machinery and technology.

When did you learn to knit/weave/print, and who taught you?

I learned how to silk-screen print at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in 2016. The apprenticeship mentors taught me how to do silk-screen printing on like 50 yards of fabric. I learned how to weave in Weave Design 1 with the amazing teacher here, Bridget Foster.

Do you have a background in design or textiles?

I have a background in a “fine” art studio practice, which included painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture.

Who are your design heroes?

Probably Rei Kawakubo from Comme Des Garcons, or Wolfgang Tillmans (an amazing German photographer), or Anni Albers for uncovering the visual language of weaving, there are too many…

Tell us about the colors, landscapes, artists, or architecture that inspire your design work.

Rosy colors have been a theme in my work for about a year now. Science Fiction plant life, queer culture, house music, physics, early morning light, paradigm shifts, and urban life are just a few of the things that inspire me. Like the previous question, there are too many to list them all, so many!

Which design from your portfolio are you most proud of, or is most special to you?

I don’t have a single design that I am most proud of. There’s one weaving that has sort of been cemented as “the best,” but that’s likely because it was the first in the series I am working on. The weaving I am talking about opened a lot of doors for new weavings, so it’s special to me.

Are there any techniques in textile design you’d like to explore further?

Multi-layer cloth, open reed, weaving with one warp on multiple looms simultaneously, knitting, felting, devoree, tatting, weaving trims, moire with calendaring, macrame, braiding, ikat, resist dyeing, dye-sub printing, velvet weaving, so many things to try...

What do you have on your knitting machine/loom/sketchbook today?

I have a tubular double cloth on my loom today with different weave structures throughout that make the tube function as a “sock” or “shoe” concept. The idea is to show potential employers how weaving structures/weaving technology can be utilized in mass manufacturing to easily make shoes in one step, without cutting, sewing, etc...

What is your favorite thing to do to distract yourself from school stress?

I make sure to go hangout/chillout with my boyfriend and play video games with him every night for about an hour. 

What is your favorite class, and why?

Studio, because it’s an amazing environment and structure to discover yourself as a designer. It took a while to understand that it was up to me, though.

What advice would you give an incoming student into the Textile Design department?

Be yourself and work harder than you think you should.

What surprised you the most about Textile Design at Philau/Jefferson?

How eager the faculty is to help you make your dreams come true. They really just want to make you your best self.

What is your favorite thing about Textile Design?

I don’t have one favorite thing about Textile Design. I love that yarn is a line and is organized into a dimensional pattern. I just love that. I also LOVE the people in textiles, both in industry and school. I also love that textile design is a very powerful industry/trade, and no one understands it.

To see more of Ben's work, you can visit his website, Studio Ben Jones, or follow him on Instagram.

President's NYC Reception Showcases Textile Student Work

On Wednesday, November 16, 2016, President Spinelli hosted the NYC alumni reception. It was a beautiful New York evening where alumni and current students mingled and networked. Textile Design Graduate Students: Ananya Bevinakatti, Becky Flax and Mimi Spasov attended and displayed their work. 

Alumni from the graduating class of 1974 all the way to May 2016 attended the event! Being able to share experiences had at PhilaU and memories of classes, professors and events, made this evening one to remember. 

A massive thank you to Philadelphia University's Future Alumni Association for putting on such a lovely event!

Congratulations to Marjorie Bertrand!

While studying abroad in Galashiels, Scotland at Heriot-Watt University Marjorie Bertrand has had a weave design chosen to go into the Trend Bible (https://www.trendbible.com/) Autumn/Winter '18/'19! Samples of her fabric will go into their trend books for that season. Please take a look out for Marjorie's work in the coming seasons!

Here is Marjorie with her collection from May 2016 Sunbrella Competition.

TALENT! An exhibition of textile works from American and European graduates

New York Textile Month is
a New School and Cooper Hewitt initiative celebrating global textile creativity and innovation in events held throughout New York City.
Visit textilemonth.nyc for more information.

The exhibit features work from recent graduates of the Philadelphia University M.S. Textile Design program.

Jenn Biggs’ collection was inspired by the exploration of a long dead alien city detailed in the Arthur C. Clarke novel ‘Rendezvous with Rama’. Artifacts of art and culture, communication, architecture and planetary biology are investigated to explore the rise and fall of a civilization that communicated through the language of bioluminescent light, developed into designs digitally and screen printed.

www.jennaubreybiggs.com

Sam Fletcher explores memory through constructed textiles. What if, each end and pick in a woven fabric work together to convert what a faded memory would feel like if it was possible to reach out and touch it? Could the loops of a wiry, untamed knit, tangle itself in a way that makes you question the accuracy of the collective memories that lie within? What about taking a woven textile and making it look as empty and cold as a vacant mind?

The aim of the Capturing a Memory collection is to connect intellectually and emotionally to each textile, recognizing in their own way the concepts that lie within. 

www.samfletcher-textiles.com

Meghan Kelly shows knitwear collection inspired by the concept of a Spectacular Show as envisioned through Historical Vaudeville Theatre and the Three Ring Circus. Designed to be bright and bold, fun and dramatic and also suited to be non-restrictive during physically demanding performances of dance and trapeze. The garments are all designed and knit using Shima Seiki Wholegarment^TM technology and equipment.
www.meghanlkelly.com

Zhiwen Wang's woven Jacquard design is inspired by Natural Camouflage – the visual ambiguity, playful transformation and deceived mimicry of creatures visually adapting to the coloration and texture of their surroundings. A Jacquard woven giant fish lurks within a watery ground, hidden below floating yarns, obscured from view. Floats are cut away to reveal the intriguing imagery below.

www.zhiwen-wang.squarespace.com

Nina de Vassal showcased in American Craft Magazine

Graduate Textile Print Design student Nina de Vassal's wallpaper shown in American Craft Magazine Feb/Mar 2016 issue.

Photo by Cary Wolinsky

The article titled "Many Voices" (link *here*) interviews the newly inaugurated President of RISD, Rosanne Somerson on adorning her new home with student designs. Nina's work is showcased on the wall behind the work of fellow student Dwo Wen Chen's ceramics. The desk and chair also created by alumni, John Dunnigan, Peter Walker, and Rosanne Somerson.

"The wallpaper design was created as part of Traditional Home’s incubation project with RISD and Fabricut to find a fresh twist on traditional home textiles. “Wisteria" was part of my collection inspired by Old City, Philadelphia. My concept was to showcase the outdoor textures of Philadelphia’s oldest neighborhoods inside the home. 

“Wisteria” won best design for print and is being produced by Stroheim, one of Fabricut’s brands, as wallpaper in three different color ways. RISD’s President Rosanne Somerson decorated the President’s House in student and alumni work when she was inaugurated in 2015. American Craft included a feature on the house and its decor for the Feb/March 2016 issue." - Nina de Vassal