Series of Workshops¶
Best way to run the discovery path is to pick up a serie of workshops that you will run in your local context, cooperating with design schools or universities or wider educational centre. It is about framing the interests and skills to be developped, looking at the workshop description and design your own serie of activities that will be integrated into the curricula of students. They can last from 2 days to a Week or even be framed in longer periods of time - (ie - each tuesday of october..., some days integrated in one trimester during the class of "arts" or "technologies") For instance, student weeks are an intensive 5-day course where students can discover and learn about one specific or various practices of the fabricademy courses. The first example is the cooperation between Onlfait and the HEAD, school of design in Geneva.
Fashion and New technologies week (Onl’fait - HEAD school)¶
Path and modules:
- Leather moulding - Fabricademy module -> Textile scaffold
- E-textiles - Fabricademy module -> E-textiles
- Modular fashion - Fabricademy module -> Os Circular Fashion
At HEAD, the Geneva school of art and design, students develop projects through workshops and seminars as well as collaboration with private and public professional partners. HEAD offers - among several others - a bachelor and a master in Fashion Design: the collaboration with Onl’fait was established with two professors of this branch, one of which participated in 4 modules of Fabricademy in 2020-21. Though being an innovative school, the HEAD BA doesn’t offer courses on e-textiles and students don’t have direct access to digital fabrication machines, which are normally operated by school technicians. The collaboration developed along 3 main axes: 1) introducing the students to the use of 2D and 3D modeling software 2) learning how to use machines like a CNC and a laser cutter applied in textile manufacturing 3) being exposed to different approaches of designing and production at the Fab Lab demonstrating small scale local manufacturing workflows The chosen format was a one week bootcamp at Onl’fait for 24 students who could choose to work on e-textiles; leather moulding, 3D modeling and the use of the CNC; modular fashion and the use of a laser cutter. The week started with a plenary presentation about fashion, sustainability and new technologies. The students split in three groups and worked on a concept of a bag until Friday, when each pair presented a working prototype to their peers and other invitees. The bags - with electronics, in leather or assembled without sewing - were exhibited at the hall of the Manufacture Collaborative (MACO) for 2 weeks. The MACO is the first and only third space dedicated to urban and collaborative manufacturing in the Geneva region; the participants also had the opportunity to visit the other associations installed at MACO. The bootcamp was also the occasion to use Zines as evaluation tools to stimulate the participants to self-reflect on themes like gender and fashion or technology. The first day students built their Bootcamp journal (zine) and at the end of each day we proposed a topic to think about (gender, sustainability, technology, my expectations…). Students had to elaborate the topic in the zine with drawings, texts, collage… at the end of the week we used the zine as a tool to discuss and evaluate the participation of the participants. Students were extremely engaged and motivated and we felt that spending a full week together was a great way to establish meaningful professional and personal relationships. Students were encouraged to test different ideas and they had enough time to make several prototypes and exchange with their peers.
The “Fashion and New technologies week” has been piloted by Onl’fait in collaboration with HEAD (Art and Design University of Geneva - “Haute Ecole d’Art et Design”) from the 12th to 16th of April 2021. The participants were 2nd year students of Fashion Design. They discover new techniques related to Fashion technologies and digital fabrication.
The objective of Fashion and New Technologies week is to present participants digital modelling and digital manufacturing techniques focused on textiles. During a week, students will learn the theoretical bases of the chosen techniques and develop props to be presented on the last day of the course. The evaluation criteria will be established in collaboration with the tutors/teachers and will include the documentation of the process.
Target audience and context of use: The activity can be adapted to a broader audience of Bachelor or Master Degree students coming from the field of design, textile, fashion, business, students.
Preparation and materials
Planning:
- Location: HEAD and Onl’fait Fab Lab
- Dates: 12-16 April
- Schedule: 9:30 am -1:00 pm and 2:00pm – 5:30 pm
- Participants: 26 students (3 groups). The participants work in pairs.
- Machines: participants have access to the machines of HEAD and of Onl’fait and an instructor for each group.
The 26 participants are separated in 3 groups: - Leather moulding - E-textiles - Modular Fashion
Overview of structure
- Day 1: Introduction (with everyone), separation in the 3 groups.
- Day 2: Learning new techniques and processes, start designing their products
- Day 3: Mid presentation (check point of the project), finishing their design
- Day 4: Making their product
- Day 5: finishing their product, Preparation and Final Presentation
The participants form pairs and decide in advance the group they want to attend. All pairs in each group need to end with a finished product (bag) and a presentation explaining their journey making it. Each group had different teachings but the main aims for whatever subjects the participants will learn, they have to have:
- a warm up: (quizzes, games, icebreakers, inspirational talks)
- a theoretical: (content presentation through webinars, lectures, mini presentation of topics) and/or
- a practical: (Hands-on activities, demonstration, step by step tutorials, pre-recorded or live) and/or
- a challenge: (makeathons, group exercises, individual projects), for open
- practices and evaluation.
- Closing activity: with takings, impacts, feedback, reflections. (in this case it is the zines)
Evaluation Criteria The students were graded by their tutor and by the Lab. There were only two grades: passed and failed. This grading system was decided by the tutor of la HEAD. There is ECTS but each university, each course and each module is different. In this case this week was part of the module “Fashion and New technologies week” and the student needed to do at least 30 hours which represent 1 credits.
Additionally we used zine as a form of self-evaluation of each day and the overall experience.
Tips to facilitate the activity in context (to-do / not do)
Find the good balance between leaving autonomy and freedom to students and helping them organise their time.
Work closely with the teachers to adapt the programme to their specific needs.
Leave enough time for exchange and informal learning.
To do:
Identify the needs of the collaborating design and fashion institute
Make sure to have competent instructors and offer tested activities
Focus on what you can offer to complement the teaching experience and let the institute manage the parts they are experts on
Define the objectives with the school
Adapt to the school planning
Practice the activities beforehand
Show concrete examples of the artifacts to inspire the participants
When introducing the evaluation zine, show them examples so they have any idea on what to write.
Have them at least half a day to do the final presentation.
make sure to organise who is bringing what (Lab or the university) and that the university’s machines are booked for that week if used.
Make powerpoints with examples of today’s designers that use the techniques that they will learn.
It is good to give examples of traditional techniques with local industries.
Make sure that you keep up with each person so they don’t fall behind.
Ideal group size is 8 people.
Within each activity you need to make sure that they are 3 phases: Warm ups, Theoretical and Practical
make sure that the time for the zine is respected and done.
Not to do: Don’t make them go too complex with their design so they at least have a finished product in the end.
References
Photos
Licence and credits
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Related and supporting activities/modules
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3 consecutive days around E-Garments (by VIVISTOP)¶
Description
Three consecutive full day workshops were conducted in partnership with the Vileisio Progymnasium of Vilnius. Fifteen students (thirteen women) attended the three workshops that covered new techniques : Thermochromic fabric dyeing, Draping and moulage techniques and E-garments. All workshops happened at the VIVISTOP location, who had equipment and materials to help students learn about these matters and were led by the ambassador in conjunction with a member of the VIVISTOP team.
Target audience and context of use
These 3 days workshop were organise by the fab lab Vivistop and led by their Ambassador. They cooperate with Vileisio Progymnasium of Vilnius Fashion Design students. The target learners were university students who are in fashion/textile who never were inroduced to E-textiles.
Agenda - Step by Step
Day1: Draping - Presentation of the activity - Introduction to draping/moulage technique - Mood board creation - Pattern making techniques - Creative fabric draping
Day2: Thermo-chromic fabric dyeing - Presentation of the ambassador background and activities - Introduction to thermochromic dyeing process - Thermochromic dye preparation - Dyeing process
Day3: Shibori E-emboidering - Presentation of the activity - Introduction to e-textiles - Understanding the circuit basics - Shibori embroidery with conductive thread and thermo dyed fabric (from previous workshop) - Experiments with the power supply to get the results and explore the thermo dyed fabric limits
Links to other modules
Similar to Smart Stitches
Tips to facilitate the activity
References and Illustrations
Licence and credits
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(Name of the program) has been designed by Andrea Wolf-Sione and the team of Vivistop
Open Workshops at The Icelandic Textile Center¶
Find out more about Icelandic Wool Context here
Description The aim of the workshops was to broaden the horizons of local designers, makers and craftsmen by combining culture with innovation and technology.
Agenda - Step by Step
Fabricademy Workshops
| I. | II. | III. |
|---|---|---|
| CLO3D | 3D modeling & 3D printing | Soft Robotics |
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 |
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| Biomaterials | Crystallization | Little Wool Factory |
 |
 |
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Tips - Local conditions were limitated however it also had a major impact on the outcames of the workshops. Creative and unique solutions have given us the opportunity to solve technical problems through design. - We learnt that our target group is mostly female and spans different age groups and professional background (sheepfarmers, fashion designers, craftspeople) there is a significant interest in learning more about digital technology, regardless of age - We found that in Iceland there already is a certain level of skill and self-confidence in regards to business-building amongst young women especially; however, textiles and handcrafts (“women’s work”) are still very undervalued and often perceived as leisurely activities, which is gendered issue - The role of the TextileLab was /is to provide space for makers and access to equipment and professional assistance for a variety of textile work. Ambassadors: Petra helped us gain new knowledge and communicate innovative ways of working within textiles (biotextiles, CLO-3D, soft robotics etc.)
From Yarn to Textile by TPL (Germany)¶
Description
In a two-day (EFCY) / three-day (FYT) workshop, textile students have the opportunity to create their own yarn (and in the next step also textiles (FYT)) using the Studio Hilo prototyping spinning machine, developed by textile designer Sara Diaz. The yarn, a basis for most textiles, is often not given enough room in textile education due to the normally very large machinery necessary. To alleviate this problem, Sara Diaz set out to develop a small scale spinning machine that alllows for the easy production of yarns and twines. During the workshop, the students could create their own yarns and twines using traditinional (and not so traditional) fibers and materials.
Target audience and context of use
- Hilo team as workshop leader (3 people, founder Sara and 2 colleagues)
- Professors (coordination with universities)
- 2 TPL staff as organizers and coordinators
Agenda - Step by Step
First day (5h)
Second day (5h)
Third day (5h) (FYT)
Introduction into spinning, different fiber materials and the hilo machine. Show samples to the participants as inspiration. Afterwards rotating machine introductions: Dividing the group into 3 groups, one group starts with automated hand spinning, one with spinning on the Hilo machine, the third with twinning on the second Hilo machine. Each machine is supervised by one Hilo team member. After 30 min, the groups switch and after another 30 min they switch again so that everyone had an intro to the 3 techniques.
Free yarn and twine creation in groups under supervision of Hilo and TPL team members. At the end of the workshop, results are presented and discussed in the group.
The students that did the three day workshop used the yarn they made during the first two days to create textiles using techniques like weaving and knitting. The created yarn was either used alone or in combination with other yarns.
Links to other modules
Put links towards the workshops you use to build the program
Tips to facilitate the activity
- Clarify with professors to make workshops part of regular textile curriculums
- Source rovings from textile companies
- Coordinate with Hilo team
- Have materials at hand if students don’t know what to do in the beginning.
- Give the students technical sheets where they write down the spinning parameters along and put a small sample of the produced yarn so they can recreate the yarn at a later time.
References and Illustrations
It can be combined with the other topics of Topic/skills
Licence and credits
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