Fiber, Textiles, and Weaving Arts

Overview

Do you love to knit, quilt, or crochet? Do you silkscreen t-shirts for your friends or dream of designing your own fabrics? Then consider fiber, textiles, and weaving arts, a fine arts major which teaches students the techniques of working with woven and non-woven fabrics and fibers, while helping them develop their personal styles and artistic visions.

In this major, you’ll learn how to weave and use a loom; how to knit, coil, and crochet; and how to print and silkscreen fabrics. You’ll learn both traditional hand processes and the technology-based methods of dyeing, pigmentation, and pattern design. Outside the studio, you’ll be taught historical and contemporary trends in textiles, to help you gain an understanding of the larger context of the industry. By junior year, you’ll begin to focus on a specific medium or technique and start to develop your own concepts. You’ll decide whether you want to use the fiber, textiles, and weaving arts major to create sculptural and installation art, or perhaps take it in a more technical direction, preparing to enter the textile design industry. In the latter case, you’ll be encouraged to do an internship in a design studio, textile production studio, museum, or textile conservation program.