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Textiles and printmaking facilities

Our textiles and print processing areas provide valuable facilities for students to experiment with state-of-the-art new technologies such as digital textile printing, as well as traditional practices such as screen printing, embroidery and dyeing. With our professional equipment and the assistance of our dedicated team of technical staff, you can imagine and create your own textiles and prints for a wide range of uses and applications.

Digital textile printing is available on our Mimaki Textile Printer which uses both reactive and sublimation dyes, and steaming, washing and heat pressing facilities for cloth up to 74cm wide are also available. A wide range of other printing and dyeing equipment is available, including a dark-room for processing photographic screens, a dye lab, and equipment to support paper and felt-making. Sewing machines and embellishers are also available along with large-scale tables and work areas.

The paper printing area also has acid etching facilities and presses, an Albion and Columbian press for relief work, vacuum tables and a second dark room with copy stand.

Textile area facilities

  • Domestic sewing machines and embellishers
  • 3 x 5m textile tables for screen printing
  • A dark room that houses the coating facilities and the exposure unit for processing photographic screens
  • A good selection of screen sizes
  • A dye lab for small scale dyeing and preparation of print pastes
  • Equipment to support paper making and felt making
  • A Mimaki Textile Printer, with both reactive and sublimation dye types for printing digital files directly to cloth and paper
  • Steaming and washing facilities for finishing digitally printed cloth
  • 2 x heat presses with platen sizes of 51 x 63cm and 50 x 74cm
  • New Bernina B790 embroidery machines
  • New dongle set of V7 Designer software
  • New 1150 Bernini Overlocker
  • New L220 Bernina coverstitch and chain sewing machine

Paper printmaking facilities

  • Acid etching facilities
  • 3 x Bewick etching presses
  • An Albion and Columbian press for relief work
  • 4 x Vacuum Tables for screen printing
  • A good selection of screen sizes
  • A second dark room, housing a copy stand for recording/documenting small scale works

As well as all of this, a variety of tools to use in the workshop can also be signed out from the in-house Loan Store.