Kickstarting new textile design talent by Beth Kaye

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A group of Textile Design Students from the Cass Faculty at London Metropolitan University are coming to the end of their training. Here Beth Kaye (one of the graduating students) talks to us about the course and how they’ve been fundraising to fulfil their ambition of appearing at New Designers 2013.

Knitting, stitching, drawing, printing, weaving

Textileartist.org: Tell us a bit about the your training on the Textile Design course at the London Metropolitan University

Beth Kaye: The course has enabled us to experiment with knitting, stitching, drawing, printing, weaving and more. We’ve had access to exceptional facilities such as a print room, laser cutters, a digital fabric printer and 3-D printers meaning we’ve been able to create some exciting work for our summer show which takes place in June 2013.

Print design by graduating Textile Design student Amelia Cain

Summer showcase

Tell us about the culmination of the course and your forthcoming summer show

In our final year a complete restructuring of our course, and the Cass faculty as a whole, enabled us to develop our own personal practise within the conceptual framework of one of three inspirational studios; Future Fashion, Story Teller and Anarchy. This summer each studio will be exhibiting a range of creative textile design from both fashion and interiors, including garments, accessories and products.

New Designers

What happens after the summer show?

After the show, 15 of us are hoping to exhibit at New Designers, a showcase of fresh design talent, to launch ourselves into the industry. Companies, press, industry professionals, and the public all attend New Designers so it’s a great way for us, and our collections to get noticed.

Textile Design students from the Cass faculty at the London Metropolitan University are fundraising to appear at New Designers 2013 (featured work by Liz Gofton)

Kickstarting the future

How have you been raising money to pay for the opportunity to appear at New Designers and how can members of the public help?

Our stand has been reserved and now we are fundraising as much as possible to pay for it. We’ve had regular bake sales, raffled a barrel of booze and thrown a party, but we’ve still got a way to go, so we made our Kickstarter page. Kickstarter enables the public to fund an idea or a goal. Our goal is to raise over £500 towards our stand at New Designers. Backing us doesn’t go unnoticed; each backer will receive a thank you card and pledges above £10 will receive hand printed gifts made by us, such as tote bags note books and bunting. On the page you will find a short video to show you what we get up to, so please have a look, get to know us and if you wish to donate and receive a gift we would be incredibly grateful.

Click here to donate to the Cass Faculty students’ Kickstarter page

• The Summer Show will be held at 59-63 Whitechapel High St, London from the 14^th to the 23^rd of June
• If the fundraising goes well, the Cass students will also be at New Designers from the 26^th to the 29^th of June

Do you have a forthcoming project we might be interested in? Contact TextileArtist.org to tell us about it.