Vocational training and contemporary textile craftsmanship

Vocational training and contemporary textile crafts meet through collaborative projects or masterclasses that Inés Rodriguez teaches in design schools or vocational training.

Through these training meetings with young people, contemporary textile craftsmanship and knowledge of traditional techniques are disseminated for professional training.

Young students can learn about and experiment with weaving, spinning and embroidery through textile design and crafts.

These students come from many different disciplines, fashion, product design, decoration, interior design, architecture, performing arts... they attend specialized Masters like the one at IED in Madrid. 

They seek to learn the most traditional techniques found in contemporary textile crafts. This is a way to differentiate themselves and enrich their theoretical knowledge.

 "Knowledge of these textile techniques is a very valuable tool for young designers."

This is the opinion of Inés Rodríguez, an artisan textile designer and specialist in this field who has been collaborating for years with Design-Fashion schools in Galicia and Spain as a specialist teacher.

In this way, it brings the most innovative contemporary textile craftsmanship closer to professional training. 

In her classes she talks about the importance of knowing the traditional techniques of textile crafts. A theoretical and practical knowledge about the loom, embroidery, lace to the students to be able to incorporate them in their textile designs.

The artisan textile designer has been teaching for several years in the Master's Degree in Textile and Surface Design at IED Madrid.

A module on Spinning and Weaving, which reviews for students from all over the world, textiles and materials such as wool, linen, cotton through the history of weaving and its designers.

This weaving theory is combined with the most innovative textile materials on the market, optical fiber, milk protein fiber or biomaterials.

It is also combined with a practice on the loom that will allow them to learn traditional textile techniques and apply them to their designs.

"From my experience in the working world and contact with young designers from Art Schools, the knowledge of traditional textile techniques is very valuable for the industry and design.

Knowing the theory and practice of textile design gives you a lot of tools to work with even if you are not the one making the textiles."

"You succeed with what you learn" said the great designer Cocó Chanel.

It is a great phrase that really contains a truth. The knowledge of textile craft techniques allows a very wide range of applications in the world of design in all its facets.

One of the last projects that Inés Rodríguez has collaborated in as a trainer and teacher has been with the San Juan de Donibane Vocational Training Center.

It is a cn center of excellence in vocational trainingthat belongs to a network created by the Spanish Ministry of Education to innovate within the textile world. For this reason, it hashas sought to unite vocational training with contemporary textile craftsmanship and innovation.

For these future masters of sewing, Inés gave a masterclass on smart fabrics and masterclass on smart and innovative fabrics. innovative fabrics. In this training the possibilities of joining traditional sewing and weaving on looms with new technological weaving with new technological materials such as fiber optics and design.

After this training talk, with the teachers of the center and the students of vocational training in the textile branch, a practical class was held. Students, teachers and the artisan textile designer explored the possibilities of designing a handmade fabric with optical fiber applied to clothing.

Inés had experience as she had already made a similar fabric "Vagalume" which you can see in this link

Vagalume, hand woven fiber optic fiber fabrics

The joint creation process with the students of the Center.   

Once the design was chosen, the artisan textile designer created on her loom fabrics with green linen and optical fiber of different thicknesses ready to be installed in sports or work safety garments as night visibility devices.

The result has been spectacular as you can see in the exhibition. It has joined other designs made by the students of the vocational training center to show the possibilities of contemporary textile craftsmanship and smart fabrics.

Thus the result of this experimental work with sewing and intelligent fabrics sees the light to show all the possibilities that have been investigated in this project. A successful example of the collaboration collaboration between the most innovative contemporary textile craftsmanship and the Vocational Training Centers.

Training is one of the activities of Inés Rodríguez, who encourages contemporary textile crafts to be part of the professional training of young designers and students.

It is necessary that the more traditional techniques are known by young designers in design schools and vocational training. She tries to merge this textile knowledge through lectures, specific courses of textile techniques and advice in the TFG of design and fashion students. You can know some of them in the following link.

https://rirandco.com/formacion-consultoria-textil/

Inés Rodríguez, as winner of the National Craftsmanship Awards, participated this year as a Jury in the Despuntes 2024 Parade of the EASD Mestre Mateo. This event rewards the best final the best final works of young fashion designers, including a prize sponsored by Artesanía de Galicia.

Among the members of the Jury were also prominent figures such as Dora Casal, director of the fashion brand Roberto Verino or Franco Quintáns known Galician designer.

This invitation, together with all the projects that the textile designer has been carrying out for years, contributes to making artisan textile techniques known to students through a more contemporary craftsmanship.