{"word_count": 278, "character_count": 1911}
The rich and stimulating collection of world textiles at the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham has supported the practical study of woven and printed textiles for over forty years.The Textiles Collection is a working collection, originally established by Ella McLeod. Its over-arching purpose has been to provide real examples that demonstrate the application of a broad range of textile techniques and processes - encouraging students to handle textiles and to respond to their qualities; to question and analyse them as a primary source. The Textiles Collection plays a central role in stimulating creative investigation and supporting students in their understanding of the factors influencing textile design and production.The collection consists of over 3,000 artefacts. Woven textiles range from an important collection of Coptic textiles from 800-1000 AD through to British woollen cloths, Kashmir shawls, African strip weaving and Scandinavian furnishing fabrics from 1950 to 1990.Notable designers and hand weavers of the twentieth century are represented - Alice Hindson, Paula Trock, Rita Beales, Marianne Straub and Peter Collingwood. Muriel Rose, patron of the crafts in the 1920s and 30s, and Crafts Officer of the British Council in the 1950s, bequeathed a valuable collection of block printed textiles produced by the influential craftswomen, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher. Further examples of printed textiles include English and French engraved roller prints from 1750 to 1850 and work by significant contributors to the subject through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - William Morris, Joyce Clissold, Enid Marx, Susan Bosence and Sally Greaves-Lord.The result is a rich and varied textiles collection of major interest to practitioners and historians, valued both as an educational resource and as a foundation for new research.http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/ST.html