2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Textiles and Design
Introduction
This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Textiles and Design course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, highlighting their strengths in particular parts of the examination and indicating where candidates need to improve.
This document should be read along with:
- the Textiles and Design Stage 6 Syllabus
- the 2013 Higher School Certificate Textiles and Design examination
- the marking guidelines
- Assessment and reporting in Textiles and Design
- Major Textiles Project – Frequently Asked Questions
- Advice for HSC students about examinations
- other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of Textiles and Design in Stage 6.
Major Textiles Project
Textile item/s
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- creating a textile item/s clearly related to the intended end-use, with attention to both aesthetic and functional features
- ensuring that all aspects of the item/s were complete
- demonstrating a high level of proficiency in the techniques and manufacture of the item/s
- manufacturing a quality textile item/s with a level of creativity/innovation, degree of difficulty and degree of proficiency using a limited number of quality techniques.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- showing relevance of the item/s to end purpose, with appropriate design features relating to the end-use
- showing innovation/creativity in fabric, design or construction methods
- using a wider range of techniques and style features and selecting appropriate fabric suitable for construction of the item/s
- manufacturing items to completion
- using sewing and decorative techniques, rather than glue or painting to display evidence of textile construction.
Supporting documentation
Design inspiration
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- clearly identifying and explaining the relationship of the design inspiration to one focus area and justifying the relationship to the end-use application of the textile item/s
- demonstrating a thorough understanding of the design inspiration and the visual presentation by including detailed annotation
- critically analysing the inspiration of historical/cultural/contemporary factors specifically relevant to their textile item/s.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- justifying in detail the relationship to the inspiration when using a table format
- identifying the relationship between aesthetic/functional aspects and the textile item/s
- identifying source/s of inspiration with sufficient detail
- analysing the relevance of historical/cultural/contemporary factors
- clearly identifying the focus area and relating the focus area to the textile item/s.
Visual design development
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- describing the inspiration and the development of design ideas for the item(s)
- labelling high-quality sketches/drawings that showed a direct link between the inspiration and the developed design ideas
- writing a detailed description of the aesthetic and functional design features of their final design
- identifying the strengths and weaknesses of their developed designs
- creating a visual flow of the design development that clearly presented the progression of design ideas and concepts sequentially.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- presenting well-labelled sketches that relate to the focus area selected and reflect the inspiration presented
- relating principles and elements of design to the end-use of the intended textile item/s
- linking the visual imagery/collage with a link to the inspiration and textile item/s
- presenting sketches that identify construction techniques appropriate to the design development process
- presenting sketches with a visual flow of ideas from initial design to final design development.
Manufacturing specification
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- providing a detailed and accurate written description of the textile item/s
- presenting high-quality production drawings to scale with appropriate views, along with appropriate measurements and detailed labelling
- providing pattern pieces to scale with appropriate labelling, such as grain line, number to cut and other relevant markings
- developing a key to explain pattern markings and indicating the scale of the pattern shapes and production drawings
- presenting clearly labelled and correctly identified fabric swatches
- including a product label with all information relevant to the textile item/s
- presenting a sequential and logical order of construction.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- providing a description of their design inspiration
- identifying the use of a commercial pattern and the modifications made, or outsourcing and any commercially produced components of the textile item/s
- including production drawings of an acceptable standard with relevant labelling and measurements.
Investigation, experimentation and evaluation
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- describing relevant and extensive experiments for the most significant techniques used in the textile item/s
- providing control samples and actual evidence samples of appropriate experimentation throughout the manufacturing process to justify the use of materials, equipment and manufacturing processes
- using research to justify the use of fibre, yarn and fabric to the textile item/s.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- synthesising and making reference to relevant experiments
- providing evidence of completing experiments and including actual samples of techniques relevant to the textile item/s
- including information from textbooks relating to the properties of fibre, yarn and fabric without acknowledgment
- linking and relating the properties of fibre, yarn and fabric to the end-use of their textile item/s.
Section II
Question 11
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- knowing the relative sizes of markets for niche and mass produced textile items
- distinguishing between the two markets and providing examples
- demonstrating an understanding of the effect of online shopping on consumers by providing a range of examples
-
recognising some advantages and disadvantages of online shopping.
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- providing specific detail about niche markets
- reporting beyond personal experiences
- recognising the effect of a fluctuating Australian dollar
- considering security and privacy issues
- recognising the benefit for rural families and house bound individuals.
Question 12
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- recognising that appliqué is a method of surface decoration where the texture of the surface is changed and patterns/shapes are secured by stitches (Q.12a)
- understanding the historical design development of apparel items such as swimwear (Q.12b)
- recognising that society has inspired and influenced the design (Q.12b)
- acknowledging aspects of a designer’s work and their inspiration (Q.12c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- recognising the appropriate methods of attaching surface decoration (Q.12a)
- understanding how society has influenced changes in design and linking this to how designs have changed, for example silhouette/fabrics/closures (Q.12b)
- providing detailed information about the designs, specific inspirations and how these are expressed in the final design (Q.12c).
Question 13
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- recognising that washable webs are non-woven, are made from synthetic fibres and are cheaper to manufacture (Q.13a)
- understanding the uses of washable webs (Q.13b)
- understanding the properties of microfibres, such as softness, drapability, comfort, strength, good insulation, waterproof/resistant (Q.13b)
- recognising that the properties of microfibres make them suitable for use as cleaning products (Q.13b)
- recognising that computer-aided manufacture has increased the speed and accuracy of construction, reduced waste produced and labour and production costs (Q.13c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- recognising some of the properties of washable webs, such as durability, crease resistance, able to be dry-cleaned (Q.13a)
- linking the properties and performances of washable webs to end-uses, such as apparel and furnishings (Q.13b)
- differentiating between CAD and CAM (Q.13c)
- recognising that new skills are required, such as engineering, designing, computing and other technologies (Q.13c).
Section III
Question 14
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- understanding the principles of dyeing and using correct terminology to describe a principle (Q.14a)
- writing an experiment that illustrated the principle of dyeing using a comparison to a control sample (Q.14a)
- relating the results and conclusion of an experiment to the principle of dyeing (Q.14a)
- familiarity with textile production and art forms from a specific culture (Q.14b)
- providing examples of self-expression and communication such as the use of colour symbolism, motifs, selection fibres and fabric decoration techniques (Q.14b).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- explaining the steps of a dyeing process (Q.14a)
- writing the experiment as a procedure or in prose which included an aim, method, results and a conclusion (Q.14a)
- providing specific details about the chosen culture (Q.14b)
- describing techniques used for textile production in this culture (Q.14b)
- linking examples of self-expression and communication to a textile item/s or production method (Q.14b).
Question 15
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- describing both positive and negative effects of digital printing on the manufacturer and the environment (Q.15a)
- supporting answer with relevant details
- justifying the suitability of the fibre, yarn, fabric structure and fabric finishing technique/s for the selected theatre seat fabric (Q.15b)
- knowledge of the characteristics of an appropriate fibre, yarn, fabric and finish and relating these to the end-use performance criteria (Q.15b)
- explaining the interrelationship between fabric, yarn, fabric and finish properties and their effect on fabric performance for a specific end-use (Q.15b).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- demonstrating a clear understanding of digital printing processes and innovations (Q.15a)
- using relevant terminology
- understanding the characteristics and features of a suitable fibre, yarn, fabric structure and finish for theatre seat use (Q.15b)
- justifying the performance and safety requirements of the selected seating fabrics, including the importance of fire retardant finishes as a mandatory requirement for public venues such as theatres (Q.15b).
NSW Government