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5. 2014 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Textiles and Design

2014 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 particular parts of the 2014 Higher School Certificate examination, highlighting candidates’ strengths and indicating where they need to improve.
This document should be read along with:

• the Textiles and Design Stage 6 Syllabus
• the 2014 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)
• demonstrating the appropriate use of fabrics related to end-use and techniques used
• manufacturing a quality textile item(s) with a level of creativity/innovation, degree of difficulty and degree of proficiency using a 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 item(s) to completion and exhibiting greater attention to detail
• 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
• presenting and communicating visual and graphic evidence in a contemporary style
• 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 and/or functional aspects and the textile item(s)
• identifying source(s) of inspiration with sufficient detail
• presenting and communicating  all visual and graphic evidence in a contemporary style
• analysing the relevance of historical and/or cultural and/or 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 all 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 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, quantity of fabric, notions required, itemised cost and total cost
• 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 textile item(s)
• identifying the use of a commercial pattern and the modifications made, the use of outsourcing, and any commercially produced components of the textile item(s)
• providing a product label with all the pertinent details
• 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 validate the use of fibre, yarn and fabric used to construct the textile item(s).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• synthesising and making detailed reference to relevant experiments
• providing evidence of completing experiments and including actual samples of techniques relevant to the textile item(s)
• including information relating to the properties of fibre, yarn and fabric with acknowledgment of source(s)
• linking the properties of fibre, yarn and fabric to the end-use of their textile item(s).
  

Written Examination

Section II

Question 11

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

• knowing what globalisation means (Q.11a)
• demonstrating an understanding of the effect of globalisation on textile jobs and providing a range of examples of the disadvantages of globalisation (Q.11a)
• understanding the link between recycling and environmental benefits (Q.11b)
• knowing about methods of recycling textile products (Q. 11b).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• being aware that there are positive effects of globalisation on the industry (Q.11a)
• knowledge of specific environmental benefits from reduced production, manufacture and distribution of textile products (Q.11b).

Question 12

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

• defining embroidery (Q.12a)
• identifying textile art forms from cultures studied (Q.12b)
• linking the textile art forms to contemporary textile item(s) (Q.12b)
• describing how the success of a designer can be influenced by expertise and the availability of resources (Q.12c).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• outlining how a textile art form could be incorporated (Q.12b)
• using examples to support their responses (Q.12c).

Question 13

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

• identifying the features of bicomponent yarns (Q.13a)
• knowing the purpose of a fabric finish (Q.13b)
• recognising that CAD and CAM have increased the speed and accuracy of construction, as well as reducing waste, labor and production costs (Q.13c).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• outlining the features of bicomponent yarns (Q.13a)
• understanding the relationship between the fabric finish and the performance of that fabric and its end use (Q.13b)
• differentiating between CAD and CAM (Q.13c)
• providing specific examples of CAD and CAM in textile production (Q.13c).

Section III

Question 14

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

• supporting their responses with examples (Q.14a)
• knowing a wide range of historical design developments in a particular focus area, for example swimwear or lingerie in the area of apparel (Q.14b)
• understanding how social factors have influenced design developments in a particular focus area

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• understanding that trends in society are not just fashion trends and could include social, ecological, technological and economic trends (Q.14a)
• knowing the difference between trends and inspiration for designers (Q.14a)
• knowing about historical events that influenced a particular focus area; for example, World War I caused fabric shortages which led to shorter hemlines for women (Q.14b)
• being aware of contemporary developments in the focus area (Q.14b).

Question 15

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

• identifying end uses of microfibres (Q.15a)
• recognising the advantages and disadvantages of using microfibres (Q.15a)
• identifying the features required in a cold weather jacket and relating these to specific needs (Q.15b).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

• being aware of the basic manufacture of microfibres and their properties (Q.15a)
• knowing the difference between microfibres and multifilaments (Q.15a)
• understanding the relationship between fibres and yarns, specifically relating to natural and synthetic fibres (Q.15b)
• recognising the relationship between fibre, yarn and fabric selection for a specific end use (Q.15b)
• being able to provide the desirable fibre, yarn and fabric properties for a cold weather jacket (Q.15b).