Workshops

Creating an environment where people are free to realise even their most ambitious artistic visions is central to the philosophy of Manchester School of Art.

It is for this reason that the School maintains and continues to invest in an extensive range of specialist making and media workshops, allowing you use both traditional and state of the art digital techniques in your work. You will find workshops and facilities for working with wood, plastics, metal, ceramics, glass and textiles, for traditional and digital printing on paper and fabrics, for knitting, weaving and sewing, for book binding, preparing canvases, computer-aided manufacture and film processing resources for photography. All these workshops are supported by experienced specialist technicians.

Ceramics

Mould making, casting, throwing, glazing, digital ceramic transfer printing and firing using electric and gas kilns.

Computer Aided Manufacture

Digital router, laser cutters and 3D printer.

Chemical Workshop

Resin and alginate casting, sandblasting, spraying and other processes involving chemicals.

Embroidery

Large range of domestic and specialist industrial embroidery machines.

Fabric Dye & Print

Flat bed silk screen printing, facilities for transfer printing and Batik. Digital textile printers that can print scanned original artwork and digitally created images directly onto a range of fabrics.. A Dye Lab for the dyeing of natural yarns and fabrics as well as some man-made fibres.

Fashion

Cutting tables and a variety of specialist industrial sewing machines and finishing equipment.

Fine Art Print

Extensive printmaking facilities include support for acid etching, plate lithography and screen printing.

Gallery & Stretcher Workshops

For canvas frame building, canvas stretching and surface preparation.

Glass

A workshop for cold working, for example cutting. A “hot shop” for glass blowing, fusing and casting, and machine workshop for shaping, grinding, polishing and sand blasting.

Knit

Dubied, domestic electronic and punch card knitting machines in a range of gauges.

Metal

Jewellery making, traditional blacksmithing and forging, metal fabrication, machining and welding.

Print Workshops

Bookbinding, traditional letterpress and digital risograph printing.

Photography Resources

Studios, dark rooms, high end film scanning and film processing.

Weave

An extensive range of equipment is available, from tabletop looms through to computer controlled dobby looms, including a TC-1 digital jacquard loom.

Wood, Plastics & Foam

Specialist facilities include a machine shop with hand power tools, plastic and foam fabrication equipment and vacuum forming facilities, and a fabrication area for processes such as stretcher-making, mitre cutting and bag pressing.