Viable Entrepreneurship In Nigeria: The Art Of Manual Printing In Textile Design

Abstract

Attractions to most fabrics are mostly based on the surface designs. In textile design, some techniques are employed to beautify fabrics for instance; dyeing, printing, painting, embroidery, weaving, and other manual and industrial finishes. Most of these could be achieved manually, for example: by printing on fabrics. A piece of acquired knowledge in textile printing is quite encouraging and could be practised for wealth creation. It could also help some become employers of labour by setting up small cottage industries. This study is predicated on the fact that manual printing offers entrepreneurship and skill acquisition potentials which enable people to be self-reliant and self-employed. This has not been given adequate awareness especially, among the youth and scholars. This paper showcases how this particular technique in textile design could be practised by working on some samples of printed fabrics in the studio and also documents how a simple printing studio could be set up. This is qualitative research. It employed studio exploration as the research design and photography as the research instrument to collect some data and adopted the theories of diffusion of Innovation, social network, institutionalism and creative economy for analysis. This study found that printing in textiles has been identified as an art that offers great skills that could stamp out poverty when practised professionally. It recommends that the printing of fabrics should be given more attention since some of the textile industries in Nigeria have gone moribund. Thus, this paper concludes that simple inexpensive printing studios be set up as cottage industries by designers and artists instead of waiting to work in a fully automated industry.