Ukulele bag

So I have finished my first Ukelele bag made with my own hand woven fabric, the weave was a plaited twill in red and a brown colour.  Thankfully the recipient was very happy with it.

I have added a pleated pocket on the front, useful for a tuner.

New beginnings

I have been quite busy since my last post, which was over a month ago, I know that's bad, but I was being creative.

I really needed a change of direction, as I was getting bored with what I was doing, I think because it was almost a follow on from my final collection it felt like I had been working on it a very long time.

I decided to just choose a topic that would take my creativity in a new direction, so I have been looking at Art Deco.

Art Deco used a combination of line and curve, it took inspiration from everywhere drawing on both tradition and the modern machine age to create images that moved away from modernism's graphic styles to something that gave pleasure and escape.  Art Deco was the period of the 1920's boom to the Depression of the 30's, during Hollywood's glamour years following the end of WW1.

It followed on from Art Nouveau with the influence of nature and natural form, but also including graphic, geometric and angular styles, such as those seen in cubist paintings.

This is where I have started from, I was very much drawn to the bold colours, which was a complete move away from what I had previously been doing.

And I have a new warp:

I started experimenting with striping across to find what combinations worked well.  I have been developing my own lifting plans on Fibreworks.


I loved the way these colours worked together, I am trying to create more curved patterns across the weave to bring together the curves and straight lines, I am really pleased with how it is going so far.

I don't know what it is but it makes me feel really happy working with bright colours, it might be that along with the sunshine, which seems to be wanting to stay around for a while as well.  Ahh isn't summer lovely!!!

First warp finished!

I've had a busy time over the last week or so, I intended to finish this warp as quickly as I could.  I wanted to see how the threads would work, and what types of items the cloth would be suitable for.

It has created a really delicate cloth, with a lovely drape, and I am really pleased with the way the dyes have worked on the warp.  I intend to carry on experimenting with this dyeing technique to see what other results I can achieve.  It was interesting overdyeing the yarn as this means the yarn is all colour, so even areas I did not apply dye to are still a pale yellow, as was the original colour of the yarn.

I'm preparing my second warp, and including lots of ties so that it doesn't get tangled after it has been dyed.  The first warp I made I tied after every 50 ends, which probably wasn't enough really.  This time I'm doing it after every 20 ends. 

We'll see how it goes.

My name is Paula Cutter and I graduated in 2013 with a First Class Honours Degree in Contemporary Surface and Textile Design.  I intend to continue with my exploration of woven design and set myself up as a Designer Maker creating products such as scarves, bags, cushions etc.

I like to explore themes with drawing in different types of media, along with photography.  Whilst studying I began to experiment with alternative image capture techniques, such as pinhole photography.  I intend to continue with this as it is such an interesting and exciting process.

I have an 8 shaft loom on which to create fabrics.  Experimenting with the setting up of the loom, the preparation of the warp and the weave structures will be a continuous journey with many possibilities. 

Whilst studying I wrote a dissertation on the slow movement and as part of this researched sustainable and environmentally friendly fibres, I intend to source yarns with these credentials for my collections.

Alongside my work as a Designer Maker, I am also going to be working part time at Texere Yarns, which I am really excited about.  They are a large mill shop in Bradford, selling yarn, books and accessories along with running workshops throughout the year.

I look forward to the journey and will post images, explorations and thoughts as I go.