Profile

Madder Cutch & Co

An artistic chemist with an eye to sustainability sums up Nicola of Madder Cutch & Co in a nutshell but there is so much more to this creative with a love of making things. Nicola was brought up in Baston and went to school in Deeping, taking A level art and following a printmaking syllabus. But it was chemistry that formed the basis of her degree and provided her career in teaching for 20 years.

Following a return to Stamford, Nicola broke out of the classroom to escape to art college in 2014 and studied for a Masters in Sustainable Textile Design. She remembers a ‘fantastic year of learning and creating’ and thus invigorated set up a new contemporary studio in her garden in the home she shares with her husband Jonathan and dog Ernie, her three boys now having left home. Nicola’s design process begins with drawing; she takes her sketch pad with her wherever she goes, and inspiration is never far behind. Having decided on a focus she will then create a repeating pattern, first on paper, and later electronically using Photoshop. It is wasteful to have a repeat greater than 30cms so that is always a consideration; she aims to produce metres of fabric screen printed with natural dyes. The textile-sized screens and squeegees are a two-person affair. Her friend Helen is her print partner. As Nicola comments, ‘Everyone who visits the studio for the first time is always blown away by the drama of it – it is quite good fun to watch!’

Image: Gary Curtis

It was visiting the fashion and textile museum in Bermondsey and specifically the Collier and Campbell exhibition in 2015 that made Nicola learn how to embrace imperfections that are part and parcel of the handmade process and relax about the joins in her fabric runs. ‘To me the attraction is being in control of every metre that is produced. We see every part we print, in fact we can remember most orders we have printed, for something that didn’t quite go to plan, or even better how perfect it was!’

The Arts and Crafts movement is a big influence on her work as is her colour palette which is restricted by what she can get from nature. The colours of the dyes that are used give Madder Cutch & Co their distinctive style. Designs are quite organic and inspired by the gardens that Nicola loves to visit where you will often see her sketching plants. As well as botanical gardens, museums and art galleries also provide ideas aplenty for the fabric that she produces. Satisfyingly, Nicola is comforted by the natural dyes that are used, non-toxic and biodegradable, requiring minimal chemical processing from their renewable source.

As the saying goes you can take the teacher out of the classroom but you can’t take the classroom out of the teacher and Nicola enjoys running workshops, teaching others how to design, screen or block print. She is as happy doing this at home in the studio or at a garden centre, for the WI and recently at the National Heritage Centre.

And the best-dressed Christmas tables? Well, furnished with Madder Cutch & Co textiles of course!