![]() “It’s expanded my research interests and has given me a way of connecting with people around the world. Hawkins said that creating biscuit art has changed the way she thinks about her academic work. Her next project is to make a biscuit set inspired by her forthcoming 2022 book, Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: ‘Period Dress’ in Twenty-First-Century Performance, which examines how Elizabethan and Jacobean dress is recreated and reinvented in modern stagings of Shakespeare’s plays. So my ‘mudlarking’ cookies, inspired by objects found on the banks of the River Thames, were flavored with sea salt, and I used rose water for the Jane Austen biscuits to make them taste like recipes the author would have been familiar with.” I do match the flavors to the decoration if I can. “It’s a satisfying process, and at the end of each project I feel as though I’ve ‘met’ the original artifacts. ![]() Each biscuit takes from one to three hours to complete. She reproduces every scratch, crack, and wear mark in the royal icing so that the cookies look as though they have been in the ground for centuries. Her archaeological designs are her favorites, recreating artifacts such as ancient Greek pottery shards, Anglo-Saxon metalwork, Roman coins, and Victorian transferware. Once I have an idea for a set in mind, I’ll spend some time researching design options before beginning the baking and decorating process.” “Recreating rare manuscripts and early printed books allows me to explore elements of calligraphy, annotation, gilding, and illustration. Her edible creations depicting illuminated manuscripts rival the real thing and have been widely shared online. For example, a patchwork coverlet made by Austen, her sister, and her mother inspired a set of diamond-shaped cookies that were hand-painted with patterns from various collection items.” ![]() “Each biscuit set responded to a particular aspect of the author’s life, works, or legacy. “I had digital access to the organization’s extensive collections and expertise,” she said. ![]() Sharing photographs of the finished biscuit sets has been a wonderful way of getting people excited about museum collections and history.”Īt the end of 2021, Hawkins was the official artist-in-residence at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire. In each set, I try to capture and celebrate the aesthetic of a particular period, artistic movement, film or television show, or literary context. I then started creating biscuits inspired by my academic work on costume design, Shakespeare, and dress history. One box of cookies was inspired by a friend’s PhD project, including a portrait of Shakespeare, film reels, and theatre company logos. “At first, my aim was to make biscuit sets that would mean something to the person I was sending them to. They are inspired by early modern books, the work of Jane Austen, medieval manuscripts, Elizabethan fabrics, Tiffany glass, and William Morris designs. I enjoyed making them and could send the finished products in the post to brighten somebody’s day.”īut these biscuits are not your standard cookie-cutter treat. Biscuits were the perfect weekend project. It wasn’t possible to visit family or friends in person, and I had a lot of free time to fill. ![]() “I started designing biscuit sets in 2021 during the lockdown. “I was a committed hobbyist cake decorator for ten years before pivoting to biscuit art,” explained the teaching fellow in early modern English at the UK’s University of Birmingham. There are many ways of reinterpreting our cultural heritage, but Shakespeare scholar and historian Ella Hawkins has come up with one of the most wholesome. ![]()
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