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Dr Ella Hawkins

@ellamchawk.bsky.social

4.6K followers 236 following 32 posts

Design, Shakespeare, biscuit art. Senior Lecturer in Research & Innovation at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Book: Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare). She/her.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Elizabethan playhouses were supplied by a network of tailors, merchants & craftswomen. Their names survive in records, but little is known about their lives. I’m working on new research that brings the stories of these makers & traders centre stage. Here is the project in biscuit (cookie) form. 🍪

A photograph of eight rectangular biscuits (cookies) arranged in two rows on a square white plate. The plate is framed on all sides by a trailing vine pattern in green with pops of red. The biscuits are mostly in shades of ivory, cream, yellow, and grey, with a burst of vivid red and blue in one corner of the arrangement. Moving across the top row of biscuits from left to right, the designs include: neat lines of handwritten names in an early modern parish register; a section of a hand-drawn map from 1561 featuring St Paul’s Cathedral, with street names like ‘Carter Lane’ visible in a tiny spiky font; an extract of text from a funerary monument printed in an early modern book, ending ‘So transitory is our glory’; a section of embroidery from a funeral pall featuring metallic silver armour, crossed gold keys, and two hands holding up a crown. The biscuit designs on the bottom row include: horses prancing past shopfronts on Cheapside in the mid-sixteenth century; a receipt written in early modern secretary hand, which is difficult to read; a portrait of a stern-looking women dressed in a ruff, pearls, and sober dark clothing; swirling calligraphy and dense secretary hand featuring on a will dating from 1638.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Some mudlarking finds survived for centuries in the muddy banks of the River Thames. Others are freshly baked tasty snacks. 🍪 This biscuit (cookie) set recreates ten of the 350+ mudlarked objects in London Museum's Secrets of the Thames exhibition. The exhibition closes on 1 March. Don’t miss it!

Laid out against a dark grey background are ten biscuits that resemble aged, chipped mudlarking finds. An oval biscuit in a rich, dark green looks like the seal of a glass bottle, and features a raised characterful face at its centre. Next to it is an unevenly shaped black biscuit with grey chips and the raised shape of a hare’s face, ears, and upper legs. There are two large biscuits with jagged edges, each decorated in blue and white to look like broken pieces of delftware plates. One features the shape of a small bird surrounded by swirling lines, the other has a series of concentric circles and curved shapes. A small biscuit with a multifaceted texture replicates a knapped flint arrowhead. Next to it are a tiny hammer-shaped biscuit in pewter with delicate cross markings, and a very small gold biscuit button etched with lines, circles, and a rough star shape. The smallest biscuit is made to look like a yellow glass cufflink with decorative circles in blue, white, and red. Another small biscuit has the appearance of an aged metal button edged with decorative white and turquoise dots. Finally, there is a small angular biscuit in a terracotta colour with raised lines roughly in the shape of two intwined figures.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

William De Morgan was the Arts & Crafts movement’s most brilliant and prolific ceramic artist. This biscuit (cookie) set is inspired by some of his many tile designs. 🍪

Nine square biscuits arranged into a square to look like a panel of old tiles. The biscuit set features an array of designs in shades of blue, green, red, and cream. On the top row, there are: a striking blue deer with purple-red spots; a symmetrical leafy design with a vivid blue flower at the centre; and a glazed relief of a lion and a lioness facing in opposite directions against a patchy rust-red background. The middle row includes: a stylised green line drawing of a galleon ship on choppy waters; two flowers on a rich blue background; and a design densely filled with small green leaves and pomegranates. The bottom row features: a monochrome design with small red leaves and flowers; a symmetrical design with spirals, leaves, and flower shapes in shades of blue; and a glazed biscuit with a Tudor rose and leaves in spruce green against a rich blue background.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵 First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

A set of eight rectangular cookies arranged on a square white plate against a dark wooden background. Each cookie is inspired by a wallpaper design by Morris & Co. The patterns represented feature different floral and leaf shapes in shades of baby blue, soft pink, leafy green, mustard yellow, cream, and dark grey.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

’Tis the season for a biscuit set inspired by Victorian scrapbooking. 🍪 These festive scraps come from two scrapbooks in the Powerhouse Collection, both thought to have been compiled by children between 1880 and 1890.

A collection of 18 biscuits of different sizes and shapes. In the centre is a large rectangular biscuit with rounded edges, painted with a snowy church scene. Flanking that biscuit are two large roses in shades of yellow and magenta. At the top corners of the set are two tiny teacups: one features spindly text that reads 'Think of me when far away', and the other says 'With fond love for thee'. The other biscuits in the set include: small butterflies in vivid shades of red, blue, yellow, and orange; leaves; a duck; a Basset hound; tiny figures in historical dress; a water mill scene; a decorative oval with a short verse titled 'Remember me'; and a bouquet adorned with a banner that reads 'Wishing you a Happy New Year'.

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Dr Ella Hawkins @ellamchawk.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Centuries ago, many astronomical books included moving parts to help readers interpret the world around them. This biscuit recreates a diagram from Sacrobosco’s ‘De Sphaera’ (c.1550). It could be used to calculate the changing length of daylight hours through the year. 🍪

Two biscuits stacked on top of one another, designed to look like a rotating diagram from an early modern astronomical book. The lower biscuit is circular and features a series of horizontal lines and tiny numbers in an early modern font. The top biscuit is roughly in the shape of boat: the 'mast' area reads 'zenith'; the main body of the shape features tiny figures in historical dress holding astronomical instruments and a Latin motto reading 'Nulla dies sine linea'.

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