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Rosie H. Cook

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Conservation and Climate Change

The Sound of Shadows

Making Connections

2017 Asialink Arts Residency

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  Crazed Puppets

Crazed Puppets 04

 This is not a Kowangan

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#APTCCARN5

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Using my Taiwan-shaped hang tags to prepare a kit for stitching on the bus. Whenever I have class or any appointments in Geneva, I spend 3 hours on public transport and it’s such a waste of my precious baby-free time! I am reusing all these ziplock bags for the third or fourth time, this big one used to have baby shoes and socks but there’s life beyond baby!
Tried to sneak in some stitching but my sick baby woke up wailing so now… I have a sleeping baby in my arms whilst I stare longingly at my embroidery frame.
I am really loving my course in Museum Studies (or more accurately, “muséologie”) at the University of Geneva. We touch on such a wide range of subjects and it feels almost tailor-made for me — including things I didn’t know I needed to know, as well as giving me lots of food for thought, and opportunities to meaningfully critique museum practices. Yesterday I started with a class on art law, where amongst other things we learned that whilst the law in Switzerland dictates that the art market must do its due diligence, the word “provenance” is defined in the Swiss Civil Code as… “provenance”. Also, the difference between possession and ownership (possession is an indisputable fact; ownership can and is debatable). I was about to talk about my other classes including digital archives but the baby woke up. Pictured: an inaccurate representation of Geneva circa late 4th early 5th century.
This little sampler is from @lagaleriedespetitspoints — I haven’t had a chance to start my own sampler kit yet (swipe to see the beautiful colours that came with mine). It includes instructions for four types of needle tapestry stitches: point gobelin, point de Hongrie, point d’Aubusson and point de Chartres. Just feeling the need for some #rosielovesrainbows content to help me push through a big day of scholarship application. I have a “day off” today and I really want to stitch but I need to get this application done as I’m in a conference all day Wednesday and Thursday and then school on Friday! #tapisserieaupoint #veroniquedeluna
Just dropping this here for the progress record. Not much time for stitching because babies and parties and school and conferences. #rosielovesquintoacuto
Painted kesi (Chinese silk weaving) from a visit behind the scenes at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève 😍😍😍
Traveling #minipointedfifth heading home. I’m glad I have kept working on it — I’ve made a couple of mistakes and also got the opportunity to try different approaches, such as laying down all my \\\\\ stitches in a section then coming back and doing the //// stitches over them. I also have done “printer” style — horizontal rows going back and forth, and for this horse I combined a bit of everything; first I did the outline in \ stitches, then I filled it in one line at a time. Some areas are a bit bumpy because I was too tired to “railroad” my stitches to keep them flat, but in these large areas in a solid colour it’s very unforgiving so I will make sure I railroad everything when I do “the real deal”! I’m so looking forward to ordering all my supplies for my actual #longdogsamplers #pointedfifth sampler… #crossstitchersofinstagram
A visit to @lagaleriepetitspoints in Aubusson… so many beautiful dyed wools, for needlework tapestry on hand-painted canvases — I will share my purchase shortly! Marie-Valerie is a delight and I really recommend a visit — I know I will be doing a class there when I get a chance… #véroniquedeluna #latapisserieaupoint #rosielovesrainbows
Time lapse of me finishing the last stitches of my #aubussonlapin. This was a somewhat poorly planned video since I had to stop 4 stitches in to replenish my yarn, thread my needle, drop my needle, etc. etc. But it’s a very forgiving format, so I found the end result fit to purpose! I really loved doing this #véroniquedeluna design and the bookmark size is perfect for a small, quickly completed project. The only downside was the weird yarn situation for the bunny, since I either didn’t quite have enough yarn, or I *really* didn’t have enough yarn. But it’s done, and I have even ordered a second kit which I will pick up from Aubusson next week! I did the last chunk of this on the bus today, hence it being off the embroidery frame. The canvas is nice and stiff so it wasn’t a problem, at least at this stage. Anyway. Done, apart from not sure if/how I’m meant to finish it now! Wash it? Cut it? Line it? #needlepointcanvas #tapestry #embroiderytimelapse
Doing a mini sampler of the Long Dog Samplers “Pointed Fifth” so I can decide on colours, fabric count and gridding as well as any potential pitfalls to be wary of before I launch into the full version! I have a long car journey coming up so I am hoping to make good progress. This will be the equivalent of 1 page from the 20 pages of the total pattern so it will also give me an idea of how long the entire thing should take…
I ran out of light brown wool TWICE on this rabbit. The first time I was lucky as my mother was in Aubusson and could get me some extra wool, although I had to remove a lot of what I’d already done unfortunately. The second time… I had to resort to every trick in the book to get full coverage on my rabbit! First I started using the “thread extension” so I could weave even the shortest pieces of wool. I stopped using the tapestry needlepoint stitch and started using simple half-cross-stitches (clearly visible on the back of the canvas). I “shrunk” the design so that I used fewer brown stitches, replacing them with white. I unpicked the “sample” area where I had tested a light/dark brown blend early on (and substituted white wool for the light brown in blended areas). I combed through my jar of clippings to find anything that could be re-used. I even switched to using a single strand instead of two, right at the end, but I regret this as I should have done a single strand of white and then gone over that with light brown — bunny is looking a bit threadbare now. Anyway! He’s done! I can go back to enjoying this project even though it’s taking much longer than it should — I have spent two evenings on the rabbit alone, because of all this trickery.
We finally got a baby gate to separate my studio space from the living room (although I still share the room with a ball pit and a stuffed fox as well as some laundry racks of course). I feel so nourished by this space, even though it’s messy and cluttered. Having a “door” makes it feel complete. It’s a room where I’m me, where I have space for my research and my stitching, for all the art and conservation books that remind me of different places I’ve been and projects I’ve done. I’m starting a postgraduate diploma in museum studies at the University of Geneva, because I want to actively develop decolonisation in the local cultural institutions and for that purpose I need a qualification in “muséologie”. There was a lonesome picture hook so I put up my @bjennymontero (original!) drawing which reminds me that it’s ok to be tired because I’m doing so much. Not sure that I’m ever proud exactly but it’s nice to be told so. I feel like 🥲 is my default emoji!
Happy World Embroidery Day! It’s also Friday which means pizza for dinner, so I’m going to quickly get some more stitches in! #worldembroideryday2021 #véroniquedeluna
My mother came to visit recently bearing gifts: a mini tapestry kit from Aubusson by #véroniquedeluna. The Aubusson-Felletin wool is so fine and the colours are beautiful —the stamped background is not representative! Starting a new project with a new style of needlework - it’s like learning a new dance or a new language. At first the directions are confusing and then suddenly the flow makes so much sense and the true fun starts! I have completed the yellow flowers and must go to bed…It’s tempting to unpick and redo the first flower I did, also very tempting to keep going but I must be strict with myself when I’m stealing needlework time… by the way I have almost finished my counted cross stitch from the previous posts, but I don’t like the visual effect of the very last section of back stitching and have therefore put it aside. I have too little time for stitching to waste a second of it on things I’m not enjoying! #aubusson #tapisserieaupoint
I hate metallic thread. I had many misgivings about the instructions to use metallic thread for highlights on this pattern, but I took a leap of faith, because this piece was so beautifully designed with all its blended colours. And now it looks like a Christmas tree decoration. I’m going to have to unpick all this nasty tinsel thread and try again with a golden-coloured yarn. Why must metallic thread make us so saaaaad 😭 it’s all the more frustrating because I have so little time for stitching and I have wasted hours stitching the gold in, and will have to waste yet more time unpicking it… and it’s going to damage the smoothness of the floss stitched around it 😭😭😭 #crossstitch #metallicthread #fail
The tragic thing about these projects is that even though it looks so close to completion, the back stitching / outlines are going to take so long that this is probably only half the work done 😣 but I *will* complete this project! Thanks in part to the delight that is the “Easy Guide Ball-Tipped Needle”. It’s a bit of a mouthful but I started using one about 2 weeks ago and it really upped my stitching game. I’ve been wondering how it might help for textile conservation — it has a tiny ball on the tip of the needle so it doesn’t split the threads of the fabric but instead finds its way to the natural interstices in the weave. #crossstitch #easyguideneedle
My small town here in France has a lovely mercerie (haberdashery) and I often go in to admire threads and yarns and patterns. The owner told me she only recently picked up and finished a cross stitch she started when on maternity leave... the child just turned 19! So why not just pick one and set it up and come back to it on rare occasions I do have a few hours to myself... I have four kits currently waiting for my attention, but one is wool and I prefer not to work in wool in the summer. One is on black canvas which is making life unnecessarily hard for myself. Then I have these two... one very cheugy Klimt (no shade, I wouldn’t have purchased if I didn’t like it) and the other a misleadingly minimalist “sunset”. I actually started the sunset 3 days before Taiga was born but it involved a LOT of counting and unpicking. The Klimt is an advanced kit with lots of Klimty mottled skin tones which will be a nightmare I have no doubt... on second thoughts I am starting to realise the sunset is probably a better choice (or maybe the nice wool one after all!).
DONE. #rosielovesteal
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