Some artists carve stories from stone. Antje Rook stitches them with fabric, thread, and heart. Her colorful textile art celebrates women, hope, humor, and the moments that shape our lives, proving that even life’s hardest challenges can inspire something beautiful.
You began your creative life with stone carving. Tell us about your journey from stone carving to fabric and thread?
I was always a creative person, but in my 30s, I found a medium I loved, stone.
I don’t think I was ever a brilliant stone carver, but it gave me great joy, and I felt a strong connection to the material, especially after I had moved to the Isle of Portland, famous for Portland Stone.
I developed some health problems, which made it advisable to change to a softer medium. I started sewing in 2013, after my first grandson was born, and I attempted some little hats for him and then moved to baby grows, little coats, etc. For a while, I made and sold children’s clothes, but then changed to pictures, soft sculptures, and textile art.
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You taught yourself to sew through trial and error. What do you remember about those first projects?
It was difficult at the beginning. I had ideas and visions of what I wanted to make and to express, but my practical abilities were no match.
There were a lot of frustrated afternoons when I had worked on a piece for hours and then threw it in the bin, because it just wasn’t what I had seen in my mind.
Was there a moment when you realized textiles had become more than a hobby?
Yes, there was a very remarkable moment. I had tried to make a face, a woman, the fisherman’s wife, and I posted it on Instagram and Facebook.
Almost immediately 2 different people wanted to buy it, and I actually sold it to a woman in the USA. This was the moment I thought: Hang on, I’m onto something here.
Your work has such a recognizable style today. How did you find your own artistic voice?
I think finding your own style and voice needs a lot of experimenting. At the beginning, I worked almost exclusively on nature, the sea, wildflowers, landscapes, and sea life. But my passion is to create women in all their variety and beauty.
Your work often tells stories. Where do those stories usually begin, with a memory, an emotion, a person, or something you see?
The stories I tell through my work are almost always inspired by people or personal experiences. Before I start a new project, I think about it for weeks, and it evolves from a tiny idea, which could have been initiated by a feeling, a contact, something I saw or heard about. It can be quite random.
Women appear again and again in your art. What draws you back to that subject?
This passion to advocate for women has a long history.
I’m a very passionate feminist, probably in today’s views quite old school. I did women’s studies at University, helped found a women’s refuge, and always worked with women in my role as a counsellor and psychotherapist.
I think women are the most interesting, complex, and beautiful subjects to work with.
Your work can be joyful, but it also explores difficult subjects. What makes art the right language for those conversations?
I think this depends mainly on my state of mind. I’m aware that there are a lot of difficult and unpleasant subjects I want to work about, but I feel I also have to keep a place for humour and laughter in my work
How has your background as a psychotherapist changed the way you see people and tell stories through textiles?
I try to express a piece of every woman’s life and soul in my pictures of women. Very often, there are symbols and signs woven into my work, and I feel the people who need to see and understand them, do.
Describe your creative space.
Okay, first of all, I’m very messy.
When I work on a project, I feel I’m sometimes a little obsessed and have to keep going. This involves throwing fabric and thread on the floor, taking out lots of materials to see if they are suitable, use some paint in between, or incorporate some other materials, which all land on the floor.
Untill last month, I had a room in my house, which was my studio. Due to renovation work in the house, I’m sharing a work room with my husband at the moment. So far so good. Let’s see what will happen.
You enjoy working with recycled fabrics and found objects. What catches your eye when you’re searching charity shops or car boot sales?
I love looking for different textures, colours, and materials. My fabrics are sorted in different ways. I have boxes for every colour, but also boxes for special material, like netting, glittery fabric, or woolen material, etc.
When a new idea arrives, what happens first? Sketches, collecting fabrics, writing notes, or simply thinking?
As I mentioned before, a lot of thinking is involved. I never make sketches, simply because I can’t draw, I’m really rubbish at it. People never believe this, but it’s true.
Your work combines appliqué, free motion embroidery, fabric sculpture, and drawing. How do you decide which techniques belong in each piece?
Often, I use a mix of techniques in one piece, it gives me a wider range of creating textures and shades.
How do you know when a piece is finished?
Usually I have a strong feeling for when a piece is finished, but if I’m in doubt, I take a photo of the work and pretend I’m a stranger looking at it. Sometimes the changed perception gives me the idea how to finish.
Health challenges changed the direction of your creative life more than once. How have those experiences shaped you as an artist?
I believe that people who have had challenges in their lives have the opportunity to look at the world, other people, and themselves in a more empathetic way.
I decided to do just that, life is not granted, and I think the most important thing in life is contact with other people. I try to be understanding and more tolerant towards other people. And this has influenced my work and my work ethic.
I work through my own challenges with my art, but hope to give a message to other people too. Two of my works are strongly related to my SCAD, the heart incident, as I call it. I had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection in 2020, during lockdown. This is a rare condition that can’t be predicted or prevented. I survived, and when I came home from the hospital, I needed to make the picture of me and my dog. It is not for sale, and it reminds me that I have survived. The other one are several works related to heart issues, like “Love”, the heart protected by hands and flourishing.
Has there ever been a project that taught you something unexpected about yourself?
Recently, I organised and facilitated a project about death and dying. It was a one-year-long project with other artists, and you can check it out here: www.the-final-journey.co.uk. I learned that I’m not scared of dying, and that I love organising long-term art projects with communities and other artists, and that I’m actually good at it
You often make work that is deeply personal. Does sharing those stories ever feel vulnerable?
It does, there is always the possibility of showing too much of myself, but on the other hand, I think that’s who I am too, and why not let other people see it?
What advice would you give someone who thinks they’re “not artistic enough” to begin making textile art?
Oh, that’s easy, everybody is “artistic” or creative, most of the time people either haven’t found it in themselves, because they were told from early on they are not, or it is not useful to be artistic, or they are scared to fail.
I believe there is no failing in art. Everything is right, because it is an expression of someone’s feelings, ideas, memories, worries, hopes, etc.
Where can people see your work?
I’m not exhibiting as much as I used to. My work can always be seen on my Instagram and Facebook accounts and on my website.
I take part in Dorset Art Week every year and exhibit regularly with Art in Poundbury. Sometimes I submit work to special exhibitions, like Stitch by Stitch in the Willow Gallery in Ostwestry last year. My work has been shown in different places in the UK, but also in Italy, Romania, and Germany.
Rapid Fire Fun:
Hand stitching or free motion stitching? free motion, every time
Beach or forest? People won’t believe this, because I live on an island, but I love the forest
A project you always enjoy making? Dandelions!!!
One word that describes your creative life today? Vielfaeltig! (Diverse)
What is bringing you joy right now? Sewing, what else
Interview posted July 2026
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