Pockets of Love – a Scottish Witch Hunt Memorial
Welcome to the Pockets of Love Blog!
I’m Tara M Dakini, the artist behind the Witches Stitches: Pockets of Love Project, and in this blog I will be sharing with you:
· Progress updates about the Pockets of Love project
· How and when you can become a Pocket Maker
· Information about the Scottish Witch Hunts
· Posts about my creative practice, and events & workshops that I’m running
I plan to write a post at least once a month so please do follow the blog by… and chat with other folk who’re interested in the project through the comments.
If you’d like to be a Pocket Maker please sign up here to get updates on when you can get involved.
If you don’t know me I’m an artist, writer and dancer and I have a huge love of teaching and creating community projects. I have worked across many creative spheres including hand embroidery, design & illustration, costume & fashion. I used to be a professional bellydancer and performer when I lived another life a world away in Brighton!
A little bit of history about the Pockets of Love project
I’ve been interested in the Witches of Scotland since I saw a Facebook post about the Scottish Witchcraft Map published by the University of Edinburgh, and was surprised to discover that 6 women had been accused of Witchcraft in the village where I live. I immediately thought that it would be amazing to commemorate these women in some way.
I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by the Royal College of nursing entitled “Witches Stories” in November 2021, by Professor Nicola Ring, along with her team at Edinburgh Napier University, who had been researching the accused witches of Scotland that had also been folk healers and midwives. I found this lecture so inspiring that I decided to apply for grants to fund some creative research into the Witches of Scotland. In March 2022, I was lucky enough to be granted a VACMA award for four days of research funded by Ayrshire Councils and Creative Scotland, and I started researching the accused women in the area where I live and the healing herbs that were used by folk healers, charmers and midwives at that time.
Seeking a way to honour their lives
This initial research led me to develop the Pockets of Love project and In 2023 I was awarded a year’s funding from the Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals for research and development. My intention is that each woman accused of witchcraft will be honoured with a hand embroidered pocket bearing her name and decorated with wildflowers and native plant designs specific to the location where she died. By recreating a familiar item that the women themselves would have worn, the Pockets of Love Project seeks to honour their lives as well as their deaths, and gives those of us living now the opportunity to actively remember them.
So what happens next?
Over the next two years, I will be launching the Witches Stitches: Pockets of Love project into the public sphere both online and through exhibitions. Initially I will be working with two small groups of volunteers, one in West Kilbride and the other in the Outer Hebrides. I love teaching, and working with these groups will help me prepare the project for a wider launch.
I will use the feedback that I get from these first two groups of Pocket Makers to develop online teaching resources that will support future volunteer Pocket Makers – perhaps you’ll be one of them?
