Mary Stark- Textiles and Magic

In the contemporary Western world, textiles are rarely linked to magic. But in ancient times, a key use of cloth was: “to invoke 'magic', to protect, to secure fertility and riches, to divine the future, perhaps even to curse…” (Wayland Barber, 1994).

Mary will talk about artefacts made from knitted yarn, ribbon, cord, rope and string at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle. She will examine their long association with women, voice, domesticity and craft, showing how textile practice has been, and continues to be, used in witchcraft and magic. She will highlight the idea that when we pick up thread or yarn with magical belief and intentions, powerful potential and ancient alchemy is in our hands. There will be an opportunity to make a magical object with thread to close the session.

Elizabeth Wayland Barber (1994) Women's Work: The first 20,000 years. Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times, London, W.W Norton & Company