This work emerged from research into women’s tie-on pockets and into shame. I created two pockets and interviewed several people on the topic of ‘Shame for you is Like what?’ and then stitched two of the resulting metaphors onto the pockets:

1. The Merchant and the Mole Hole
   The first word this person said in response to my question was ‘Impossible’. She said it was as though she had made a commitment to some medieval merchants - a promise well within her capabilities that she should have been able to keep - but when she was unable to keep it, she wanted to disappear underground and occasionally pop up through a hole in the ground like a mole, so see what was going on. But she was always being pulled by the strings of the merchants so could not disappear.

2. Sinkhole

   In this person’s metaphor, a shaming event had caused her to fall into a sinkhole unexpectedly. She was curled up at the bottom of the hole with a pile of rubble. Later, when water levels rose, she managed to climb out of the hole and at some point a tree grew and her shame was stored in a little bag hanging from the tree.