The Tokens of Love project began with a small moment of stillness.

I came across the historical tokens left with babies and young children at the Foundling Hospital in London, and something in me paused. Not because the objects were rare or remarkable, but because they were so ordinary. Scraps. Ribbons. Fragments. Small things left at moments when life had become unbearable.

What stayed with me most were the pieces of cloth. Soft tokens. Fabric handled by human hands, close to the body, sometimes prepared in advance, sometimes torn in haste. They were never meant to be beautiful or expressive. They were practical markers, folded away with a child and sealed out of sight.

And yet, they feel deeply human.

Most of these tokens were never seen again. The children they accompanied grew up without knowing whether anything had been left for them, or why. The objects remained folded, silent, carrying stories that were never spoken aloud.

That silence matters.

As I sat with these histories, it became clear that this project could not remain in the past. The Foundling Hospital may belong to another century, but the experience of separation does not. Families are still torn apart by circumstance. Children are still displaced, renamed, absorbed into systems that struggle to hold their full story.

The Tuam babies in Ireland are part of this wider landscape. So are families separated by conflict, long journeys, forced migration, or lives lived under pressure and fear. There are also quieter separations, closer to home, shaped by past adoption practices, institutional care, poverty, or social shame. Stories that were never fully told, but are still carried.

Tokens of Love is not about retelling those stories. It does not try to explain or resolve them. Instead, it acknowledges a shared thread that runs through them all. A human wish to stay connected. To leave a trace. To be remembered.

This project is about love, but not in a sentimental sense. It is about love that exists alongside impossibility. Love that does not always get to stay. Love that finds its way into the smallest of gestures.

Through slow stitching, participants are invited to respond in their own way. Some come with a story close to their heart. Others are drawn simply to the idea of making something small, careful, and intentional. There is no single narrative here. Each token is different. What unites them is the act of attention.

Making by hand matters. It slows us down. It allows us to sit with complexity without needing answers. Each stitched token becomes a quiet acknowledgement that these lives, past and present, are worthy of care.

Together, the tokens form a collective holding. Not a statement, not a solution, but a presence. A way of saying: this mattered. This still matters.

Tokens of Love looks back, but it also looks around us. It lives in the present moment, shaped by what is happening right now. It is a gentle act of remembrance, and a quiet offering of connection,

To find out how to take part click here: Tokens of Love Project