Lichen, fungi and overlooked details in nature inform Sophie’ Symes creations. An explorative maker, she has worked with a variety of media and techniques, including papercutting, found objects, clays, enamelling, and natural materials, but her degree in jewellery design has given her a lasting love of metalwork. Sophie’s portfolio of work is broad – mixed media site-specific installations, art jewellery and sculpture.
Sophie has developed her own method of crafting organic forms in metal through modelling soft wax by hand. Her designs are then transformed into solid metal via lost wax casting. The hands-on production style results in a delicate ‘wabi-sabi’ aesthetic, highlighting the beauty of maker’s marks, fingerprints, imperfections and an overall sense of human touch. The finished pieces of jewellery and adornments for the home and garden have a delicate clay-like appearance, while maintaining the robustness of metal, a contrast Sophie enjoys and enhances where possible.