Grounded in craftsmanship and fascinated by illusion Sophie Coryndon’s work sits outside conventional categories. In her Sussex studio she makes backdrops and altarpieces of gilded honeycomb and floating goldwork flowers using wood and plaster to mimic cloth and thread. Describing the majesty of the natural world in a glittering cabinet of curiosity; she explores a contemporary sublime aiming to enchant and set the stage for wonder.

Once upon a time.... magic abounded. Either outside playing on the chalk white horses and stone circles of the Wiltshire countryside or in my fathers restoration and cabinet making workshop wondering at curious and beautiful fragments of gilded carving and tooled gold leather. An absent mother ignited a love of fairytales, where mothers were always absent and nothing was as it seemed.

Today my studio acts as a cabinet of curiosity where I collect and combine sources of inspiration; medieval manuscripts, Renaissance altarpieces, goldwork embroidery and fragments of the natural world. I’m drawn to multiple techniques and materials, skilled craftsmanship and the overlaps between disciplines. Gravitating towards surfaces that trick the eye I enjoy finding new ways to mimic historic decorative techniques using contemporary materials and innovative methods of application. Gold, a through line from childhood holds both fairytale and now spiritual significance; earthly and celestial, it threads through my work as a symbol of transformation and illumination.

There is an alchemy in making things slowly and attentively — a process that restores and illuminates rather than merely produces. For me, craftsmanship is the ideal language of care with which to investigate the beauty of the natural world and the sublime within it. Underlying my work is a quiet call to preservation; of species and habitat yes; but also of skills and words and ways of seeing and connecting.

My work seeks to offer a tonic for disenchanted times, a reminder that if you pay attention with intention and imagination - magic is everywhere.

Selected for Crafted - Makers of the exceptional in 2012 her work has been showcased at Somerset House and the Royal Academy and at the leading international art and design fairs including Salon, PAD and Design Miami/Basel. Commissions include The Dorchester and working for the architect Peter Marino for Dior and Chanel. She has exhibited at the Fuller Craft Museum and her 2022 travelling altar piece, Hortus Conclusus shown at TEFAF with Adrian Sassoon was purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of art for their permanent collection. Further altarpieces have shown at Homo Faber and been shortlisted for the BADA art prize.