Sophie Ferrier is a multi-media, interdisciplinary ecological artist/ craft person living on the border between England & Wales. She refers to her practice as being land-based, ecologically restorative & storytelling, that is rooted in artistic research, materiality, and our local environments. Stepping away from her practice in ceramics, Sophie's artistic journey has led her down a path of reshaping the relationship with what is considered a ‘waste’ material. From food waste to non-native invasive plant species, Sophies aim through her creative practice is to restore local environments through the storytelling of restorative materiality, re-building a kinship to the natural world through objects of enchantment, highlighting the importance of circularity, and to close the communication gap between the ecological research and the audience.

Sophie’s creative journey started with a ceramic practice, focusing on underglaze decorative tableware that told a story of folklore and the environment. Wanting to expand from this practice due to it not fulfilling her sustainability needs and requirements, she went on to study Contemporary Design Craft Degree at Hereford College of Arts, to explore further how to develop a practice that’s in align with her ethos.

Sophie is a Director of Hay Regenerative Soils CIC, which is a community interest company in her hometown of Hay-on-Wye, that focuses on composting the communities food waste and turning this waste material into ‘living soil’, or ‘crafted compost’, whilst this scheme creates a system that’s sustainable and has a low carbon footprint compared to the local food waste carriers, it also aims to educate the public on the importance of soils and circular systems.

During her studies and running this company, it became clear to Sophie the importance of making ecological research as accessible as possible to the audience, the green fatigue gets to us all, so taking a creative approach to our climate emergency and environmental desegregation can create a ‘feeling’, can create ‘accountability’, can assist in closing that communication gap.

Sophie’s relationship with the environment started when she was 6 years old, losing her mother while living in the fenlands, surrounded by acres and acres of landscape, she found comfort and solace in the natural world, she relied on the support network of the environment to tackle the grief she was experiencing. Since then, she has pursued an education of permaculture principles, syntropic farming, landscape management, regenerative systems, soil biology, and now the arts, to assist in being able to communicate the importance of these fields in a tangible, emotionally engaging way.