What is your training background?
After a Fine Art degree at Cardiff University, I followed an apprenticeship at my father and master cabinetmaker Nick Coryndon’s cabinetmaking workshop in finishing and restoration. From him I learned many secrets of traditional craftsmanship and decorative techniques.
Where do you find inspiration?
From many different sources in the most varied of fields, such as Renaissance paintings, medieval herbals, illuminated manuscripts, craft techniques, haute couture, poetry and fairytales, and of course in the awe-inspiring details of the natural world.
©Sophie Coryndon
How do you express tradition and innovation in your pieces?
My work is built on discovering historical techniques and adapting them, using contemporary materials or new methods of application. Gilding is in all my work. The joy for me is in finding a way to express an idea using a melting pot of historical and contemporary resources.
How would you define your work?
I make large-scale wall reliefs, using reimagined historical craft techniques and an eye for the darkly beautiful. I love finding a way to bring an idea to life, and the gloriously slow, meditative pace of crafting a piece.