Sophie Carnell Silversmith, 20 McLachlan Avenue Rushcutters Bay, Sydney (2026)

26/01/2026

I’ve just been listening to the ever delightful on The Book Show with the brilliant .

I love listening to anything Trent has to say and write…what a way of morphing the gritty into a gleaming gem.

A few years ago myself and some dear friends would get together for a Bookish Babes Book Club, turned out we were more of a Bubbles, Brie and Banter club, but for a year or so we read and shared our thoughts on chosen books, old and new, and I would make a small work responding to some small treasure I found in the book.

And this is what I made for Love Stories by Trent Dalton. A silver o key for his Olivetti typewriter, caps lock 🖤, as the one on his 1960’s typewriter would get clogged in ink…and he says, he was ‘about to type the word ’love’ maybe two thousand times’

Thanks Trent for sharing your words of honesty, whimsy, devastating beauty, humour and L🖤VE with us.
…looking forward to the new novel 📚

19/12/2025

The Summer Show is on now at Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert 🌞

I have a special little suite of three brooches there among the orchids; a teatree, heartberry and leatherwood. Each brooch comes with its own stand so that when it’s not being worn it can be displayed…a mini sculpture! 💚 🌱

Check out for opening hours over the Christmas break.

23/11/2025

Back on Bruny Island | Lunawanna-allonah and back in my studio.

Turning flat into form, my absolute favourite thing.
Yes it involves a lot of heat and hammer but it feels like some sort of alchemy, transforming the inert into the animated.

I’m at the beginning of the journey of creating a big new body of work and feeling inspired and excited by islands, boundaries, protection, shorelines and of course plants. 🌱

06/11/2025

Valentia Island

The fourth and final (for now) bead in my Atlantic Island necklace.

This place is always held in a special nook in my heart.
We used to come here to holiday as children, to party as teenagers, and live and work as adults. My sister has her nest here, a space of welcome and warmth and soul, I’m so grateful to be able to still come here and immerse myself in this special place again and reconnect with old friends.

Over this trip I have ducked in to the island for three little stays, and also used it as one of my research islands…

Observing shorelines with a closer focus than usual, noticing the greygreenpurple hues of the slatey shingle beaches; the luminous golden glows of the myriad seaweeds on the shore; holdfasts and herons; the tiny lichen holding their cups up in praise- of what? Sun? Rain?

And of course there have been days of dear friends, family and feasting, and also wild windswept walks, saunas, swimming, birthday blessings, regattas, soft grey days with cloud furring the hilltops, as well as dreamy days with brilliant skies of cobalt blue.

…And the discovery of a portal at the edge of the world.
Truly a deeply special place.

30/10/2025

Inis Oírr.
The third of my Atlantic islands.
I am incredibly grateful to have received a residency from the most welcoming Áras Éanna on breathtaking Inis Oírr, the smallest of the Aran Islands off the West Coast of Ireland.

The island is three square km of rock. Oh but what rock! It’s incredible. It’s made up of flat blocks of limestone (clints) cut through with fissures (grykes). The rocks textures vary in astounding ways for such a small area.

Split rock is used to build wall and wall and wall and wall….patterns varying like an Aran knit. Any grass has been hard worked for, layer upon layer of sand and seaweed has been hauled up over years and generations and has created a fertile place for cows and horses to graze, and veg to grow.

Being such a small island with barely any cars I have been walking everywhere, giving me the opportunity to take close notice of roadside plants: Bloody Cranesbill, Herb-Robert and Yarrow to name a few…and learn of their folkloric properties.

This has been the perfect island and the perfect amount of time to really clarify my thinking about my practice…I feel exceptionally lucky.

Massive thankyous to Dara and Oisin for this opportunity, and warm welcome. 🙏🏼

I’m in awe of this special little nugget of an island.

….oh and there were also fabulous nights of live music, the lilt of Irish being spoken, the weather that was surreally calm and quiet, the seals, my fantastic studio, the ancient buildings and intriguing folklore and tales.

05/10/2025

Many many moons ago when I first came to this epic and evocative place I was in awe. I dreamed - but never believed - that one day I might be an artist who could come and stay here on a residency. And now, nearly 35 years later it has happened. And somehow it felt a bit like coming home.

I have a deep pull to this area of the world, and have spent much time on nearby Valentia Island, which is probably why I could just relax into this cottage on the edge of the world and peacefully write, research and make.

…But with a few wonderfully inspiring tideline excursions or course 🌊
…and the best sea glass pebble I’ve ever found.

This building, once a home, then a ruin, and next a place of inspiration for artists, is, very literally, perched on the edge of Europe - next major landmass the Americas.

The cottage is ensconced into the flank of the mountainside, peering out to the wild ocean below. It’s is so hefted into the land that even on the wildest windiest nights this cottage sits here - resolute, a haven of calm, solidity and comfort... offering solitude, inspiration and for me, ease of soul and spirit.

With much Gratitude to the Cill Rialaig Project.

Go raibh maith agat 🙏🏼

08/09/2025

Wild Atlantic Island number two:
The Outer Hebrides. Actually a few islands incorporated here as I started off on North Uist, then made my way to Harris & Lewis, plus lots of other causeway linked islets.

It is both breathtakingly beautiful and breath takingly blustery, and wonderfully wild and woolly.

Such a varied landscape…Sunny days of white sands and turquoise seas, grey mizzly days of clifftop coastline walks, turbulent days of the ocean arguing with the shore, gulls whirling with ease in wind that nearly swept me off my feet,
and round rock bays of perfect pebbles and jagged sea stacks.

Driving through these landscapes and feeling exhilarated by some discrete areas — the rock bared mountainsides with detailed coastlines of small seaweed fringed bays, seals sunning themselves on rocks — and wondering why some places sing to your soul like a Siren, as though there is some deep recognition of place. And other areas just don’t.

Is it something deep in our DNA? A remembering from our far ancestors? I don’t know, but that spark of landscape recognition and joy is wonderful in its mystery and makes my soul sing 🤍

29/08/2025

My heart has been landscape humbled.

What a beautiful experience to have been able to come here and immerse myself, even for such a tiny pebblegem of time, in this awe inspiring scattering of islands anchored between the Atlantic and North Sea, triangulated between the lands of Scotland, the Faroes and Norway.

Sitting looking across the valley over to the Stanes of Stofast, I felt set adrift from time…viewing this powerful glaciated landscape I could have been from anytime. A part and apart.
(I wish photos would show the absolute grandeur of the scale of the hills, valleys and lochs)

My ideas have been tide tumbled and rock rumbled.

New ideas are forming, others becoming more rounded and lustrous, coming in to focus.

And my soul is feeling filled up.

…except for a little otter sized space which remains empty 😔 🦦

25/08/2025

It’s all about the rock and stone and pebble and boulder.

Shetland is a varied geological marvel…which leads to such an amazing variety of stone and pebble. Every adventure holds different stony treasures.

From Bronze Age homes with their grinding querns and Iron Age towers, to deserted croft houses, all built with the ancient stone of this land. Thick walls to withstand wild weather and time.

A beach of rounded patterned stones so beautiful my heart ached and a pebbly shore that waylaid me for hours as I sifted through its tiny gempebbles seeking out the ones that spoke to me.

And then to discover Charmstones - used in Celtic tradition as protective talismans and healing objects…reminding me of the silver precious pebbles I made and secreted around my childhood haunts a few years ago.

There must be an innate pull to cradle a perfect pebble in the palm of your hand and for it to become warm from your skin. A wondrous thing to tuck it in your pocket and hold it sometimes and remember. A simple stone that carries place and memory within it. What power. 🩶

18/08/2025

After quite a few years of plotting and planning everything has come together and I have Gone West. 🌅

Off to three artist residencies exploring wild Atlantic islands.

First stop (via the ever heartstrong Valentia Island, Ireland, for sweet family time…More on that island to come) is The Booth, in Scalloway, Shetland.

Perched above the water, windows opening up to the westering sun, this is the perfect place to finally slow down, gather my thoughts, and open my journal that has been closed since my mother left us.

I have a project in my mind, its form washes in out of focus with the tide. It’s about the Salt Edge of Things (thankyou Robert MacFarlane), about treasured islands and treasured objects.
The next few days and weeks and months of living on these edges will be the time I’ve been longing for to clarify, collect and create.

….and hopefully chat with a sea otter :)

25/06/2025

I’m delighted to have been selected to be included in the Homo Faber Guide, an initiative of the non-profit Michelangelo Foundation, championing and supporting creative artisans around the world. It’s a huge honour to be among the curated selection for this prestigious platform.

There is an app for the guide where you can view fabulous craftspeople and their work from around the world - I recommend a download - especially if you might be travelling and are interested in visiting some fantastic artisans at work. I have put a link to the website and to the app ⬆️

Thanks so much to

Sophie Carnell Silversmith

26/01/2026

19/12/2025

23/11/2025

06/11/2025

30/10/2025

05/10/2025

08/09/2025

29/08/2025

25/08/2025

18/08/2025

25/06/2025

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