Sunday 26th April, 11am - 4pm

Artist, community compost activist, and soil advocate Sophie Lilian Ferrier will be guiding the young people of Stroud through an explorative and creative worm tunnel, connecting workshop participants with Soils and the microorganisms that live underground supporting our food systems, and our everyday consumption. 

In the morning we will explore ecological narrative through site specific drawings of the biodiversity present, and will prepare and examine soil samples under the microscope in the afternoon. Thus learning how to take soil samples and analyse the biological data with creativity in mind and curiosity at the heart. This workshop is heavily focused on observational drawings, data collecting, and exploring the underworld. 

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This workshop invites participants to explore the hidden world beneath our feet and consider how soil life connects landscape, ecosystems, and ourselves. Through observation, drawing, and basic soil sampling techniques, we will begin to build a relationship with place by paying attention to both the visible environment and the unseen microbial communities that support it.

11am–1pm

We begin outdoors by tuning into the landscape through quick sketches and sensory observation; what can you see, smell, hear, and feel? Participants will work in several locations with different levels of biodiversity, recording their impressions and surroundings through drawing and notes. During this session you will also learn how to take a soil sample from each site, carefully collecting material that will later be examined under the microscope.

Lunch Break: 1pm–2pm

2pm–4pm

In the afternoon we will prepare our collected soil samples for microscopy. Participants will learn how to transfer a small amount of soil onto a glass slide and label it clearly with the location it came from. Using microscopes, we will observe the life and structures within the soil while making quick sketches of the organisms, colours, and shapes that appear.

Towards the end of the session, we will bring together our field notes and microscope drawings to compare observations and look for patterns between the landscapes we visited and the microbial worlds we observed. 

The workshop closes with a reflection on how it felt to build a relationship with a place from the surface environment to the organisms that help sustain it below ground.

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The artistic aim of this workshop is to explore how careful observation can deepen our relationship with place by connecting surface landscapes with the invisible ecosystems that sustain them. 

By moving between outdoor sensory observation, drawing, and microscopic investigation, participants will engage with soil as a living community rather than an inert material. 

Sketching becomes a tool for noticing patterns, textures, and relationships- both in the landscape and within the microbial worlds revealed under the microscope. 

Through this process, the workshop encourages participants to develop a more intimate and imaginative understanding of the interconnectedness between human experience, landscape, and the microscopic life that supports it.

Tickets £6/10/15 pay what you can

This funded workshop is for age 16-25 years only.