Brackish - S6 E15 Stefanie Cheong & It Could Be Worse

Brackish (formerly Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden)

Trigger Warning: We discuss the sudden loss of a loved one. If this is something you are experiencing right now or have a sensitivity towards, please listen with caution.

In this episode, Katie speaks with Stefanie Cheong, an artist jeweller and educator based in Scotland, whose work sits at the intersection of geology, anthropology, and environmentalism.

Stefanie explores the deep time stories of our planet through jewellery, objects, and collaborations — from cutting Scottish rocks to creating new materials from waste. Together, they discuss the GeoAnthropology Project, the emotional resilience of making, and how creativity, community, and connection can forge defiant hope even in the face of grief and crisis.

“When everything else felt out of control, making gave me something I could do, something I could control.” - Stefanie Cheong

We cover:

- How Stefanie’s dyslexia shaped her creative process and love of making

- The alchemy of metal and her discovery that it can be infinitely recycled

- Why she chose to create her own ethical supply chain by finding and even making her own rocks

- The GeoAnthropology Project — exploring human evolution through rock, from Stone Age flint to future fossils

- What it feels like to work with rocks that are three billion years old

- Her collaboration with architect Andy Campbell on Sitting Pretty — a bench that embodies deep time and material storytelling

- How grief and creativity can coexist, and how making became a form of grounding and healing

- The ritual of her Moon Rocks practice — working with one rock for each lunar cycle

- Reclaiming hope through connection, action, and community — from People Planet Pint to Making Design Circular

“Crisis can be a turning point — it means things can only get better.” - Stefanie Cheong

This episode is a beautiful exploration of how creativity, geology, and grief intertwine. Stefanie reminds us that making is not only a way of storytelling through materials, but also a path back to ourselves. Through deep time, connection, and collaboration, she shows that even in crisis, there’s space for renewal and for hope forged in stone.

More from Stefanie:

Website: https://www.stefaniecheong.co.uk/

Follow Stef: @stefaniecheong and @stefanieyinglincheong

More from Katie:

Instagram: @katietreggiden.1

Website: https://katietreggiden.com/

Nature-inspired poetry: https://brackishbykatietreggiden.substack.com/t/poetry

Resources mentioned:

People Planet Pint / People Planet Pastry – global sustainability meetups

Making Design Circular Podcast, with Katie & Lauren Chang

Brackish, Season 6 Ep 12 with Helen Bowkett

Research into the physiological effects of sewing

Check out my full Bookshop.org podcast reading list to find links to all the books mentioned throughout Season 6 of Brackish.

What next?

If all this talk of defiant hope has got you wondering where you can find some, I have something for you. Cultivating Hope is my three-part mini-course and it’s the three steps I move through whenever I start to feel despair tugging at my edges.

You will move out of ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode and into a calm and connected state, reconnect with nature, and find aligned actions that you can take now to keep you to remind you that you can make a difference.

In the current climate, hope is an act of defiance, and it’s one I hope you’ll take with me.

Click here to find out more here

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