Fields and Seas: A Life Shaped by Island, Clay and Calm

When Sarah Wakefield’s family first started holidaying on Phillip Island, the drive home to Richmond always carried a bittersweet weight. “We’d look back over the bridge at the island, knowing a part of our hearts had to stay behind,” she recalls.

Then the world shifted. When Covid arrived, Sarah’s three daughters were already on the island with their grandparents. She and her husband grabbed a backpack and joined them, thinking it was only for a week. Soon after, schools closed and the “ring of steel” went up around Melbourne. The Wakefields had found themselves suddenly living in the very place they had always longed to be.

“It was our eldest daughter, then in first class at the time, who made a little video for her classmates about how amazing Phillip Island was,” Sarah says. “That sealed it. We knew we had to find a way to stay.”

They rented a small house in Silverleaves, a pocket of the island drenched in nature. For Sarah, it was nothing short of transformative. “It’s really some kind of magic. I began walking every morning and watching the sunrise, and it was life changing. The skies here feel so big, the light shifts with the tides. It slowed me down, grounded me, and opened me up to making again.”

From Clay to Connection

Sarah had always loved creating, but on the island she leaned into it fully. She began painting and experimenting with polymer clay before finding her true passion: ceramics. What started as small steps became a life devoted to slow making.

“In those early days, I was making constantly but hadn’t thought about selling. Boxes of pieces began to pile up, so I donated them to the local school for a Mother’s Day stall. To my surprise, they sold out almost instantly. The response was overwhelming, mums from the community not only bought the jewellery but encouraged me to share more of what I was making. Their support gave me the confidence to take that first step from hobbyist to maker, and eventually to start Fields and Seas.”

Today, through her studio Fields and Seas, Sarah creates porcelain jewellery and functional pottery that hold the rhythm of the island in their form. “I love having my hands dirty, completely immersed in the process,” she says. “The fields and seas around me are my constant inspiration. Morning light, daytime bliss, the glow of sunset — it all finds its way into the work.”

Her pieces carry the island’s imprint: tiny porcelain discs painted with native florals, surfaces etched with coral-like tide patterns, jewellery that shifts with the seasons. Every item is handmade in small batches, many one of a kind. “They’re expressions of my time on this land. Each little treasure I find on my walks whispers a new idea.”

Family, Gratitude, and Slow Living

Life for Sarah and her husband, both once deeply immersed in corporate and consulting worlds, now moves at a gentler pace. Together with their three daughters, they embrace the rhythm of the island: long walks, surfing, crafting, gratitude rituals, and days shaped by nature’s moods.

Her children share her love for making, learning slow crafts alongside their mother. “It’s a gift to see them grow up with clay on their hands, learning to appreciate beauty in the simplest of things,” Sarah reflects.

This weaving of family, art, and landscape is at the heart of Fields and Seas. It is not just a brand, but a way of living, one that honors patience, imperfection, and connection. “What I make is inseparable from how I live. It’s about gratitude for what this land and sea share with me, and passing that on in forms people can hold in their hands.”

Sharing the Practice

Over time, Sarah realised she didn’t just want to make — she wanted to share the experience of slowing down with others. That’s how her workshops began. People come together to shape clay with their own hands, to laugh, connect, and discover the joy of creating something from the earth.

“It’s not just about the bowls, mugs, or earrings they take home — it’s about the calm and presence found in the process,” Sarah says. “Offering workshops has become a way for me to extend what Phillip Island has given me: space to breathe, to connect, and to create.”

A Practice in Presence

For Sarah, slow living is not a slogan, but a practice. Each walk is a meditation. Each mark in clay is a record of time. Each firing carries the unpredictability of nature. “It’s a constant reminder to stay present. To let go of rushing, and just be with the process.”

In a world that often hurries past its own beauty, Fields and Seas stands as a quiet rebellion — a return to hands, earth, and heart. On Phillip Island, Sarah has found not only her home, but her rhythm. And in her work, she invites us all to pause, to notice, and to live more slowly.