July 19, 2023 |
BLINGIN’ IT IS TEN’S ONLINE SERIES WHERE WE SPOTLIGHT THE INNOVATORS AND CHANGE-MAKERS OF THE JEWELLERY WORLD.
Forging otherworldly body adornments under the phylums of futurism, liquidity and subversion, Steff Eleoff’s opus is the stuff of dreams. Eleoff is an autodidact jewellery designer, but while her silversmithing skills are of her own teaching, she does reserve a rather extensive educational background – one which informs the liquid-like bling she makes. Born and bred in Canada, she worked toward an MFA (Masters of Fine Art) degree in New York City, delving into sculpture and art history before Covid came crashing, but it never seemed to satiate her creative appetite. So, with the unprecedented nature of the pandemic on her side, she dropped out and moved back to her hometown of Toronto.
Jewellery was something Eleoff simply “fell into”. Back in the 6ix, she dove head first into scavenging; scavenging the city streets for otherwise useless, discarded home goods and thrift stores for vintage brooches, chains and costume jewellery. After racking up a sufficient collection of 40 or 50 brooches and other pieces, she began repurposing them and constructing statement necklaces instead of frumpy pins to pass the time. “There was a lot of turmoil happening around me with Covid and my life in NYC coming to a halt, so it was a way for me to quiet the noise,” she explains. What started as a therapeutic practice, only turned into an entrepreneurial journey when she joined a metals studio downtown and started spending her days there.
Having already cut her teeth in sculpture and fine art, she was no stranger to working with her hands, so in a lot of ways, Eleoff’s pivot into jewellery making was par for the course. Serendipitous, even. Now she labours exclusively in gleaming aqueous silver accessories. Why work with silver? “Silver had been lacking this excitement for a while and the more basic timeless shapes were everywhere,” she says. “I wanted something different to accessorise with, and so I created more unique pieces that elevate the everyday – I hoped others would feel good in this aesthetic, and I think they do!
Sometimes fitted with precious gems, Eleoff’s ornaments are made using a wax casting process that allows the designs to take shape organically and of their own accord. Starting with a drawing or a sketch, she then experiments, “playing” with molten metal and its liquid fluidity, using fire and hot wax pens to melt the wax before finalising her silver moulds.
Everything is handcrafted by Eleoff herself, with pieces winding seductively around fingers, earlobes, waistlines and necks. Her gooey objects of desire are rendered with almost dystopian cyberpunk feel, high-luxe mirrored finishes and a smattering of Y2K moments – think ‘whale tail’ body chains that sit on the lower back, imitating the look of g-string straps when worn with a low-slung micro-mini skirt. For the most part, the pieces are imbued with references to architecture and the rich history that suffuses the art world. She’s also inspired by nature; the free-flowing lines and repetitive patterns found in water droplets and rivers especially. Her latest jewellery collection, called Say My Name, reimagines the letters of the Latin alphabet as pendants drenched in dripping silver. Before that she released Midnight Drive, a complete and delectable SS23 offering made up of cascading ear cuffs, earrings, rings and necklaces, which we delve into in the interview below.
Since she launched her eponymous label in 2020, Eleoff has developed this cult following of customers and celebrity fans who swear by Steff Eleoff. Kylie Jenner wears her abstract earrings; Halle Bailey and Doja Cat are fans of the warped and twisted rings. The eponymous brand may have been born out of Covid boredom, but its place in the global arena of jewellery goes far beyond a little extra free time. Last year, Eleoff was nominated for best Emerging Talent in Accessory Design for the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards. Already one of the most potent new names in the North American contemporary accessories scene, Steff Eleoff is one to watch.
ON THE BIRTH OF STEFF ELEOFF
Eleoff: “I have been passionate about the arts since I was a kid. No other subject ever appealed to me, and I can remember always drawing in my free time, and I still do. It wasn’t until my adult years where I really came into my own craft and felt this innate push to take it into a career space. In my masters was when I really got into the idea of scavenging for found materials. I remember finding a door one night just laying flat on the ground in LES [Lower East Side], and my school friends and I dragged it back to the studio. Once everything shut down due to covid, and I moved back to Toronto, I brought that love for found materials into my new environment. But at the time I was living at my parents house, so there wasn’t that freedom to drag found objects from the street back to my moms house *lol*. So I would go thrifting instead! For small things! I became fascinated with brooches, and the history of each one having a life and an owner and a purpose before ending up at Value Village. Emphasis on purpose really, because brooches secured cloth to the wearer in the bronze age, but overtime became just decorative moments – they had their moment and then faded like another fad. So anyways, I loved that whole concept! Giving life to old objects. After collecting a good 40 to 50 brooches, I brought them into the studio and began repurposing into statement necklaces! Literally just for fun… [Then] I joined a metal’s studio in downtown Toronto and that became my everyday spot, and where I got the courage to launch everything. Now, looking back, this was one of those pivotal core memories that shaped the trajectory of the rest of my life.”
ON ART AS A FORM OF THERAPY
Eleoff: “The idea of making art as a form of therapy is really just shutting out the noise around you and being present with whatever you’re doing. Usually I don’t even play music in my studio, when I’m really zoned in. It’s just my inner thoughts powering whatever piece I’m making. And of course I’ve done sessions with music, and observed how the shapes and ideas change through genre… but it’s really therapeutic to turn your phone off and use that (art) time as meditation.”
ON WHAT INSPIRED MIDNIGHT DRIVE
Eleoff: “On the topic of meditation, I really find those ‘still’ moments in a lot of mundane activities – like driving. This collection was born out of a drive I took in a rainstorm. I was listening to music doing my daily commute – the streets were packed and the rain was pelting down on my windshield. I’ve been in plenty of rain storms while driving, but this one I remember so differently. And it was because of how the water hit the windshield. It was like big splats! Almost slow motion in the way they hit the glass. Seeing how speed affected the shapes of the water droplets and the movement of the streams was so interesting to me. The faster I went, it was almost like the water would go slower and pulsate more with its movement. And then traffic would hit and I’d slow down, and the rain would glide like perfect streams. If you can tell, I was really romanticising this moment *lol*. Also it was mid-day, but the sky was so dark that it felt like midnight – hence the [collection’s] name. It also just sounds sexy, and that was what I wanted people to feel when they wore the pieces in this collection. But back to the speed affecting the shapes; I then wondered how I could control the speed of wax and reenact that drive with my jewellery making process. That’s when I really started playing. I used clear plexiglass sheets (to mimic the windshield) and fixed it to lay flat against the wall. I would hold wax pieces to it, and blow torch them to splat on the plexi. It was hours of me trying different angles, different speeds of heat. I honestly had so much fun creating this collection, and I think it shows in the work.”
ON THE KEY PIECES OF THE COLLECTION
Eleoff: “So we have the splash necklace (visualised from the rain drop splats I described earlier) set with an aquamarine stone. The Midnight Drive earcuff is the visualisation of the streams of water sliding off the windshield while the car was going slow. It has that really smooth, sensual feel. And the Midnight Drive necklace to match! The Half Splash earring has that more rigid/quick movement because it was the visualisation of the raindrop while the car was at a higher speed. The Emulsion Ring is the idea of oil and water mixing together, and what that looks like in shapes. The Elixir Heart necklace is fast and sexy and just has this midnight drive feel with the movement of the silver. Cascade Earring/Cuff is both an earring and has a part to it that cuffs the ear – the name just reminded me of a car wash. The Overflow ring is very playful because I imagined the rainstorm in the car, and the driver being engulfed with rain.”
ON THE STEFF ELEOFF WO(MAN)
Eleoff: “Steff Eleoff designs for the individual, not the masses! The SE customer is someone who’s looking for elevated yet everyday jewellery! We’ve received so many messages about how good customers feel when they wear our pieces. One message brought me the biggest smile, they said – they wore pieces to a job interview and credit landing the job to the confidence they felt walking into that space! Our jewellery was what completed their look for them, and in turn made them feel unstoppable! SE pieces can do that – I swear!”
ON THE INTEGRAL IDEOLOGY OF PLAY
Eleoff: “From highschool, to university, and through my Masters program, there was always this discussion from my professors about the undoing of what we have learned up until this point. To forget everything anyone taught you about art, and to paint like children paint. The art of play is the practice of making art with no constraints, no preconceived ideologies, just pure imagination and wonder. Children are so free in their thinking, and with their line work and colour theory. They know nothing and that’s their biggest superpower. As we age, we get conditioned, and moulded, and taught all these things that actually slow down our creative muscles. We worry about what people may think. Brancusi said this, and then Noguchi gave it life again: “When an artist stopped being a child, he would stop being an artist”.”
ON EXPANDING HER BRAND
Eleoff: “I’m constantly thinking about how to expand my brand, but really the key focus for me right now is in jewellery. We’re still in such early stages of developing our design world, that I’m excited to just keep going. Definitely want to collaborate with artists down the road, and merge mediums, but for now we’re quite happy growing our product list and bringing a new type of jewellery to the mix. I was tired of seeing the same designs everywhere, and I know other people felt the same way. I’m fully committed to making jewellery that elevates your everyday life.”
Photography courtesy of Steff Eleoff.
