We took time to talk to Mexican artist Sofia Elias. Founder of jewellery brand Blobb, architecture graduate and employee at Pedro Reyes studio in Mexico City. Sofia is inventive in everything that she does, whether it be sketching in one of her many notebooks, designing an elaborate playground for architecture school or hand-moulding one of her mini sculptures for Blobb. Her work ethic and dedication to her creative practice is one to admire.

Hola Sofia, tell us a bit about yourself.
I was born in Guadalajara, a large city in central Mexico and I currently reside in Mexico City. I studied architecture both at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and Anahuac University in Mexico City from which I graduated in 2019. I'm currently transitioning towards developing as an artist.

What creative projects are you working on at the moment?
I'm currently working on Blobb, my brand. In my experimentation with different materials, I initially worked with resin to make Blobb rings, which I sculpt with my hands and enhance with the perfectly cut gems that I insert into them. The colours that I use are very playful and interesting to work with because of the contrast they create. The greatest difference in relation to conventional pieces of jewellery is that I do not use moulds, making each piece unrepeatable. I have recently become interested in more traditional materials such as silver. I intend to create the same effect with silver and thus foray into experimenting with this more precious material (maintaining a contrast between the precious material and handmade flaws).

How has living in Mexico City shaped your creative work?
Mexico is full of colour and I think that influences me - which I like a lot. In Mexico, each culture can be identified by its own way of handcrafting pieces. Their materiality, texture, colour and designs express their essence. Handmade jewellery, clothes, vases, everyday life objects are part of our daily life. Their inevitable imperfections make them even more perfect to me.

Which artists have influenced your artistic practice?
I feel drawn to a lot of artists and I love a lot of their work, but my greatest influence comes from kids and their way of thinking, drawing, and expressing themselves. Children have a very pure way of drawing and being inventive with their hands. They represent what they imagine without any preconceived aesthetic notions. The hand-made jewellery I create, are miniature sculptures purposefully imperfect, mismatched, deformed, lumpy, resonating with this child-like attitude and at the same time engaging adult desires, in this case, the perfectly cut “gems” inlaid in the pieces and the use of more precious materials.

My pieces awaken reminiscent of my childhood with their colourfulness and blobbiness. They allow the wearer to revisit past moments afresh, to feel the aliveness and playfulness of a child. This is only a flash back to our early years, where we are the purest version of ourselves.

You recently launched Blobb. When did your ideas around creating wearable art start to form?
I never saw myself making jewellery, but rather sculptures. After studying architecture for five years, I felt an urge to use my hands and move away from the computer. This led me to become an artist. In fact, I see my jewellery as miniature sculptures. At the moment, I do not have the space to do full-scale sculptures so this for me is a jumping-off place towards further experimentation with form and material.

What is your design process to make a Blobb piece?
My designs come out of my need to play, experiment with materials, and create with my own hands. I find working with my hands to be both soothing and exciting. I’m constantly exploring new materials and how they interact, mix, and contrast with each other. I give my hands the freedom to explore textures, shapes, expressions.

What are some of your unrealised ambitions in your artistic practice?
deeply enjoy my work and have no expectations. My intent is to experiment more, try out different materials, work on a larger scale, push further my ideas. Let’s see where this leads me.