Leela Dilkes-Hoffman has always had a passion for creating. Growing up, she would spend her weekends and school holidays with her sister Asha at Dilkes-Hoffman Studio Ceramics, their family-run gallery and workshop space in Margaret River. The two would often create and sell clay animals out of the Studio to earn pocket money. Growing up in the southwest of Western Australia instilled in Leela a deep appreciation for the beautiful bushland and coast.
“During wildflower season, I would spend hours each weekend out bushwalking.”
In a gap year after high school, Leela discovered a passion for jewellery making, learning from a local artist in Margaret River. These creative pursuits were put on hold as Leela moved first to Perth and then to Brisbane, completing a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in researching sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging. For three years, Leela lived on the Isle of White in the UK, advising multinational consumer goods companies on their plastic packaging strategies. It was during this time that Leela rediscovered her passion for jewellery making training in a small cabin in the countryside.
With an educational background rooted in sustainability, Leela strives to bring this focus into her creative practice, challenging the trends of fast fashion and overconsumption.
“Producing (and buying) quality, handmade jewellery is itself an act of sustainability.”
When asked about her creative routine, Leela detailed that it always starts with tidying up her workshop located at the back of her home. As a highly organised individual, she finds that starting the creative process in a neat area allows for a clean slate and the opportunity to make new messes as she creates. Often drawing from previous works, sketchbook drawings, or images of native flowers, Leela gets to colouring, working on roughly six plates of metal at a time. Once her designs are complete, she spends time carefully cutting, filing, and finishing each piece.
Inspired often by the natural beauty of Margaret River, Leela hopes her pieces can capture this essence.
“I want to create pieces that mean someone can take a little bit of that beauty with them wherever they travel.”
When worn, Leela hopes individuals feel the joyous moment in time in which her jewellery has emerged from.
Images supplied by artist