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Creative collaboration based on coupledom can sometimes be a bit hairy (think Courtney and Kurt, or Sonny and Cher), but when the two can sit equally at the table together (more Aimee Mann and Michael Penn style) it can be a combination that can’t lose. Kiln Enamel is the Brooklyn-born brainchild of Elissa Ehlin and Jay Leritz, whose art and design backgrounds lend different aspects to its beauty and success.
Focusing on enamel jewelry and housewares (Elissa’s sister Rachel, a designer for Abdul & Rachel, also makes enamel-accented handbags), Elissa and Jay’s designs are bold and bright, just like their creators. Kiln Enamel just celebrated its one-year anniversary, a commemoration made sweeter with the recent news of the company’s acceptance to this year’s Accent On Design show, a privilege that most designers enjoy only after they get by the seven-to-ten year waiting period to apply (and don’t forget the actual acceptance after that…only one or two new exhibitors are accepted a year). Elissa and Jay will showcase their wares among the likes of Kartell, Phillippe Starck, Jonathan Adler, and selected others recognized as the best of the best in the industry.
Mighty Flirt recently sat down with Elissa, her pitbull and two cats in the Williamsburg-based Kiln Enamel studio (Jay was out hawking the wares on Spring Street in SoHo for the day, something they no longer need to do financially, but he enjoys it) and picked her brain about life, love, her grandmother, and good design.
MF: First of all, what on earth is enameling?
KE: It is a lost art! Enameling is mainly practiced by the elderly now and offered in adult education courses rather than through art schools. And there is only one manufacturer of enamel left in the United States. It is basically a centuries old hot glass process done over metals. The enamel is like paint…it starts as a powdered sugar-like substance with pigment. The colors are sifted over the pieces and then fired at 1500 degrees in a ceramics kiln. There are all sorts of styles -- transparents, opaques, metallics, but we use opaque 99.9 percent of the time. That is just our artistic preference - the others look too crafty - and opaques looks better on jewelry and you can get more contrasts out of it. Some of our pieces are hand painted or stenciled. But we keep the exact way we get the patterns onto our pieces a secret. Everything we do is experimental, but this secret is our trademark. Everything is handmade, including the wires on the necklaces.
MF: How did you gravitate to enamel as an artistic endeavor?
KE: About three years ago, Jay found a kiln for about $100 and took a few classes in San Diego. Jay owns Deform, a furniture shop in San Diego and was primarily designing furniture at the time. I was a color theorist for seven years and an interior designer in Boston and San Diego. I never took any classes; enameling either agrees with you or it doesn’t. I am a jewelry addict and as a color theorist having that many color options in enamel was amazing. Jay incorporated enameling into sculpture and we do mobiles and housewares, as well as the jewelry line.
MF: In many professional couples, one tends to be the artistic person while the other takes care of the business side. How do you split the business and how are the pieces conceptualized?
KE: We are both 100 percent involved equally in the creative process. Jay and I draw back and forth on designs…we never have different pieces of paper. We save all of our napkins and scraps; most of our ideas evolve that way. Sometimes if we are in different places for a day we will come back with an idea and have drawn the same exact thing! Usually, one of us will come up with an idea, like faces. Then we think, okay, what kind of faces? At least once a day we say “Oh, that would be so cool as a necklace.” We interpret everything we see- it could be a car! We have a whole file of art. We ask everyone who works at the studio about their ideas. We definitely try to bring everyone into the process. Anyone who works here has a major art background…it is a pre-requisite to work at the studio, and we value everyone’s input.
MF: Do you have a specific process for coming up with pieces? A certain album you like to put on or a particular corner of the studio you like to work in? How do you come up with your ideas?
KE: No…we never go to a specific place or have a certain regimen. Just everything inspires us! We never have a shortage of ideas; in fact we always have a gazillion! It’s funny, though, where some of our ideas come from. People always comment on the Asian influences in the work and ask if I collect Asian inspired design. I don’t collect any Asian pieces, but I grew up in an Asian-modern home and my mom collected Asian design. I like really stylized designs- botanicals, geometric, faces.
MF: Who are your influences? What kind of work do you look towards for inspiration?
KE: Most of my influences are architects as opposed to jewelry designers. All of my favorite furniture is by Saarinen -- Eero Saarenin also did the TWA terminal at JFK. I also love (architect) Paul Rudolph. My grandmother also is a huge, huge influence. She is an antique dealer and a major collector. She has been teaching me about glass and color and pottery since I was this big (Elissa’s hand goes close to the floor). She buys things because they speak to her. She is another reason I started collecting glass. We would stay up late together and she would dump all of her jewelry out onto the bed and she would teach me about it. She’s really into art - she really understands. Jay’s inspirations are a lot of the same architects we both love together. He also loves mathematics. His explanations behind his work are always based on some kind of mathematical theory - he is a deep thinker- a definite intellect. Richard Neutra, Mondrian, and Cubism also influence him heavily.
MF: So what is next for Kiln Enamel? Current projects as well as hopes and dreams?
KE: We are really blowing up right now! We want to have Kiln shops internationally, and we want to really focus on the design and prototypes rather than the manufacturing. Right now all of our pieces are handmade downstairs in our workshop, but we are having a hard time keeping up with all of the demands. So we hope to be able to just focus on the design soon. Currently we have design projects with Kate Spade, the fall line for Anthropologie, Bergdorf Goodman, and a few restaurants. It is apparently really hip to put jewelry on waitstaff right now, and we just finished a fish necklace for Sushi Samba. We are hopeful to create an enamel cookware line and an occasional line with tables, shelving, and lighting. We would absolutely love to work on a public art commission, something involving sculpture.
And of course we are looking forward to the Accent On Design show. We never do any trade shows, but this show is the best of the best. There is a seven to ten year waitlist to apply, but we were actually asked to apply. We never do trade shows, but this trade show is not tacky. It is filled with pieces that are solid, timeless and collected. It is very prestigious. The two-week wait between sending in our application and getting our acceptance was like waiting for your college acceptance. And getting in was like getting into Cooper Union!
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