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Score one-of-a-kind design objects by Bunny Williams, Gaetano Pesce, and more as part of ELLE DECOR’s Design for Good auction.
Mark your calendars! It’s time for ELLE DECOR’s annual Design for Good auction launching today and live through December 16 via Charity Buzz. The items up for sale are truly one-of-a-kind as ELLE DECOR tasked seven artisans to each create a unique piece outside of their usual line of work. The ensuing products are works of art ranging from a hand-painted bubble light fixture from Pelle Designs to a zany ice bucket by Gaetano Pesce for the Flamingo Estate to a potting table by design maven Bunny Williams. And these items both look good and do good. Proceeds raised from the event benefit Housing Works, a nonprofit that supports low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS. See the fabulous pieces we have curated below, snatch one up for a friend (or yourself), and support a great cause. You can start your bidding here.
Designer Bunny Williams is known for, among many things, the exquisite decor and gardens at her home in Connecticut, and for her books on both topics. Who better, then, to imagine the perfect garden table? Inspired by the elegance of utilitarian greenhouse furniture, this piece is made from hot-dipped galvanized steel and white oak. And while its scroll legs and ball feet hark back to classic design, functionality was also a priority for Williams: The slatted- wood top ensures that water can properly drain when one is potting plants or arranging flowers. “You want durable materials and a finish that not only withstands frequent use but will weather beautifully and develop a patina over time,” Williams explains. Though her creation need not be limited to horticulture—it could also work as a buffet table—Williams hopes it will encourage future green thumbs. “One of the great pleasures of gardening is sharing seeds, cuttings, and plants with friends,” she says. “After spending hours looking at a screen all day, you just want to get your hands dirty.”
An old saying recommends that you should never meet your heroes, but in the case of this collaboration between Richard Christiansen and Gaetano Pesce, the rendezvous was fruitful. Christiansen is the founder of the Chandelier Creative agency and the Flamingo Estate, a beauty and home brand named after his Los Angeles property. A longtime fan of Pesce, Christiansen dreamed of working with the Italian architect and designer; it became a reality through a chance meeting. “We shared the idea that art should be at every table, and that ordinary, practical objects have the potential to inspire us all,” Christiansen says. He and Pesce also share a love of wine, so they decided to create a collection of candy-colored ice buckets for the Flamingo Estate (shown here in an exclusive colorway, with a bottle of Flamingo Estate rosé), using Pesce’s signature flexible resin. The resulting vessels are one of a kind. Says Christiansen: “Working together was a wild joy.”
For Jonah Meyer, founder of the Hudson Valley, New York–based furniture company Sawkille Co., the line between fine art and design grows fuzzier every day. That blurring is apparent in this steam-bent chair crafted of leather and bleached walnut. When asked why he works primarily with wood, Meyer’s answer is simple: “I think you’re born that way. It’s an obvious choice—it’s warm and natural, and it feels good to the touch.” With this ergonomic piece, Meyer approached the chair’s leather seat the way a tattoo artist treats skin: He applied a dappling of weather-inspired symbols with a permanent tanning ink that oxidizes the leather, changing the material itself rather than sitting on its surface like paint on a canvas. “It’s always fun to make pieces that stand out from the pack,” says Meyer. “Plus, who doesn’t love a good storm?”
It should come as little surprise that when describing the silhouette of this elegant carafe, Dior Maison artistic director Cordelia de Castellane invokes the runway. “Its shape was inspired by the movement of dresses,” she says of the borosilicate glass creation, which was mouth-blown in Italy. The vessel’s surface features a hand-painted ladybug and fern, two signature motifs inspired by the garden of the brand’s founder, Christian Dior, at his country home in Milly-la-Forêt, France. And while the bucolic imagery might suggest that this is one piece best used en plein air, de Castellane insists that it’s an appropriate accessory for tabletops year-round. “Objects should live with us and bring beauty into our everyday lives,” she says. “This carafe can be used anywhere and anyhow, as long as it brings a bit of happiness.”
When Katja Hirche, the gallery director and owner of New York design dealer Bernd Goeckler, approached artist Yolande Milan Batteau of Callidus Guild and asked her to translate her hand- painted wallcoverings into a series of objects, Batteau relished the challenge. “I’ve developed a visual language that lends itself to everything from fine art to furniture,” she says. “And screens have so much potential. They’re a blank canvas as much as an architectural element.” Her Mu//Katsura screen, named for the Japanese palace that inspired it, is a fully realized focal point, composed of emotive gold-lacquer brushstrokes on panels of pigmented plaster and inlaid with glittering mother-of-pearl accents.
It could come as a shock to learn that the very polished Bubble Chandelier by Pelle Designs started out as a DIY project that founder Jean Pelle submitted to ReadyMade magazine back in 2008. Since then, she has established herself as a maker of refined and striking fixtures. Each one is composed of elegant globes handmade in Vermont by glassblowers, some with motifs painted by Pelle herself. In this particular iteration, Pelle was transfixed by the various parts of a fennel plant she spotted on a trip to upstate New York. She isolated and abstracted the plant’s form into patterns that adorn the glass bulbs on this one-of-a-kind 64-inch chandelier. “The stalk and pinnate structure became a pattern resembling wispy dandelion seeds floating in the air; the round yellow flowers are represented by a collection of gold dots and curved lines,” Pelle says. “I kept the leaves looking as feathery as possible, even using my own hair to paint them.” The result is a mesmerizing interpretation of the plant’s component parts on opalescent glass, accented with 24-karat gold.
When Tomás Vera started the Colombian weaving studio Verdi, he had to fill the shoes of his late father, Latin American textile pioneer Carlos Vera Dieppa. Today, Vera’s Bogotá-based team of 75 people has created a brand that celebrates ancestral craftsmanship and traditions in a modern, sustainable way. Verdi’s reimagined travel trunk, a chest composed of copper-and-gold handwoven threads accented with silver plating, is aptly named Alhaja—the Spanish word for “treasure.” Its unorthodox profile and fique-wrapped handles recall Colombia’s vibrant natural beauty and speak to the company’s craft heritage. All in all, it defines what Verdi has come to be known for: the preservation of traditions in a collectible work of functional art.