Contest is a real corker

Some look at a champagne cork and see the pop on the way to the bubbles. Others, though, see design potential. And happily, the visions aren’t mutually exclusive. When a recent contest asked entrants to sip champagne for art’s sake, more than 500 imbibers were happy to oblige.

San Francisco-based modern furniture retailer Design Within Reach required entrants in its recent “Holiday Champagne Chair Contest” to create chairs in miniature (up to 4 inches tall) by using only the materials available in two bottles of bubbly -- cork, wire, foil, glass and paper labels. And many entrants, it seems, emptied the bottles the old-fashioned way.

According to the retailer’s newsletter, (www.dwr.com/images/newsletter/rocker.html), which announced the contest winners this month: “A first for this year was the receipt of an IBM power cord in the place of a champagne chair. This, in addition to a number of late entries and an even greater number that avoided the rules, is what one must expect when alcohol is involved.”

Five jurors chose the winner from an eclectic selection of entries: Rockers, gliders, chaise longues, thrones and plain old kitchen chairs. Styles ranged from the simple and straightforward Windsor to Post-modern. One French entry titled “This Is Not a Chair” paid homage to Rene Magritte with a wire stool suspended behind a metal frame.

“Good design goes beyond -- and crosses -- boundaries,” noted judge Yves Behar, a San Francisco artist and designer. Although bubbly was served during the judging, Behar jokes that he and his fellow judges had to “sober up” out of respect for the craftsmanship and effort put into the chairs.

Rick Dean’s “number 1” (a minimalist, curving wire chair with a cork seat) was awarded the top prize. The San Diego resident attended a local DWR studio event where participants were provided the materials for the contest. For his efforts, Dean received $1,000, and a case of champagne. He’s already thinking about next year’s chair.