Autumn’s Throne by Rachel Miller

Everybody has quirks, from hidden depths of feeling to unexpected outbursts of wit. As we move through the world, our personalities reveal themselves in gestures large and small. The places we live, on the other hand, are not always so distinctive. Some rooms are boxy and featureless, defined strictly by rectangles and right angles. Other rooms are filled with furnishings and accessories that perfectly reflect the decorating crazes of the moment, but confide very little about the inhabitant’s true passions.

When you bring artwork into your home, your own personality bubbles up to the surface. Just one imaginative, well-crafted piece can make an indelible mark on the space. consider "Autumn’s Throne" forged by sister-and-brother blacksmiths by Rachel and Tim Miller. No more seat, it’s a magical landscape caught in the moment before fall turns to winter. The artists have used the ancient, still thriving tradition of metalsmithing to pay tribute to beauty and change in the natural world. Only five of these limited-edition chairs exist, which makes each one all the more special.

Is this chair practical? Probably not, if you need a matched set of four, six, or eight for your dining room.

Is this chair an extravagance? Some might think so. It certainly would be wasted if cast in the minor role of attention-grabbing conversation piece or pretty scenery. Like any complicated, multilayered character, this memorable chair can carry a lot more weight and meaning than that.

Is this chair valuable? Yes, incalculably, if it embodies ideas you hold dear, provides enduring satisfaction, and reveals a tiny but about what makes your heart beat faster. William Morris, the nineteenth-century father of the Arts and Crafts movement, famously advised "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." The true worth of "Autumn’s Throne", or any piece created by an artist, lies in its power to make a statement—not simply as a decorative focal point, but, more eloquently, as a passionate declaration of belief.

A metalworker known for his industrial-strength designs, Boris Bally does not travel light. When he moved his home and studio from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Providence, Rhode Island, he needed an 18-wheeler and a crane to haul a total of 36,000 pounds. "I tease my wife, who’s a physician, all the time," he says. "She carries all of her work around with her in her head. I would rather drag my stuff around with me externally."

This "stuff" includes raw materials, machinery ranging from saws to a hydraulic press, and finished designs, mainly in the form of wearable sculpture and jewelry, flatware, and furniture. Weighing in among his heaviest work—and also his most popular— is the Transit Series: bowls and chairs made out of aluminum street signs, which are bent into shape with great force.

Using street signs is more than a chance for the artist to flex some muscle, however. It’s also an elegant form of recycling. "Our resources on the planet are finite, and the best test of an artists is how well we can use what we have at hand," says Bally.

His vision of art as recycling comes in part from his training as a goldsmith in Basel, Switzerland, shortly after high school. Given the value of gold, obsessive conserving is part of the trade. But Bally treats scraps of non-precious metal with the same kind of care. He frequents scrap yards and likes to walk his dogs straight to the neighbors’ trash cans on garbage days. One of his biggest recycling projects has been collecting corks from around the world to use as feet for his Transit Chairs.

"I started using champagne corks as the feet of my Transit Chairs. The cork made the perfect foot because it’s pliant and easy to replace. You just have to be willing to break open a champagne bottle in the name of art."