Ella SaddingtonAbout
CV Dossier
Ella Saddington is an experimental designer, researcher, and artist currently based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Her practice explores the intersection of craft, material culture, and design, focusing on reactivating pre-industrial techniques within contemporary contexts. Through her studio, Cordon Salon, Saddington investigates the tacit knowledge embedded in traditional craftsmanship, blending historical research with material experimentation to create objects that are both functional and deeply resonant.

Saddington’s work spans sculpture, furniture, and lighting, characterised by a rigorous engagement with process and an enduring inquiry into sustainability, legacy, and the transmission of skill. Her practice is defined by meticulously investigating how objects are made, the systems that sustain them, and their cultural significance. By reframing overlooked or obsolete craft practices, Saddington reveals their enduring relevance, contributing to a broader discourse on materiality and innovation in design.

Her work has been exhibited widely in Australia, with notable presentations at the Melbourne Art Fair (2024), the National Gallery of Victoria (2023), Oigall Projects (2023), Craft Victoria (2022) and Sophie Gannon Gallery (2021), and is held in private collections internationally. 

In 2022, Saddington was awarded the George Alexander Fellowship by the International Specialised Skills Institute, supporting an intensive study into the material intelligence of medieval and early modern European armour-making. She is a recipient of the Creative Victoria 2023 Creators Fund (Aus) and a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK) a member of the National Association of Visual Artists (Aus) and Craft Victoria (Aus).





Commissions and collaborations welcome  
Get in touch:

Email: ellasaddington@gmail.com
Instagram: @ellasaddington
Are.na: Ella Saddington



































I acknowledge the Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, as the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and future, and extend this respect to all Indigenous Nations for their enduring stewardship, wisdom, and creative contributions.

PROJECT: Melbourne Art Fair, 2025 
A Study in Reflection and Texture  
                                  

For the Oigall Project VIP booth at the Melbourne Art Fair, the Wallace Lamp evolves—now available in two distinct finishes, Mirror Polish and Satin, as well as in two sizes: Wallace and Wallace Large.

In a space conceived as an encased, visceral environment—where sensation, movement, and material interplay—Wallace brings its own dialogue of surface and light. The Mirror Polish finish captures and distorts its surroundings, amplifying the space’s speculative, shifting nature, while the Satin finish absorbs and diffuses light, offering a subtler, tactile presence. Together, these iterations extend Wallace’s sculptural language, emphasising both reflection and restraint, sharpness and softness.

Positioned within Oigall’s radical reimagining of domesticity and self, Wallace becomes not just a source of illumination but a conduit for atmosphere—shaping, warping, and participating in the sensory landscape of the booth.

    FINISHES:     Mirror polish, Satin
    SIZES:        Wallace, Wallace Large




    • 1.1  “The act of making something with one’s hands in a material is a way of participating in the world. It is a conversation, interaction and negotiation between the person and her environment. By manipulating material, we affect the world and are simultaneously affected. What we make either stays or vanishes, but the experience has changed us, maybe in little ways, maybe in great ways. Our hands are the ultimate contact point between our self and the world, the physical and material.”
    •                                                                                       - Camilla Groth


    PROJECT: WALLACE LAMP, 2024                                    


    For centuries, armourers and swordsmiths stood at the forefront of innovation. Their work demanded an intricate understanding of material, technique, mechanics, and aesthetics. Each suit of armour balanced protection, mobility, and beauty and was rich in cultural and individual meaning. Today, we might dismiss such objects as relics of a violent past. But to do so is to ignore the ingenuity they represent: the ability to transform raw material into something that not only serves but endures.


    Now, their craft not only defined the technologies of their time but also laid the groundwork for advancements in engineering, mechanics, and material science that continue to shape our world today. This lineage of innovation reveals that crafted goods are far more than objects of utility or beauty; but are an evolving repository of human ingenuity. They carry a foundation of knowledge that both reflects the complexities of the era and drives progress into the future.


    The Wallace Lamp, a prelude to our forthcoming Garniture Collection, embodies this philosophy. Named in homage to the Wallace Collection in London, where I was first captivated by the artistry and ingenuity of historical armour. The lamp represents a contemporary reimagining of these age-old techniques, a dialogue between history and the contemporary moment. Functioning both as utilitarian artefacts and as a reminder of the beauty and intelligence embedded in the processes, hands, minds, and legacies that have shaped them.

      COMPOSITION: Stainless steel
      FINISH:      Mirror polish
      WEIGHT:      3.5 KG / 7.7 lbs
      LAMP:        E14 LED 
      SWITCH:      Inline
      CORD:        3-core/0.75 mm
      POWER:       120V - 240V AUS/NZ   
      DIMENSIONS:  W: 40 CM /15.75 IN  
                   H: 51 CM / 21 IN







      • Category: Applied Research


      • For:      Cordon Salon
      • Project:  Puddle Mirrors
      • Date:     2018-Ongoing

      • Process:     Silvering 
      • Location:    Melbourne, Australia
      • Design:      Ella Saddington
      • Craftwork:   Luke Price
      Technique:   Poured Silver on glass
      Materials:   Glass, Cerium Oxide, Tin, Silver Nitrate,                                    Ammonia, Glucose, Sealant




      Silvering, initially developed in the 16th century and refined over generations, reached its most recognised form in the 19th century. Artisans perfected the technique, using silver nitrate, tin, ammonia, and glucose to create the high-quality reflective surfaces we associate with mirrors today. This process, which merged art with chemistry, became increasingly sophisticated, preserving a deep, tacit knowledge of material transformation. However, with the rise of mass production and synthetic materials in the mid-20th century, silvering gradually faded into obscurity, nearly lost in the rush of industrialisation.

      These Puddle Mirrors re-engage with this nearly forgotten tradition, reinterpreting silvering not simply as a technical process but as a form of cultural preservation. Imbued with quiet experimentation, they reflect the disquieting passage of time, turning the reflective surface into a site of material and intellectual contemplation. By resurrecting silvering, we tap into a language that has been all but forgotten, questioning how historical craftsmanship can still inform contemporary design and reminding us that the boundaries between past and present are always porous, always reflective.









        1.2
        •   "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."                                                                                                                                - William Morris