May 29, 2011

Here are some highlights from the May 25 event. A big thank you to Ayala Malls’ Greenbelt 5 for donating the venue and to Margarita Fores’ Cibo for sponsoring the food. I didn’t bring a camera so most of my photos are from my phone. The smaller shots are from the official photographer of UNICEF.

I hope you’ve checked out the pieces online. I am really amazed at how well-received the auction is. I know a lot of people are waiting until the last day before bidding. I’m new to eBay so I don’t have a strategy. All I know is that the items are all beautiful. It’s hard for me because this is like an actual list of my favourite things.

Just a reminder – 100% of the proceeds go to UNICEF programs for kids. All these excellent artists have donated their beautiful pieces. Most are hard to get in reality. You’d have to wait for a while before acquiring these pieces. So have a look at the stuff again. There are links all throughout this entry.

UNICEF’s Country Representative Vanessa Tobin and Ito Kish. Ito created three cute floor lamps called “Tweet” – a play on his new fascination towards Twitter. The lamps can be bid on separately. Here’s one.

TV Host Raymond Gutierrez and Preview magazine’s Liz Uy

Dr Rico Quimbo, artist Reg Yuson, UNICEF’s Angela Travis, breastfeeding advocate Issa Abeja. Reg’s two Mozzarella couches are being auctioned off separately. Here is the red one and here’s the black. The sofas are made of poured foam, a highly technical process. It isn’t as simply-made as it may look. Mozzarella was just shown in Singapore and they did very well there.

UNICEF’s Vanessa Tobin and George Belardo, artist Ling Quisumbing-Ramilo who created this beautiful piece called General Assembly specially for the UNICEF Auction for Action.

Artist Ramon Orlina and the Australian Ambassador. Mr Orlina told me he wishes he had given a much bigger piece. The height of this piece is under a foot tall but it has a lot of intricate cuts. It’s only been three days and the sculpture already has 25 bids. It is beautiful. Check it out here.

Fellow UNICEF SAC Bianca Gonzalez, me, Azkals’ Neil Etheridge, breastfeeding advocate Issa Abeja and Azkal’s manager Dan Palami

Janina Dizon Hoschka, wearing a similar pink shell necklace as the one she donated to Auction for Action here.

Ingrid Go, Janina and Irene Lavina. Ingrid donated a necklace from Accessory Lab. This is a stunning piece that you can wear in many ways – formally or casually. Check it out here.

Paul & Daphne Syjuco. Paul donated this beautiful tumbled rock crystal necklace.

Kristine Dee’s pendant sold within the first 2 minutes the site went live (4 pm last May 25).

Well, hello!! Azkal’s goalkeeper Neil Etheridge. Like I said, we are auctioning beautiful pieces of art and design. LOL. No, you can’t have Neil but you can get a once-in-a-lifetime experience of hanging out at the dugout of the Azkals during the next World Cup Qualifier. Plus you get a football kit too. Neil also plays for Fulham in the UK. There are two Azkals packages in the auction. Check them out here.

Tim Yap, Tessa Valdes and Mark Gueco

Tessa and Tim, checking out the Ebay site.

Patrick loves the Mozzarella sofas by Reg Yuson. (We are fans of Reg Yuson.) Actually we want one of the R. Muck sculptures. Thinking of hanging one on the wall of our formal living room. Thinking… Here it is.

When most of the guests had left…

Click the photo to go directly to the Auction for Action site. Bidding goes on til June 4.

Also please check out and “like” Unicef Philippines’ Facebook Page. Learn more about UNICEF’s projects with children – education, nutrition, child’s rights, anti-trafficking and many more. You can also find different ways of helping. Thank you.

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