Birds of a Feather

Blue Green Works focuses its exacting eye on the plumage and foliage of Murano glass

- HANNAH MARTIN

THE LANDSCAPE CHANDELIER, FROM BLUE GREEN WORKS' NEW GARDEN COLLECTION, PHOTOGRAPHED IN A PRIVATE APARTMENT IN MILAN.

Shimmering, vibrant, lustrous—Murano glass looms large in the collective imagination of designers the world over. So when, several years back, a storied local factory reached out to Peter B. Staples, hoping to collaborate, the Blue Green Works founder and creative director knew it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when. “I had to challenge my impulse to distill every line,” explains Staples, whose Manhattan-based practice is known for reducing recognizable forms (a crown, a palm tree, a candelabra) to their essence. “I was feeling this desire to make work with a different kind of energy, a different kind of expressive force.”