Designers Lanzavecchia + Wai are the latest to craft objects in coloured glass, producing bright blue tableware for online retailer Luisa Via Roma (+ slideshow).
The hand-blown Glasss collection, which was launched at Milan design week, features two decanters and a pair of glasses, made in either transparent or blue borosilicate.
The decanters have rounded bodies and distinctive tubular necks, informed by the shape of test tubes. The glasses taper inwards at the bottom to rest on narrower bases.
One of the jugs includes a T-shaped glass stopper, while the second features a second test tube-style container held on a branch adjacent to the decanter. The connecting cylinder allows fluid to flow between the two.
"With these simple and soft shapes we wanted to celebrate water, the most precious element that sustains life on earth," said Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai, who are from Italy and Singapore respectively.
The duo has previously designed stackable tables shaped like hamburgers.
For their glassware collection, the designers referred to the history of borosilicate, which has been used to produce lab equipment. The tubular shapes of plumbing systems also informed the cylindrical necks of the decanters.
"Working with borosilicate means starting from ready tubes and blowing and joining them," said the studio, which worked with glass blowers in the north of Italy to produce the collection.
"We believe one of the main strengths of this collection is the simplicity that expresses the craft behind its creation."
Coloured glass was a recurring theme at this year's Milan design week, appearing in everything from furniture designed by the Campana Brothers to cabinets with stained glass doors created by Patricia Urquiola.
French artist Daniel Buren recently incorporated coloured panels into the glass sails of Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton building in Paris.