New York design duo George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg have created a crystal lighting collection in collaboration with Czech glass manufacturer Lasvit.
Yabu Pushelberg joined forces with Lasvit to create the slender cylindrical lights, shaped like sunbursts and elongated capsules, to celebrate the traditions of handcraft.
Each of the glass bulbs in the Cipher collection is handblown, and hand-etched with clean-cut vertical lines, by craftspeople in the Czech Republic.
The individual crystal tubes erupt from champagne-gold polished brass fittings at the centre of the lights, casting shadows of their star-shaped forms across the room.
Within the bulbs, light glows around the etched lines of the glassware, creating luminescent silhouettes.
"The surface decoration was influenced by our fascination and exploration of the way in which etched patterning catches light," said the design studio, which is best known for its hotel interiors.
"The collection is extremely flexible and customisable with limitless configurations for private residences and bespoke installation projects."
Hidden LED sources within the brass connection points soften the bulbs' illumination as the light travels downs the etched lines. The longer cylindrical pieces project intricate patterns onto the walls and surrounding surfaces, as the light hits the finely etched lines.
The lights are on display at Lasvit's New York showroom, alongside Yabu Pushelberg's Otto glassware collection, as part of this month's NYCxDesign festival.
The studio was initially commissioned by the glass manufacturer to design the single Otto collection. However, when faults in the crystalline glass prompted the designers to hold up the glassware to the light, they recognised the potential for a lighting series.
Otto is a 12-piece collection of crystal glass, which bears the same alternating radial and tangential cut lines as the Cipher series. The detailing of the hand etching echoes the "rustic qualities and the precise craftsmanship" of glassmaking traditions.
"The Otto collection projects an approachability and relaxed elegance through simple, refined details and an overall language that feels familiar and comfortable yet distinctive," said Yabu.
The weighty bases of the Otto collection's stemmed glassware are balanced by the precisely etched texture and clarity of the cut crystal. The series features a variety of glasses, with a carafes, a decanter and an ice bucket.
Many well-known designers have collaborated with Lasvit on lighting collections, including architects Daniel Libeskind – who created a chandelier of hand-blown crystal glass shards – and Kengo Kuma, whose new lighting collection produced by blowing molten glass into dry wooden moulds was showcased at this year's Milan Design Week.
Yabu Pushelberg's Otto and Cipher collections are on display at Lasvit's SoHo showroom, 51 Wooster Street, New York, until the end of June 2017.
Other lighting collections that have launched at NYCxDesign include Roll & Hill's lamps that adjust like construction cranes and pendants and Apparatus' Wiener Werkstätte-influenced bell-jar-shaped lamp shades made from ribbed porcelain.
Photography is by Jenna Bascom.