Crown Pendant 1, a new introduction by New York City-based Blue Green Works, holds court over a dining table. Each piece casts a gentle, ambient glow upward and a sharp, concentrated beam of light downward.
Up an unassuming flight of narrow stairs in New York’s bustling Chinatown—once the workshop of fashion designer Emily Bode—lies the design studio Blue Green Works. Founded in 2020 by Peter B. Staples, it’s an electric space brimming with creativity. Here, surrounded by sketches, samples, and glimmering prototypes, resides Crown, the studio’s new and innovative lighting collection. Part icon, part functional illumination, the series reimagines the age-old symbol of royalty into four sculptural fixtures that feel both reverent and refreshingly restrained.
“Initially Crown was about pushing the material,” Staples explains. Each fixture features glass petals that radiate from a central core of polished steel or brass, creating both its structural foundation and visual focal point. Here, the form is adapted as a wall-mounted sconce.
With Crown, Staples continues his exploration of iconography shaped by heraldry, tattoo culture, and found objects. His inspiration? Minimalist medieval crowns wrapped in 1930s newspaper that were discovered hidden inside a Lithuanian church wall. “They were pure representations, like the idea of a crown more than a literal one,” he tells me. The resulting fixtures, Crown Pendant Long, Pendant 1, Pendant 2, and Crown Flush, translate that purity into hand-formed glass petals anchored by polished brass or steel cores.
With a merchant’s eye, Staples reimagines the design as Crown Pendant Long—an elongated, linear form that broadens the collection’s functionality and versatility within an interior space.
Crown Pendant 2 is slightly taller and subtly reshaped for greater vertical presence.
The collection builds on the formal language of Palm, Blue Green Works’ debut, while expanding its design vocabulary—allowing Staples to draw on his background in film and infuse the new work with a cinematic perspective. Each piece glows with a soft, haze above and a crisp, focused beam of light below. “I’m thinking about the Rolex crown and how watches, like jewelry, get pride of place in our lives and on our bodies,” Staples says. Crafted with master glass artisans in the Pacific Northwest, Crown glimmers, transforming light into a functional, yet sculptural occasion.
Peter B. Staples is the founder of Blue Green Works, known for crafting a distinctly American take on elegance—visually impactful yet unfussy, with a focus on material sophistication, structural clarity, and timeless design that sidesteps fleeting trends.
Available now at The Future Perfect, SCP London, Triode Paris, and Blue Green Works. bluegreenworks.com
