Draga & Aurel presents colourful Crisalide side tables made with Murano glass

Draga & Aurel presents their new Crisalide side tables in Paris as part of Organic Frequencies, a design exhibition at Galerie BSL, on view from September 10 – December 24, 2026. “Evolving from the research with Murano glass first explored through the Crisalide lamps, presented in Miami and later in Milan, the side tables distil into a few essential elements: a principle that lies at the heart of Draga & Aurel’s work: material, technique and colour are not simply tools of design, but active agents within the creative process,” Draga & Aurel notes in the project's description.

Crisalide embodies the artistic approach that characterises the design studio’s work. Rather than translating a predetermined drawing directly into an object, the table design evolves through a continuous dialogue with matter. The final form emerges through the making process, first in the furnace in Venice and later in their atelier in Como. “During the process, material and colour merge, generating depth, overlaps and chromatic transitions that can never be entirely anticipated. The form itself retains the memory of this process: free and organic, far removed from rigid geometries, it appears to define itself progressively as it takes shape,” the contemporary design studio explains.

The tabletop's lightness and transparency contrast with a slender leg in craquelé blown glass, whose vibrant, irregular surface adds another dimension of texture. The leg is set into a sand-cast brass base with a silver-bath finish, whose tactile presence provides a counterpoint to the delicacy of the glass. “Different techniques thus coexist in a delicate balance, where the precision of design meets gesture, instinct and the ability to respond to what emerges during the making process,” the studio notes.

This tension between intention and unpredictability makes the essence of Draga & Aurel’s research particularly visible. “Crisalide thus also becomes a reflection on high craftsmanship as an expression of contemporary design: not simply a display of technical virtuosity, but a design approach grounded in an intimate understanding of techniques and materials and, at the same time, in the ability to leave room for variation, uniqueness and discovery,” Draga & Aurel mentions.