The collection's name carries more than one meaning. Neotenic captures its aesthetic language: forms that are soft, rounded and playfully proportioned. "Neo" does further work — nodding to Neapolitan nostalgia, the swirling colours of a classic ice cream echoed in the marbled glass, offered in Strawberry, Chocolate and Vanilla. It speaks too to newness in its most literal sense: a forward-looking approach to British craft.

Neotenic grew from a collaboration between Original BTC, a British, family-owned lighting manufacturer with its own Oxfordshire glassworks, and Buchanan Studio, a London-based design practice led by Charlotte and Angus Buchanan, known for a romantic and sculptural approach to interiors. The collaboration grew from an open brief and a visit that set the direction — both studios sharing a deep commitment to British craftsmanship and a personal, hands-on way of working.

Each Neotenic shade is mouth blown at the Oxfordshire glassworks, by a small team of skilled makers keeping alive a tradition that has largely disappeared from British manufacturing. Molten glass is gathered, coated in opal, worked with coloured frits, then stretched and rolled back on itself to create the collection's signature marbled swirl — blown into a custom graphite mould, annealed overnight and cold worked by hand, giving every piece its own subtle variations. The base, in textured white steel, takes its form from Buchanan Studio's signature triangular motif, while a brass cap at the top of each shade carries the combined logos of both studios, marking the piece as a true collaboration.