I have already admitted my complete and utter lack of talent for glass-blowing. Let’s just say one class in college led to singed arm hairs and a good palm burn—and that despite my injuries, which I thought testament to my commitment, all I produced was a few amorphous bubbles. So I like to write about really good hand-blown glasswork. You need to try just dipping the pipe into the liquid glass that’s inside a 2,000-degree furnace in order to gain a massive appreciation of this art form. This ancient technique is being reinvented by contemporary designers, including New York-based Jeffrey Goodman of jGoodDesign.

Aqua Pendant Lamp. Designed by jGoodDesign.

In order to show the inherent difficulty of the material, as well as its power to take on a life of its own, Goodman cultivates an “appreciation of irregularity, and creates humor by setting a pattern and breaking the expectation.” Of his chandeliers, lamps, and vessels, Aqua illustrates jGoodDesign’s penchant for playfulness. This pendant lamp is a “perfect” sphere troubled by “three blobs of glass that are dropped onto the light fixture and sucked in.” These imperfections reflect light and intensify optical illusions—which is just how Goodman wants it. Having grown up in Wildwood, New Jersey, a beach and boardwalk town, the artist behind jGoodDesign revels in “the wonder and amusement” of childhood. His work recalls everything from the contorted torsos of funhouse mirrors to the flocculent heads of cotton candy.

Each Aqua Pendant Lamp is a one-of-a-kind creation signed by the artist. Sizes, colors, and finishes are determined by you. But Goodman gives us all a thorough palette of choices to begin with, including smooth or sandblasted glass in colors as varied as translucent white and wispy yellow, celadon and smoky olive, amber and orange, and a wide array of blues, including the oil-slick wonder named steel blue. Aqua is a real tribute to the art of hand-blown glass, with a twist of whimsy—what Goodman terms “playfully alive.” Its three “flaws” enhance the mysterious nature of the material, providing a sort of blueprint for imperfection—the three blobs forming black holes in a galaxy of glass.