In partnership with Bvlgari

When I video call Poppy Templeton (aka @duckragu on Instagram), she’s bathed in sunlight, perched on a rickety bench amid the greenery at her local park. It’s mid-winter in Naarm/Melbourne – usually an icy affair – but today the skies reign blue. She remarks that she seldom finds the time to enjoy rare good weather days. “So, I’m taking advantage of it,” she says with a smile.

It feels serendipitous that the first thing we speak about is Templeton’s relation to the light. As someone who has spent the last five years crafting custom, handmade stained glass wares, light feels central to her creative practice. "The best part about leadlight is how it interacts with sunlight," she tells me. "Orange and amber look so beautiful in the sun."

But beyond the studio, light continues to follow her. Whether creating in her studio, or more recently, playing with Bvlgari’s latest creations, Templeton is instinctively drawn to objects that catch and transform light in unexpected ways. She wears jewellery sparingly – usually vintage family pieces or gifts made by friends – but with the same intention she brings to her own work.

It's perhaps what made the artist such a natural wearer of Bvlgari's latest collection. Like Templeton, the Maison approaches craftsmanship as an artistic practice, where technical precision is inseparable from creative expression. This philosophy of artsmanship sees every artisan as an artist in their own right, transforming precious materials into works that carry both emotion and imagination.

The Maison's latest collection explores the dialogue between two seemingly opposing materials – warm gold and industrial steel – transforming rigid metals into fluid, sculptural forms through exacting craftsmanship. Like her own stained glass practice, the pieces come alive through their relationship with light, proving that even the hardest materials can still find a way to appear unexpectedly soft, luminous and expressive. As the Exclusive Partner of Biennale Arte 2026, the Maison continues to champion this exchange between contemporary art, culture and exceptional craftsmanship, reinforcing creativity as a universal language.

Because of this, the collaboration felt surprisingly intuitive – even if stepping in front of the camera didn't. "I'd never done anything like that before," she says of her day on set with RUSSH. "It felt way out of my comfort zone, but I thought, why not?"

Glasswork wasn't always an obvious career path for Templeton. Her Mother had experimented with stained glass in her early years, creating a handful of pieces that Templeton became fascinated by as she grew up. When a year-long TAFE course presented itself during Melbourne's lockdowns in 2021, she enrolled without hesitation.

"I had nothing to do," Templeton tells me, "And my friend was like, 'Oh, I'm going to do this random glass course.' It was a year-long TAFE course. As a medium, it's quite prohibitive to get into just because of the initial upfront costs, and there are so many steps that it's quite hard to figure out on your own. Some people do – I've got friends who are self-taught and I'm always amazed by that – but when that course came up, I was just like, 'Yeah, I’ve got to do it.'"

Today, five years in, her studio mirrors the way she works: an organised chaos of coloured glass scattered across almost every available surface. While it might overwhelm a nosy visitor, Templeton says she knows exactly where everything belongs. "In my studio, I lean from organised chaos towards pure chaos – but that's how I work best," she laughs.

There is no fixed formula behind her work either. Some commissions begin with an emotional story – a beloved childhood horse, a treasured family memory – while others begin with something far simpler, like a single sheet of vintage orange glass she can't stop thinking about. "Every piece is so different...," she says. "Sometimes I instantly start with an idea and go from there. Other times – like with a piece I'm almost finished with now – I start with a colour scheme. It's a weird way to work, but colour is my favourite part of the job."

Colour remains her greatest obsession. In workshops, she tells me students often ask whether they've chosen too many hues for their projects. Her answer is almost always a resounding: no. "I usually have to restrain myself a bit. I'm so varied, though – I love really tonal pieces, but I also love high contrast. I just like everything!"

Visually, the language of Templeton's work borrows as much from Bauhaus graphics, Art Deco architecture and vintage matchbox design as it does from traditional stained glass. With a background in both film and graphic design, she's more interested in distilling an idea than illustrating it literally. "I'm not good at drawing," she laughs. "I like figuring out which shapes can communicate something without being literal."

"In my studio, I lean from organised chaos towards pure chaos – but that's how I work best."

"I've also always loved the thought of the unknown history behind an existing object, and then giving it a new meaning," she says, which explains her love of vintage materials. Templeton sources repurposed glass and mirrors wherever possible, drawn equally to their sustainability and their unknown histories. Every salvaged sheet carries a past life before becoming part of something entirely new. And her commitment to reducing waste runs just as deep. In almost five years of her practice, she estimates she's thrown away only a single box of unusable scraps, instead doing her best to pass smaller offcuts onto mosaic artists – anyone, really – who can continue their story.

Part of that ethos of sustainability is also in her pace. In an age where creativity is expected to happen instantly, it’s refreshing to see an artist embrace a slower approach to their work. She tells me she believes boredom is essential to the process; allowing ideas the space to emerge naturally as opposed to forcing them into existence. It's a rhythm that feels entirely at odds with the fast-paced industries she once worked in, and one that has shaped not only her creative practice but her outlook more generally.

"I've also always loved the thought of the unknown history behind an existing object, and then giving it a new meaning."

For Templeton, making begins long before the cutting, soldering or polishing. It starts on long walks by the river near her studio, often parked on the very bench she speaks to me from now. "A huge part of my job is literally just me thinking," she tells me. "Would this work? Would these colours work together? What specific bits of glass would I use? It's just me sitting there thinking, not even looking at the glass or a screen.”

Perhaps that's why even this conversation feels like part of the process: unhurried, thoughtful and unfolding in the open air. By the time we say goodbye, the sunlight hasn't left her – and somehow, it feels fitting.

PHOTOGRAPHY Kitty Callaghan

EXECUTIVE FASHION DIRECTOR Hannah Cooper

STYLIST Koby Dulac-Daley

TALENT Poppy Templeton

HAIR & MAKEUP @ Assembly Agency using Oribe courtesy of Rogue Beauty and makeup courtesy of Mecca

Feature image (left): BVLGARI bracelet and ring. Feature image (right): YU MEI shirt; BVLGARI earrings, bracelets and ring.