Here for the benders bash and hanging out with these lovely guild members the day before the main event.

With the website overhaul, I figured I would make a post to try it out. It seems easier to post, and I know that upgrades will continue to happen. Here are a few pictures of some recent projects I've done.

Just finished up this fun little piece. I bent the neon shape out of 8mm uncoated blacklight tubing. It lives inside a box frame that I built, then lined the inside with a repurposed blacklight poster. That part was a bit tricky but it turned out alright.

I recently reorganized my neon patterns, and also changed the way I was storing them.  I had accumulated quite a few after 22 years in my studio and it was starting to become an issue! I was storing them rolled up and they were getting messy and hard to locate one when I needed it.

Generally, I don't keep every single pattern from everything I make, but I do save most things in case I ever need to repair/remake a unit, and also just as a visual reference for projects to note glass color, diameter, and footage amounts. (I also have a notebook that I keep for these things, but that's a subject for a future blog post!) I do keep all my patterns from my art pieces and also the jobs where I designed the artwork. I think since I make my patterns using an overhead projector to draw them by hand (rather than using a computer) I've become a little attached to some of them, even though I might not use them again. Most of the projects I tend to do are physically small (with the patterns not being more than 3'x5') so I decided to change from storing them rolled up to folding them flat, thinking that would work out better. And I was right!

When I worked in neon wholesale shops, it was common to store the patterns rolled since most of those jobs were channel letters, and the patterns were typically over 18" tall and several feet long. When I started storing my neon patterns in my studio, I just rolled them since that's what I was used to, but because most of my patterns are on the smaller side they just became a big mess of little rolled tubes. :) The flat and folded system is so much better!

The process of switching from rolled to flat involved sorting through all my patterns first and purging the ones that I knew I would never ever need again, which ended up being about 1/3 of what I had.  After I whittled down my collection, working on a small bunch at a time, I unrolled them and trimmed off the excess paper from around the edges, which helped to fold them smaller and flatter. After they were folded I made a tab for each one using 3" wide paper tape, with the name written on each one.

I was able to fit them all into one file box and store them neatly under my table. I like them so much better this way!

How do you store your patterns? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

I started learning how to make neon in Maryland back in 1989 when I took a 12-week course. I then worked in neon sign shops for about 10 years before opening Evening Neon so I could focus on my own projects and artwork. My path was pretty traditional for getting into the field of neon, and I was fortunate to have been able to learn during a time when more neon shops existed and opportunities were readily available. After LED’s came into the market in the early 2000s, the neon industry really took a hit. Around that same time, the change over from lead to lead-free tubing happened and coupled with the diminishing availability of neon making supplies a lot of neon shops ended up closing. Fortunately with the advent of platforms like Instagram, neon has become popular again! This is creating a new generation seeking to journey into the wonderful world of neon making but aren’t quite sure how to begin. Although there are still neon shops out there willing to take on apprentices, those opportunities are still pretty scarce. There are workshops and classes available at a few glass facilities and some colleges offer courses in neon as part of their arts program which is a good starting point but really only gives a “taste” of the neon making process. Even the neon schools which were prevalent in the 1980s were meant to only provide the basics, with the idea that when you finished the program you would further hone your skills over thousands of hours working in a neon shop. The reality is that unless you are consistently getting bending time in the fires, it’s very difficult to improve your skills and develop into a competent neon craftsperson. Learning neon glass bending needs to be a constant, ongoing activity. There are no shortcuts. This leaves many who are dedicated to learning neon tube bending to resort to what has become the default approach: set up your own torches, buy some glass to start practicing and try to figure it out on your own. That is a really difficult way to learn neon!! Working with hot glass is difficult enough, and without the knowledge and guidance of a skilled tube bender to facilitate the learning, it can become self-defeating real quick.

This is why I’m so excited about the Neon Makers Guild, an organization whose time has come. We want to create a place where aspiring beginners can connect with experienced benders and gain access to all of their juicy neon knowledge. Neon Makers Guild is a space where folks who are dedicated to the craft of neon making can share information, learn things and generally support each other in the spirit of generosity so we can all be the best neon craftspeople we can be. Social media has been a place for some of this connection, but as someone looking to spend LESS time on social media I’m excited to have somewhere to gather that isn’t going to treat me like a product and sell my data! We have a lot of great things planned for the Neon Maker’s Guild and I’m really happy to be helping build this organization and community.

Let’s all help to keep those neon fires burning!