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-It involves space gas, it involves electricity,
it involves chemistry.
You're in touch with elements
that you don't really understand.
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Neon is the name that we've given to a tube
that's under vacuum,
that conducts electricity and puts light out.
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I think most people think that their machine made,
you know, I think most people walking by the neon
thinks some machine made that and think that
the whole thing was 3D printed
and nothing could be further from the truth.
You know, they're looking at a,
you know, very hands-on piece of work.
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It's a very solitary practice
where it's sort of you against the materials,
and I like that kind of focus.
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At a shop this size, we have dedicated designers
that work with client-supplied art to kind of
turn that into a sign version of their product, of their logo.
Being that I'm working with paper and fire,
you need to keep things pretty tidy, or else,
you know, you can pretty easily light your table on fire.
And there's several different flames that you use.
The primary one that you're using is a cannon fire.
The other fire that we use is called a ribbon burner.
And then the third thing that we have is a hand torch.
And you're basically just heating the glass
and following around the pattern to create these shapes.
When you bend a piece of neon,
the wall diameters collapse as you bend it.
Like as if you took a garden hose and folded it in half.
And so after you make the bend,
you blow with air back out
to keep the wall -- the diameter the same throughout the tube.
The next stage is to put the gas in the tubes
and light them with a high-voltage transformer.
When you hear a neon sign, that kind of familiar hum,
largely you're hearing the static around the tubes
called the corona.
And so you are hearing a static charge
that's kind of around all the components of the neon sign.
There's a lot of challenges
when it comes to producing a neon tube.
There's just a lot of little pitfalls that you can get into.
You know, neon's also very fragile.
It's a little bit like an egg
where you can strike it real hard in one direction
and everything's fine, and you tap it gently in another place
and it's it breaks immediately.
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When I'm doing my own things,
I have a lot more chance to work on a tube
again and again and again.
I'll make 30 or 40 of a piece
and pick the best one,
and that's just not something I can do commercially.
You know, the first or second try has to be good here,
so I'll try a much more challenging pieces.
I'm trying to maybe show off a little bit,
you know, I want another bender to see that
and realize that I've really come up with something.
Neon has kind of a unique output to it,
kind of a energy or a vibe that you can feel.
It really draws people in in a way
that no other light source does.
There's just something that you can feel about that.
It's hard to put your finger on,
but it's there.
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-Learn more about Western Neon,
including showroom hours and location
at westernneon.com.
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Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8 and anytime
online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.
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