Neon dreams: My first course in the craft
Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to complete my first neon making course with Steven Cole of Cole’s Neon Shop (the son and protege of the man who made the iconic Melbourne skipping girl!!!). Among such a neon legacy, I was blown away by the artistry and complexity that neon requires - glass bending and blowing, making of complex patterns and working with the noble gases. Immersed in the physics and chemistry of creating such forms, I got to see the effects of each gas illuminated in vacuum tubes first hand! I cannot believe it’s taken me so long in my life to do something this MAGICAL! Truly inspiring!
For the first day of the course, I played with different glass - neon variations, furnace, borosilicate - heating and blowing the ends to get a feel for the way each piece responds to heat and breath. After breaking a lot of tubes, I got to learn how to make some wave shapes with neon glass - heating each piece, bending it, blowing into the tube to prevent it from collapsing. It requires such precision and fearlessness - and I have the burns, cuts and singed nails to prove it! Steven was an amazing mentor and teacher, and I learnt so much about how glass moves, how to feel when it’s hot enough and how much to blow into the tubes.
On the second day, I spent the morning trying to blow shapes into tubes of glass, trying to make interesting organic shapes that could be turned into plasma holders with gases such as Krypton and Radon and Xenon excited by an electromagnetic field, rather than a circuit. It was a frustrating morning of broken glass and a resolution to go learn how to blow glass! Of the twelve pieces I tried to make, I ended up with four that didn’t smash or pop, so we put them in the kiln to anneal.
In the afternoon (and heavily helped by Steven), I made a bird-flame shape of my own drawing using 2 x 12mm diameter clear neon tubes which we welded together. At first we started with 15mm neon but I was not prepared for how quickly the glass collapsed under the heat and found it hard to work with given my lack of skill at this stage. It was so cool to see it come together and I felt really excited to be able to watch my skills improve, even in such a short time.
Later, we created vacuums in each of the pieces creating:
One plasma-filled glass blown organic-type sculpture filled with neon and argon (the other three sculptures also had a hole in them, which was so disappointing, hence my resolution to learn to blow glass).
One love-heart made with neon tubing with a touch of mercury injected that makes the colours in the heart change colour as it heats up from purple (Argon)
One bird-flame made with neon tubing and filled with Xenon and Krypton that created a lightning in stasis which was amazing to create and see!
The experience was spectacular and I cannot wait to do it again!
