Neon Workshop in Wakefield!

Me and my boyfriend Jordan attended a neon workshop in Wakefield by Neonworkshops http://www.neonworkshops.com/ . I was so excited because I love neon and have looked into it a lot during my sense of place brief and I plan to document the experience in my sketchbook as well as on this blog. 

We arrived at 4 and was greeted in along with the other participants. The workshop was quite small but filled with complex looking equipment, neon in process of being made and neon signs everywhere! There was even an amazing red type neon sign in the toilets!

Once everyone had arrived and settled in we gathered around Richard Wheater, the owner of the workshop. I instantly recognised him and remembered that when I went to Wakefield College and studied Graphic Design, he came in and gave our class a talk on neon and told us about a project he did called 12 months of neon! Firstly Richard told us all about the history of neon and also the science behind it such as the kind of tubes you can use to get certain colours, the different kinds of gases used and how they are powered.

He then showed us how to cut the glasses tubes used. He used a special blade tool and dragged it across the glass leaving a deep scratch, you then had to hold it up with both hands and pull the tubes toward you to break the tube in half. One by one we got to have a go at this, which was slightly daunting at first because we had to do it in front of the whole group and I was scared of doing it wrong! But in the end I managed it and it was fun to watch everyone else have a go too.

Richard then guided us over to the work station where he puts the gases into the neon tubes and makes the tubes glow. The machine that puts the gas into the tubes was huge and looked really technical! He demonstrated this and it was really fascinating, so much work goes into the process to make sure the sign glows the best it can!

Now that we knew how the neon was made we got to have a go ourselves! One by one we we got a piece of glass and three templates to choose from as the aim was to bend the glass. The templates were the amount of bend in the glass that we wanted to do. I chose template two as it was a bend that looked similar to that of a bend in an equilateral triangle. Richard brought out a huge Bunsen burner that we were to melt the glass on. We were given a glass tube that was connected to a pipe that we had to put in our mouths to blow into when shaping the glass so that the glass did not stick together. Firstly we marked on the glass with a pencil where the bend will be, using the guide. We then had to take the glass tube in two hands and place the part we wanted to bend in the flame and rotate it with our hands. Once the glass had begun to melt and was very soft we took the glass out of the flame and carefully bent the glass into the shape we had chosen, whilst blowing into it through the mouth piece. We then held the glass up to the template to check it was correct and let it cool on the table for a second. To finish we placed the bent glass into the weakest part of the flame, Richard said to pretend you were roasting a marshmallow! Richard said I did a good job with mine so I was chuffed!!

The second glass work task we got to do was with a different kind of equipment, pictured below. For this task we had to hold the glass in a similar way but the flame was a lot thinner and longer so we had to carefully place the whole section of glass into the flame and rotate. Once the blue flame turned yellow we had to stop rotating and let the glass heat up and melt. We then took the glass out of the flame and blew, whilst freestyle molding it into some sort of swirl or shape! I was nervous about this part in case the shape I ended up creating was rubbish, but I managed to control the soft glass and mold it into a swirl of some sort! 

On the image to the left, the top glass swirl is mine and the second is Jordan's! Here is also a photo of everyone's bends and swirls placed into the cooling rack! To finish the fantastic session off there was a little quiz on the facts that Richard had told us earlier on in the session! It was super fun and we managed to come third, but unfortunately did not win! The winners got to keep the neon sign example Richard made too! The workshop drew to a close when Richard told us that for £20 he would make our neon glass swirls into proper functioning neon signs! At first I was skeptical whether or not to do it because my swirl was not the best ever, but I did not want to regret it and owning a neon sign I made myself would be so cool (plus Jordan really wanted to and convinced me). I am so excited to get my neon sign in a week when its ready! We also got to keep the first glass work we made too. 

As we left we were amazed by the huge sign above the workshop. We saw it when we first arrived but it was not dark then so it was not illuminated, but when leaving at six o'clock it was dark so the sign was on and we could see it in all its glory! The sign glowed in blue and said 'There's money to be made' and then changed to say 'And moons to be mined'! It was really stunning.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. I loved getting to know about the history and how its made, and getting to make our own was so fun and something I have wanted to do in such a long time! It has made my passion for neon even stronger and I would love to attend another workshop again in the future.