  |
|
 |
|
Twenty One Year Business Still Glowing Neonetics Seeks To Illuminate Homes Over a hundred years after British chemist Sir William Ramsey and Morris Travers first separated neon from other inert gases, Neon lights can be found glowing in the windows of shops, restaurants and private homes everywhere. Once a popular and decorative style of sign making from the 1920’s to the 1960’s, neon lighting and signage fell out of favor, almost disappearing from the urban landscape. As the demand fell so did the number of craftspeople trained in the delicate art of bending fragile glass tubes into words and pictures. The 1980’s and 90’s saw a nostalgic return to the days of chrome diners and neon-drenched hip nightspots. But while the new demand for neon art existed, there was a lack of skilled craftspeople. Workshops and classes in glass bending began cropping up as the industry remerged from the days of closed and darkened neon manufacturing shops. Alan Obligin, a chemist and lover of neon who learned the craft at the New York School of Neon, recognized an emerging business opportunity and opened Neonetics in the MIE business park in Randallstown in March 1989. Obligin saw that with the renewed interest in neon came a new kind of neon. No longer only used in commercial applications and advertising, neon began to be recognized and produced as an art form; neon for the beauty of neon light. The Museum of Neon Art opened in Los Angeles in the 1980’s, and soon neon began showing up not just in shop windows, but on walls in private homes. While Obligin could handle the neon manufacturing and of the business, he called upon an old friend, Brad Sotoloff, to work on marketing his new ideas for decorative neon lighting. Ten years later Obligin and Sotoloff’s Randallstown wholesale business is big and still growing, as neon continues to be a sought after element in interior design and decorating. “Our goal is to create a market for neon for use in residential applications. So that people will accept it for their homes- as a night light in their kids bedroom, to light up their game room. I have a Mona Lisa in my hallway.”- Brad Sotoloff Neonetics specializes in neon art for the home. Neon posters, lamps, free standing and wall sculptures, clocks and signs all offer a colorful and distinct combination of art and lighting. In many applications, the nostalgic feel of neon light blends with familiar images of Marylin Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Elvis, cars, motorcycles, music, and sports, especially billiards, are also subjects that are popular for their neon posters. The neon posters began as ordinary prints. At the shop the prints are mounted, frames are constructed and the neon elements are manufactured by the shop’s neon tube benders. Then the elements are assembled to create the unusual, glowing neon posters. Other pieces are pure neon, free standing sculptures of light, in the shape of palm trees, flamingos, saxophones and even Christmas trees. While the shop often gets inquiries for commercial work, Sotoloff said that is not their emphasis. “We get some requests for commercial work, but for the most part we’re really much more interested in art,” he said. “We’re a wonderful way to dress up restaurants and nightclubs. But a lot of what we’re looking at now is … Halloween and Christmas scenes. Neon sculptures of jack-o’-lanterns, a bat a witch, an angel. Things that people can put in their windows at each holiday as a new type of decoration.” Neonetics employs up to three neon tube benders during the Christmas season when business is the busiest. Glass bending is an art that requires skill, patience and a delicate sensibility. After tracing a design out on a large flat worktable on heat resistant material, the glass bender or blower works with the glass tube, heating it over a wide torch flame. As the glass tube is heated, the glass bender blows through a hole attached to one end of the tube. Blowing into the glass as it is heated keeps the almost molten glass tube from collapsing. Just the right amount of heat and air pressure are required to keep the tube open. As the blower bends the hot glass into a letter or shape. Too much air pressure and the glass forms a bubble, too little and the glass melts and closes the tubes. Too little heat and the glass breaks during the bend. Neon shops are full of mistakes that are recycled into the next neon piece. After the bending is complete, the finished section of glass has an electrode fused onto one end. Then the piece is taken to the station where the tube is filled with neon or argon gas. After the filling is complete, the open end is closed as the second electrode is attached. When those electrodes are attached to a transformer, electricity surging through the inert gas causes the gas to ionize, creating a red-orange glow from neon gas and a blue glow from argon gas. A rainbow of other colors can be achieved by combining either gas with a tube that has been coated on the inside with a phosphorescent material. Neonetics sometimes experience a shortage of trained neon glass blowers. Sotoloff said the Craig Craft neon school outside Washington D.C., and Savage Neon in Ellicot City are good places to look for neon artists. Sotoloff doesn’t see the demand for neon art diminishing. “Our first year we did a grand total of, I think, 12 different neon posters and that’s all we offered for sale. Over the years we’ve offered neon mirrors, neon sconces, table and floor lamps, clocks, sculptures, signs. Now we’ve expanded in to other forms of lighting,” he said. The business offers more than 100 neon products. Local retail merchants who carry Neonetics neon art are Deck the Walls and Cagle’s billiard dealers, both in Owings Mills. Sotoloff takes their products across the country to trade shows in Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York. “Our goal is to have neon art in every home in the country,” he said. Susan C. Ingram Times Staff Writer |