The Julian Road
business is one of a handful left in North Carolina that creates neon signs by
blowing and bending glass tubes into dramatic curves and shapes, then filling
them with gases that glow when electrified.
"Neon is
sentimental because it told you where to sleep and showed you places to
eat," said Artcraft co-owner Brent Nicholas, a third-generation neon
bender. "It was always in the background. Everywhere, you'd see
it."Neon is less ubiquitous now, increasingly replaced by signs lit with
high-tech LED bulbs.
The change has
hurt signmakers like Nicholas and his wife, Paulette, who have owned and
operated Artcraft since 1985.At the peak of their business in the mid-1990s,
Artcraft employed five full-time neon benders. Neon Light was just about all
Artcraft produced.But neon remains their passion.
Brent Nicholas
blows the glass, bending the hot tubes to fit a pattern created using computer
software. Letters on the pattern are backward, and after more than 30 years of
bending neon, Brent can read from right to left as well as he reads from left
to right.
No comments:
Post a Comment