“The Neon Girl” Project

01 HONG KONG BENT

萬子

“萬子” are very unique and significant visual symbols that can be found in Hong Kong pawn shop signs. They are also usually very tight bents that represent the skills of Hong Kong neon benders.

For 萬子, I would like to give it a new contemporary look by tweaking the shape and the way of display.

Master Wong, Hong Kong

Back in 2018, I was introduced to Master Wong through Clarissa, a friend who used to work with Master Wong’s daughter. We encountered because of the little passion project I organised and curated – My Light, My Hood. It was a group neon art exhibition where each artist used their medium to portray their favourite neighbourhood in Hong Kong, with an accent of traditional neon in their work. Through the communications between the artists and Master Wong, I have discovered the complicity of the multi-faceted neon making – an art mixed with science and physique. A craft that takes a decade to learn, and decades to become a Master. Through him, I learnt how to observe if a neon is bent nicely or not. Master Wong was 75 years old at the time. I still remember how impressive he was when I first saw how steady, strong yet flexible his arms and hands were once he started neon-making.

It took me numerous attempts to ask Master Wong’s daughter to persuade him to teach me neon-making. With the low accessibility to this crafts in Hong Kong, I’m glad that he finally accepted the invitation and taught me for 3 months with weekly classes.

02 FRENCH BENT

Lip-skate

To me, neon is a symbol of the streets—a visual language that pulsates with urban energy.

Lip-skate merges two seemingly distinct yet deeply expressive street icons: the effortless chic of Parisian women with their signature red lips and the emerging skateboarding culture in the city. The result is a playful yet striking fusion—a neon skateboard shaped like lips, embodying both the bold elegance of French style and the raw dynamism of street culture.

Alexis Dandreis, Paris

Do you know the science and technology of neon is invented in France back in 1910?

The tools and glass they use in France are very different from those of 99% of the world’s. So when I contacted Alexis, I was super eager and glad I am finally able to try borosilicate glass bending!

When I walked around Paris, I realised they had a lot of neon shop signs on the street, even more than in Amsterdam. I even saw a seasonal window at Saint-Germain with glass neon decoration rather than LED for the lower cost of a temporary display. I asked Alexis if this means the neon scene here is more active, and he said most of them might be neon that was made decades ago. As borosilicate glass is hard glass, it is more durable and could last up to 30 to 40 years! Hence it is quite a good investment for shop owners to have a glass neon shop sign.

In France, 99% of the studio uses borosilicate glass – I have only been able to find one factory where they have one unit for soft glass bending. This is a hard glass that is commonly used for making scientific glass. Because it is harder, the burners French neon benders and artists use would be different and need more “power”. The single torch burner is different from the ones I use normally.
I enjoy bending borosilicate glass as it is harder to break (although I still managed to break one), and I can see the potential in it for more experimental works. It also allows a neon bender or artist to sculpt and shape the glass. I have also used the skills and boro glass for my graduate work, Néon de calligraphie chinoise – Karaoké at Lycee Dorian.

When I was working on some work that uses soft glass, my French father-in-law saw how I wired the cables to the electrodes. He asked me why didn’t solder them to make them more secure. Great question and good observation! I guess that’s also why in France they use a more secure system for the electrode which I personally love! They are so delicate and well made to make sure the wire is securely connected to the electrodes like the image shown below.
France is one of the very few countries in the world that still has an education system on neon making. Alexis learnt neon making in a public lycee (technical school) in Paris and enrolled as a young adult. It is now the last and only public school in France that teaches neon making. Alexis has been working on neon art since then and has totally inspired me to take a year of class there too (which I did in 2023!).

03 DUTCH BENT

I Can

When I first visited Remy’s studio, I was amazed by the crackle tube with red lighting that he created.

When we do neon bending, we break a lot of glasses. I would like to fill up the tubes with these broken neon glasses from the process.
Normally, a crackle tube would be filled up with glasses completely. However, I would like to experiment with I Can and give it a poetic look where the light would have a lighting and fading effect at the same time.

We can do a lot of things and experiments with neon!

Remy de Feyter, Alkmaar

Remy is the reason why I started “The Neon Girl” project.
When I first contacted him, I showed him the plasma and organic glass work of Studio Swine. I expressed to him my struggle to learn how to create that in Hong Kong. He said: You need an oven to make a work like that! It sets my mind into overdrive. I began wondering how much the availability of basic equipment, like ovens, would impact the evolution of neon design and development in a particular country or region. In the ’50s, for instance, a Western oven wasn’t a typical appliance in a Chinese household in Hong Kong. With this project, I sought to explore if cultural, geographic, or historical factors influence the development of neon in various parts of the world.

Remy’s neon art unlocked my imagination on the possibilities and potentials of neon – how he used the glass blowing technique and plasma to create different striking works… he even turned some old glass vessels/containers into a neon art piece!

The tools that Remy used are also quite different from the ones I saw in Hong Kong and France. Rather than the 5-point heads that I saw in Master Wong’s studio in Hong Kong, he uses double crossfires with knife heads, and a ribbon burner that is equipped on a car wheel!

Remy taught me so much: from repairing old neon signs to bending organic shapes, and even how to apply phosphor powder to neon tubes using the Dutch method, something I had never encountered before!

Traditionally, European neon benders would bend the patterns with clear glass tubes. They would then fill the tube with a thin layer of glue, and then another layer of phosphor powder to give neon tubes colour after they are bombarded. Each neon technician might apply this process differently, depending on their technique.

What are the benefits of it then? Why do Europeans use this methodology?

Imagine if it was a neon tube with a complicated pattern containing lots of tight bends. It would mean a longer and harder process of the glue and phosphor and power to cover each twist and turn. HOWEVER, the welds between one tube to another would be seamless and avoid overheated bents to lose phosphors powder during the process. I observed Remy’s meticulous approach to planning welds, ensuring they remained hidden, even if covered by blockout paint. His attention to detail reflects the excellence often associated with European craftsmanship and their luxury standards.

In the Netherlands, there is a Dutch bent derived from the French/German retoure carré (”Square return”). This method involves a 90-degree angle with a sharp inner bend and a rounded outer bend, which helps prevent mercury and phosphor powder from settling at the edges after prolonged use.

04 JAPANESE BENT

La Lune

When I saw Mayu san’s works, I was stunned by the neon swirl jewellery she made!

Normally, we use a ribbon burner to make curves in neon. However, Mayu san and her senseis use only a single torch blower to do all the curves! This strikes me and I have decided to learn and apply this special skills from them.

La Lune is a design inspired by the swirl design and technique of Mayu san.

Itakura Mayuu, Noboru Toishi, Ryuichi Sato, Tokyo

Learning from Mayuu san, a female neon bender, was unforgettable. She juggles her neon art with her full-time job at a TV broadcasting company in Tokyo and travels long distances to keep pursuing her passion. Her resilience was inspiring, and her poetic view on neon deeply resonated with me: “Kokoro to Kurashi ni Akari wo tomosu,” meaning “Neon lights up people’s hearts and the lives of those who create it.”

Despite language barriers, we bonded through neon, speaking a universal language that transcended cultures. Mayuu san became like a sister to me, and I’ll never forget our emotional farewell when my residency ended. For me, neon is not just about the art and science, but also the connections and compassion I found along the way.

05 AMERICAN BENT

Every Body Is A Beach Body

A study version of Every Body Is A Beach Body, inspired by James Akers’ “Xenon Tangle”.

With a collective of international women’s bodies images collected amongst my friends, I wish to feature their bodyscapes and express the idea of “Every body is a beach body” through an organic heart shape achieved from glass blowing and neon bending.

The work celebrates all kinds of female bodies despite their shape and skin colour. The heart shape also illustrates self-love and the courage from those women who submitted their images on a different level of self-confidence in their bodies.

James Akers, New York

James is a giant to me, his cross-fire burner was also taller. I would then need to raise my arms even higher to bend the neon. It was also the first time I saw a didymium glasses for protection at James’ studio, I often thought it was part of his look when I watched his video and turned out it’s a specific protective glass for glass makers.

And the most special part about this neon is that it uses Xenon gas. With the right mixture researched by James, and technical help from Stephanie at Urban Glass, it created a wobbly lighting effect! The process was scary because we knew the piece was very prone to breakage and we didn’t know if there was gas leak in some of the welding. Aaand at the end it works!

Fun fact: when I install this neon in HK, the lighting effect is different when I use the same transformer as I did with James – it looks more like a lightning. Can you guess why?

Since my first encounter with James, I have learnt that he’s been self-teaching himself to hack devices to make neon interact with them. I was excited to learn this from James as I could see myself doing more interactive neon and hoping not to fry anyone’s brain.

The interactive neon classes were held at his flat-studio, where it is a little maker space at his apartment filled with electronic components, geras and neon!

I had experience with Arduino and Adafruit in my Master’s degree before, and James has taught me how to use different types of CMOS chips – the week-long classes definitely made me feel like I’m reliving my Master’s doing Physical Computing.

I have learnt how to sequence the blinking of one or more sets of neon based on the audio input, and also different ways to adjust the brightness of neon based on Human Circuit (this was initially the approach for the interactivity of Light as Air) and other inputs – the future of neon is limitless!

06 TAIWANESE BENT

Mother Nature

Master Huang shun-lo’s neon arts are inspired by his surroundings in the deep mountain at Hsinchu in Taiwan.

Mother Nature is a tribute to his works and my love for the Earth and our Mother Nature.
Not only is a rare neon sculpture, it is also made in single electrodes with a transformer that can be powered by DC batteries!

Master Huang shun-lo, Hsinchu

Master Huang’s neon studio is not situated in a metropolitan city like many other neon benders I met, but in the deep mountain in Baoshan, Hsinchu of Taiwan.

He took me on a 30-minute drive the day he picked me up: from the Hsinchu high-speed train station, we passed through the famous Hsinchu Science Park, stretching onto the muddy mountain road with the lines of orange trees, and finally arriving at Master Huang’s studio-house.

I started to understand where Master Huang’s nature-inspired works come from – he is surrounded by his muse every day.

I was stunned the moment I saw all his neon works I had been looking at online coming alive in front of my eyes… 

He’s not only a neon bender, a neon artist… to me, he’s also a scientist and inventor.

What I admire the most is his passion for a perfect neon installation, which motivates and drives him to investigate and invent different techniques and products, like a tailor-made bombarding machine slash annealer for his glass sculptured neon and a made-to-order device to make his single electrode works with a better visual enclosure, transformers that power neon with rechargeable battery or power bank for his passion projects, etc.

From my first 2-weeks residency with Master Huang in Taiwan, he has taught me glass sculpting technique, which is quite different from the neon bending experience I have had so far. I am curious and impressed at the same time that we can incorporate both glass sculpting and neon-making techniques into one work. It was the first time I wasn’t only blowing air into the tube, and also breathing in! You can see both ways of exhaling and inhaling air in the leaves I made.

Master Huang has also invented a lot of tools to assist him in glass sculpting, especially this stand made with a combination of clamp and camera tripod! I have learnt from him that, it is not necessarily to bend or sculpt glass in a hard way to prove your skills, sometimes having tools to assist you appropriately is as important too!

Unfortunately, there are not many studios I know of that could allow me to reuse these techniques that I learnt at Master Huang’s, due to the limitation of equipment and tools (as he personalised his to make it happen) to prevent stress in the glass and hence breaking them. Well, I guess that has made my experience with him more precious.

Back in the day, Master Huang exported neon signs from Taiwan to the US. He would invent different smart and efficient ways to produce works with repetitive patterns. During my short residency, he understood it might be difficult for me to master and bend a perfect half circle as the base of my crown within a short period, and proposed that I use a clay mould to assist me. He has taught me the importance of being flexible in one’s approach.

There are several ways to “create” colours in neon light, from my previous experiences, you can see a traditional technique that runs layers of phosphorus powder with glue with Rémy in the Netherlands or buy pre-coated and baked neon tubes with phosphorus powder commonly seen around the world.

What I experienced with Master Huang Shun-lo in Taiwan was to humidify the neon tubes and blow phosphorus powder in with a tiny tube. This technique is used because we were glass sculpting the neon tubes, and I would like to achieve a fading effect that’s subtle with layers. If we use pre-coated neon tubes, we will definitely lose some of the phosphorus powder on the way unevenly. With this technique, we can even direct where we want the spray the powder, in an organic way like how nature is.

On a normal day, Master Huang’s neon studio would be humid enough to “glue” the phosphorus powder in with a direct blow to the tubes. However, while I was there, the weather was drier. We have tried different methods, including attaching a tube from a humidifier to let the mist of air run into the tubes… and we finally settled with humidifying the tube by spitting and spraying a small amount of our saliva in.