a arts rTs the
nEON neon nights D
anielle “DJ” James
A glass bender works to preserve an endangered art form while offering a dazzling date idea B Y AN N A- RHES A V ER S O LA PHOTOG RAP H Y B Y
J OHN MICHA EL S I M PS O N
she helped create the Neon pulls a long, slender Makers Guild to save the art tube of white glass form, which began in 1920 from a box in her studio, and remains an iconic part of Hex Neon, in the basement American cultural identity. of The Fruit. Bits of glass “We’re benders, not on the cement floor crunch glassblowers,” DJ clarifies. beneath the soles of DJ’s Experienced benders know closed-toe shoes as she steps how to shape the glass to to her workstation to explain keep the tube open, allowing how to heat the glass over a neon and argon gasses to flow perforated metal torch. through the entire work. “The DJ, who creates authentic glass gets really stressed out if neon displays for commercial you don’t treat it with a lot of ABOVE Danielle “DJ” James instructs Vinnie Singh and Brittany Brisson or private use, is a founding respect,” she says. “… Every during a date night class in DJ’s basement studio at The Fruit. member of the Neon Makers neon sign you see is made by RIGHT DJ sits among some of her neon creations. Guild, a national network a person. They haven’t figured of roughly 70 artisans. She out a way to automate this yet.” estimates about a dozen neon artists currently work in North Carolina. DJ earned her bachelor’s LIGHT UP YOUR LOVE degree in fine arts from East Carolina University and began her art Couples have a chance to bathe in the glow of their very own career first in jewelry design, then in metalsmithing and nonprofit handcrafted neon sign inside DJ’s studio. “It’s Julia Child style,” DJ administration before moving into the neon life in 2014. She opened says of the date night opportunities she offers, which last three-and-aher studio in 2020 and credits her survival to support from The Fruit half hours at a cost of $500. DJ finds out what the couple is interested and the community. in creating two weeks before the date. The first hour covers an overview “Durham’s been really great to me,” DJ says. “I do stuff all over of neon history, science and manufacturing. The rest of the time is the Triangle and do restorations all over the Northeast and East dedicated to assembly and finishing the project. “I make [parts] ahead Coast.” She says commercial demand for traditional neon seems of time so there’s no stress that you have to finish the thing in a really lower than in the past but is becoming more popular as an art form small amount of time, because this takes years to master,” she says. increasingly sought out by collectors and museums. It’s a craft “Everybody does get into the fires a little bit, so they get the whole that’s at risk of disappearing from the cultural landscape; DJ says process. Then we light it up, and they can take it home.”
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