One of the UK's last Neon makers fights to keep her craft alive

SWNS

Julia Bickerstaff, one of the UK's last traditional neon makers, has spent 40 years preserving this endangered craft.  Her studio, Neoncraft, in West Yorkshire, has produced iconic signs for clients like Fortnum & Mason, Burberry, and Transpennine Express.  On August 29, 2024, she held a workshop in Leeds, teaching tubular glass blowing enthusiasts the delicate art of neon making.  Bickerstaff's dedication not only maintains the tradition but also inspires future generations to appreciate and continue the craft.  As neon art faces decline, her work remains a vital link to its vibrant past.

Transcript

00:00I'm Julia Bickerstaff and I'm a neon maker. I own a company called Neon Craft and I've

00:08been making neon for a very long time now. I started in 1987 and, you know, it's just

00:16great. I love it as much now as I did then and I have made neon for all sorts of situations

00:22and places all over the world and it's been a fantastic journey, it really has. And as

00:28technology has changed over the years, so has the appetite for neon. So the things

00:33that were lit with neon have changed. Traditionally it was everything was lit with neon, even

00:38if you didn't know it, it had neon behind, lighting it up. But today, neon making is

00:44actually an endangered craft, which is kind of sad really, but it's the way things go

00:49and technology has advanced. There are simpler technologies in some respect to install. Neon's

00:56made of glass and the new technology, LEDs, is not and it's quite rugged and can be handled

01:02quite roughly, whereas neon being glass is quite fragile. So you can imagine the actual

01:07process of change that has taken place for installing. For example, I do feel for sign

01:12fitters that are 100 foot up the side of the outside of a building with a fragile piece

01:16of glass trying to install it, they'd much prefer some LEDs that can just stick on with

01:21some double sided sticky tape to do it. So you can imagine why and the appetite for change

01:27really. Also, LEDs can mimic neon, even though they're not neon. There is a little bit of

01:33a battle there at the moment where neon is being sort of sidelined by LED neon-esque

01:40signage, and they're sold as neon signs when they're not. And this has had a really quite

01:47detrimental effect on the traditional glass-made neon. But it looks good, you know, but it's

01:54cheap and people want the real thing. So it's great that people are actually supporting

02:00people like me to actually make things, a craft which is handmade in glass, fully recyclable.

02:07So I think there is something of a future albeit it'll be very, very different and I

02:11think it will be something of a struggle in the future for people who make neon to be

02:16able to carry on and make a good living. I'm involved with Heritage Crafts and they

02:22keep record of crafts of all kinds. And neon making has been put on the list of endangered

02:28crafts since, I think it was 2019 when it went on there. And I'm now one of just a very

02:34small handful of people within the UK that still make real neon with glass. We're dotted

02:42around here and there. There used to be hundreds of us and now there's just a handful which

02:46is a little sad really.

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