Rick Michaels has produced another Neon project.  In this project he wanted to accent major shapes of the Titanic to make it more than just a poster.

Some details:
Red gas-> Neon (Ne)
Blue gas -> Argon+Mercury (ArHg)
Glass: 10mm clear tubing, 10mm 6500 Snow White coated tubing, 8MM clear gold tubing

The water accent is clear glass filled with ArHg and the boot stripe (bottom stripe on a boat) is filled with Ne.

Starting with the poster, Rick sketched out his ideas with the assistance of design software to simulate the look and feel of the final project.

The next step was to create an actual size pattern for the glass.  The pattern is constructed with 2 parallel lines representing the width pf the glass to be used
Note: projects are bent backwards so that the final pieces present evenly to the viewer (all wiring is on the back, etc.)

From there the construction of the glass pieces.  In many cases it may take a few attempts to get it right (and to have extras in case of a breakage :)
Examples of the ships railing and smoke stack accents below

Once the glass made and processed, the next step was to construct an enclosure (aka a box) in which the poster can be mounted and contain all of the electrical elements hidden from the viewer.
Example of how 2 areas work togther to create the final project – WoodShop + Neon Shop.

Finally, cutting the holes in the final assembly for the glass to be mounted.

Nice Work!!!!!

More projects beaming out of the Neon program.

Key -> HgAr = Mercury with Argon gas; creates a powder blue color, Ne = Neon gas; no vacancy red :)

Penguin

Rick’s first project in Neon was a multi-area project utilizing the woodshop for the frame and the Neon area to construct the penguin.

Dimensions: 26″w x 38’h, 10mm glass filled with HgAr

From 50K feet, how was it done?

• Rick started off with a pattern for the glass.
• From the pattern, he inverted the pattern to redraw in reverse.  This is required so that the surface of the penguin lays flat on a surface, while the electrodes and complex bends push to the back.
• To ensure that all of the elctrodes allow the penguin parts to display at the same level, he made sure that all the glass ends were cut to the same size (Note, the glass penetrates the wood base and is wired to the transformer in the back)
• The wood box enclosure (cavity towrds the wall), was contructed in the woodshop.
• The holes for the glass pieces were measured based on the actual units for a perfect fit.
• All 4 glass units are connected in series to a ~6.5KV30mA transformer
• Rick also added a “white wash” of paint, adding accent and dimesion, to make penguin standout against the black background

The Knot

Devon, as a professional scientific glassblower, had no issue attemping this advanced neon project for his first MMS Neon  project.

Dimensions: 10″ diameter (front curcle), 11″ diamater back circle, ~5’depth, Front piece filled with HgAr, the back piece filled with Ne; 10mm glass

From 50K feet, how was it done?

• A pattern was made for the knot (blue) and the backlight circle (red)
• Symmetry is significantly challenging at this scale, compounded with the “weaving” of the glass to achive the knot in 1 continuous piece of glass.
• The design of this piece utilizes a indirect lighting technique (backlight) that allows the red glow to be seen without actually seeing the glass.
• Using the black arylic disks allows for the blue knot to stadout against the red backlighting.
• The Ne and HgAr units are connected in series to a ~4kV transformer
• By design, allowing the ends of the knot to extend beyond the surface of the front disc, allows for some of the blue and red to mix on the wall in the background. This effect adds additional color mixing, enhancing the overall piece.
• The construction of the discs and placement of the glass allow for shadows to reveal. This effect adds volume to the piece (as seen above witht the light blue shadow)

Excellent job by both!

We play on Wednesday nights at the Norwich site.  Please swing by or ask the artists for specifics about their pieces.