I recently finished up this small grouping of neon pieces, which I am calling Neon Moonflowers. They are a combination of neon tubing and vintage light shades. The first one of these I ever made was back in 2018.
I really loved the look of these and intended on making a series of them, so over the past several years, I have been accumulating a collection of vintage light shades to use. I finally got around to making the first little grouping of them, and intend to make more in the coming months.
Each one of these Neon Moonflowers is a unique, one-of-a-kind artwork. I’ve chosen names for each one taken from the 219 different moons currently identified in our solar system.
This one is a little extra special, in that it shifts colors after it has been on for a few moments. That’s because I added a small amount of mercury to it, even though I filled it with neon gas, rather than argon (which is the gas you typically use for tubes containing mercury). For the first 5 minutes or so, until the mercury warms up and vaporizes inside the tube, the color is purplish/pink. Once it’s warmed up, it glows a two-tone blue.
Umbriel, 2022 Umbriel, 2022
I’m looking forward to building my garden of Neon Moonflowers in the coming months. Stay tuned…..