If you have an idea for some custom made neon then by all means send me an email.  If I can't do it I can certainly point you to someone who can.

Micro-FAQ:

• No I don't have a public phone number.  I hate phones.  If you'd like to talk to me about something then email me.  If I decide that we need to talk, I'll ask for your phone number and call you.  I don't answer incoming calls.  I work 'til I get tired, sleep some, rinse and repeat.  That cycle usually doesn't correspond to a 24 hour clock so I may be working or sleeping at any hour of the day.
   
• Email works.  Use it!
   
• I can't answer the off-hand question "How much will it cost to make....?"  The reason is simple.  Until I work up a design and analyze its complexity I can't calculate the cost.  Many shops have a fixed price schedule for common things.  That's a perfectly valid way of doing things but it doesn't fit my style.  Simple things tend to cost more per unit of work than more complex ones.  Since this is primarily a hobby, I try to keep prices low and my way of doing that is to price each job individually.
   
• I don't do bids, prospects, concepts or other design work for free. As with any hobby I try to maximize the fun to drudgery ratio.  Bending glass and passing gas is fun.  Writing bids isn't.  Neither is doing a spec design concept for a prospect, only to have him run with it to someone who is a little cheaper.  I do design work on an hourly fee basis.  My fees are exceedingly, extremely reasonable.
   
• My standard answer to a request for bid is "more than anyone else."
   
• If you need something in a hurry then I'm not your man.  I don't loaf (after all I am doing this for fun) but neither do I let anything rush me.  Aside from removing the fun from making neon, rushing invariably ends up in my breaking as much glass as I bend.
   
• I'm probably not the best dude for you to get your bog-standard square bordered,  block letter EXIT sign from.  I'll make you one if you want but it'll cost twice what Sam's Club or any of the ChiCom importers charge.  On the other hand, if you want your logo wrapped around your OPEN sign or something like that then let's talk.

A note about price.  The communist chinese slave labor shops have reduced consumer neon to a commodity.  Simple desktop neon can be had for $30 or less.  This neon isn't all that bad - I have some pieces - but it is not custom-made.  It usually doesn't last all that long and the little high voltage supply is usually running right at its limit but it is a value for what you pay.

We artisans still live in America, pay American taxes and pay American prices for goods and services.  And, of course, suffer American government over-regulation.  That means that custom neon costs much more than the chicom stuff.  Be prepared to pay several hundred dollars for even simple pieces.  I keep my prices low since this is a hobby and I want lots of people to have neon.  Nonetheless, a simple piece can take a day or more to make so the cost does add up.

In return for buying American you get a hand-crafted work that contains (almost all) American made parts and all the skills the artisan (me) can muster.  The tubes will be processed correctly so they'll last for decades if you don't break 'em.  And just think of all the American jobs you'll help save, all the way back to the guys who mine the copper for the wire and the sand for the glass.

Almost every image on this site can be clicked to reveal a much larger one.  Most are at least 50kb.  Modem users beware or be patient.