We made The New York Times! In June 2025, the Times featured our founder and artist Lena Imamura in its Sunday Routine column, the series that follows newsworthy New Yorkers through their day.
Reporter Nadav Gavrielov spent time with Lena in our Chinatown studio while she bent glass over three torches with electronic music playing. The piece walks through how a glass neon tube comes to life: the glass is heated until it softens, shaped by hand, cleared of impurities with a jolt of electricity, filled with gas and sealed. Then it's plugged in and it glows.
"It's truly a performance with this medium," Lena told the Times.
The article also goes back to where it all started, with Lena growing up in Park Slope taking apart old electronics with her dad, an electronic musician.
We're so proud of this one. Every custom glass neon sign we make goes through the same process you can read about in the article.
Read the full story in The New York Times
Want a piece made by hand in our studio? Start a custom neon quote.