uksignboards.com - Inside the workshop of Yorkshire neon sign maker who has created items for Disneyland Paris and appeared on Salvage Hunters

Traditional neon maker and restorer, Julia Bickerstaff, is one of a last few remaining neon makers in the UK.

Julia Bickerstaff, 58, has made thousands of incredible neon signs for people’s living rooms since she started the job in 1987. She even featured on the Discovery Plus TV show Salvage Hunters: The Restorers and has created signs for companies including Disneyland Paris.

Julia says people are choosing to have LED lights, which look like neon signs, instead of the real thing – which means the craft is now endangered.

She said: “Traditionally, everything was lit with neon – even if you didn’t know it. But today, neon making is actually an endangered craft, which is kind of sad really. But it’s the way things go and technology has advanced.

“There are some simpler technologies to install it, neon is made of glass and LED lights are not and are quite rugged. But neon being glass, is quite fragile.

“LEDs can also mimic neon – even though they aren’t neon and there is a little bit of a battle where neon is being sidelined by LED signage. They are sold as neon signs when they are not.”

Julia, whose studio is based in Leeds, trained in the craft as an apprentice.

She takes an empty glass tube and manipulates it using a flame, by hand, and then she puts the different colours inside the sign by using gases and powder coatings.

This process can take anything from a week to a couple of months, as it all depends on how big the sign is.

She said: “I’ve made massive installations – we did all the neon for Disneyland Paris years ago and we looked after Piccadilly Circus. I also do commissions for people, for things in their house so I’ve done a beautiful, leaping fox for someone’s kitchen.