If you look at any recently-published guide of things to in London, there’s a pretty high chance that God’s Own Junkyard will be on there. It’s a family business involving all things neon and wonderful; in fact, the studio is home to the largest collection of neon in Europe and has fans and visitors from all over the globe.
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| God's Own Junkyard |
Matthew Bracey is one of the curators of the Instagram hotspot, a neon light artist and electrical lighting engineer, amongst an abundance of other things. ‘Giving an exact explanation of my role is really difficult, but I would say lead company representative, artist, designer, think tank, inventor, bean counter and problem solver. If I can’t fix it, it cannot be fixed’, he says.
Matthew has been with neon – and the family business that is God’s Own Junkyard – for nearly all of his life. The 43-year-old is the middle son of the late Chris Bracey – perhaps more widely known as ‘the Neon Man’ – and has dedicated his life to continuing his father’s legacy on a day-to-day basis; ‘my dad was always getting me involved with making the signs as a boy and this continued through my teenage years and now as an adult. Neon is in my blood’.
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| Image courtesy of Matthew Bracey. |
It’s clear not only from speaking to Matthew, but even from just a quick viewing of Matthew’s Instagram profile that he genuinely loves what he does, and this passion shines through even more when listening to him speak about his work, but about his family too. He’s quite clearly proud of the family and what they’ve accomplished through the years, but his favourite thing about God’s Own Junkyard being a family business is ‘handing the torch down through the generations and building something that will be cherished and live on with each new generation’. It’s re-telling the history and the family story, and that’s something that is loved by so many people.
‘Chris Bracey was a legend, and still is. He was unique and has left so much for people to enjoy for years to come. As a family, we will continue his legacy – and that’s something I think is better done with true neon in our blood’.
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| Image courtesy of Matthew Bracey. |
Similar to the life of his father, a day in the life of Matthew Bracey varies massively on a day-to-day basis, but there’s a much-needed reliance on consistency when it comes to the process of creating neon signs. ‘Glass bending is a profession that is handed down from father to son, so a cottage industry really’, Matthew tells me.
‘The process starts with the design and, next, it’s picking the colour – neon or argon gas or adding powder to create different fluorescent colours. Selecting the right diameter glass canes or glass tubing to correctly match the font or artwork is a key point – there’s a choice between 8 to 25mm diameters; if you get this wrong, it’s the difference between what looks like a badly heavy hand-drawn word from crayons, or flowing, beautiful, skilful neon art’.
Something that Matthew repeatedly emphasises is the importance of preparation – especially when it comes to making sure he has a full-size reverse glass drawing for the piece.
Once the bulk of the preparation is done, it’s time for the technical side and this is where concerns are often raised – ‘every glass bender’s main concern is a collapsed glass tube - you’re 80% of the way through a perfect piece of neon glass with intricate bends and the tube collapses. Hours of work down the drain and the specialised materials wasted’. But once you’ve overcome that hurdle, Matthew makes it seem like smooth sailing – circuits are completed and painting and assembling is finalised.
To someone like me, the process is complicated and confusing – to Matthew, it’s everyday life and a lifestyle and listening to him talk about it conveys two things: his passion, but also his amazement of his craft – ‘the process has not changed in over 100 years, yet it still remains one of the most eye-catching forms of signage’.
With an endless list of projects and commissions, Matthew’s collection of stories is equally as long. His favourite? ‘The movie: Mission Impossible 1. I was a teenage lad and the family was stretched across three different movie productions at Pinewood Studios and Elstree Studios. I was alone as the head neon engineer on Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise’, he says. ‘Tom was propelling down a 50-inch shaft from a ventilation shaft above. I was asked to create lasers in the ventilation that Tom Cruise had to bypass. This was a huge moment for me and, luckily, I had a full arsenal of neon tubes on the van and came up with a zig-zag laser idea. While Tom Cruise was cutting the laser security and then propelling down, I was above him in the ventilation system, setting up for the next take. Advising about neon lighting in my late teens on Hollywood blockbusters like that… it felt incredible’.
Matthew tells me that he thinks being surrounded in colour, at a place like God’s Own Junkyard, improves your mood; his father used to say that colour should be put on prescription. And I think they’re onto something. There’s a reason that neon, and God’s Own Junkyard are doing so well, and are so popular. Ultimately, it comes down to the passion, emotion and feelings of those behind the creations. Matthew’s creations are vibrant, exciting and not easy to ignore – and the man himself is the epitome of his work.
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