Roger Daniells founded the cheekily-named C.R. Glow Custom Neon in 1999, after learning the trade from a mentor while assisting in the production of a number of landmark signs along the Las Vegas strip and spending 11 years working at Ad Art.
Today, Roger and his son, Garrett Daniells, operate the Stockton-based company, producing 1,000 pieces of glass for signs annually. The business offers replicas, repairs and custom design work. The company worked on many signs for businesses as part of downtown Stockton’s revitalization, with neon gracing Papa Urb’s Grill, Trail Coffee Roasters and Cast Iron Trading.
C.R. Glow’s artwork can be found throughout the Central Valley and in the Bay Area; here, Roger works on a piece for a private collector in Fresno. Every refurbishing job is unique, Roger says: “We have to channel the original fabricator and how the workmanship was done in that era.
We mimic that to stay true to when it was manufactured. You have to know the history of it.” Each new neon sign starts with a concept, which is then hand-drawn and scaled before glass tubes are hand-bent and mounted to a sign.
The craft combines glass sculpture and chemistry, utilizing stable noble gases and color theory to produce a desired effect along a spectrum of hues that Garrett says is a result of “some combination of the gas, the glass and a coating inside the glass.”