In a cluttered corner of his New Orleans studio, Nate Sheaffer pulled a glass tube through blue flames, coaxing it with gentle puffs from a blow hose until it curled into cursive letters.<\/p>\n
Four mounted deer heads stared down from the wall above, their antlers draped with glass tubing, beside a glowing red neon sign that read: \u201cEvery damn day.\u201d For 41 years, Sheaffer has practiced glass blowing with that kind of devotion.<\/p>\n
His right arm is canvassed in tattoos of signs he has commissioned over the years \u2014 a smiling skull in a top hat, a cardinal, the trademark figure \u201cReddy Kilowat\u201d \u2014 while his left is covered in burn scars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are parts of my fingers that don\u2019t feel anything anymore,\u201d he said on a recent Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Sheaffer opened his studio, Big Sexy Neon, on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard more than 5 years ago, wedged between a newspaper archives studio and boxing gym. But those long days of burning glass there are nearing an end.<\/p>\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/div><\/div>
<\/p>\n Inside the large showroom at Big Sexy Neon on Oretha Castle Haley in New Orleans on Monday, December 1, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n By early next year, Sheaffer will move to a new studio inside the Signworx building on Hickory Avenue in Metairie, his first solo venture after years of mentoring apprentices. The decision is driven by rising costs and a small local market.<\/p>\n The change also comes as neon itself becomes a dying art \u2014 once a beacon of cheap motel strips and roadside diners, gas stations and cornerstores, cigarette ads and smoky jazz clubs. These glowing signs defined mid-20th-century America as an emblem of progress, capitalism and the freedom of the open road.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Now they are a nod to a past life \u2014 radiant, yet fading reminders of what urban life once was. There are only a few hundred glass blowers still creating neon signs in the United States, including Sheaffer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nate Sheaffer uses gas-generated heat to shape neon inside his shop, Big Sexy Neon, on Oretha Castle Haley in New Orleans on Monday, December 1, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy 12-hour days are not as productive as they used to be,\u201d he said, placing the blow hose between his lips again and sending a breath through the tube to keep it from collapsing.<\/p>\n Sheaffer, 61, discovered glass blowing in college while studying German and art, eventually realizing that his dark, brooding sculptures lacked light. Illumination drew him in \u2014 a fascination, he said, as old as life itself, with all animals pulled to light \u201clike a moth to a flame.\u201d<\/p>\n He devoted himself to the craft, practicing glass blowing 12 hours a day, six days a week. Fresh out of college in 1986, he opened his first neon shop in North Carolina, seeking clients by knocking on doors while working a second job at a seafood restaurant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Through the late 1990s, he produced about 6,000 signs a year for corporations like Miller Lite, Coca Cola in Europe, Lowe\u2019s, Toys \u201cR\u201d Us and Krispy Kreme. That output dwindled in 1999, when he closed his shop as overseas manufacturing companies overtook the industry \u2014 a decline that deepened with the rise of LED lighting.<\/p>\n While running a second shop in North Carolina that has since closed, Sheaffer opened Big Sexy Neon in Central City in 2020 \u2014 named after a nickname a former girlfriend once gave him.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a New Orleans name if there ever was one,” he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A random display of neon signs and lights inside Big Sexy Neon on Oretha Castle Haley in New Orleans on Monday, December 1, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n ![\"NO.neonshop.adv_6328.JPG\"](\"https:\/\/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com\/nola.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/3\/7c\/37c4f39a-18ca-5d71-bcf8-ddb7434c7b39\/692f18db9ca8d.image.jpg?resize=150%2C100)
\n <\/div><\/div>
\n PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n ![\"NO.neonshop.adv_6362.JPG\"](\"https:\/\/bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com\/nola.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/a\/03\/a03ae915-b28b-5b87-8d96-fe7729a091a6\/692f19035073c.image.jpg?resize=150%2C104)
\n <\/div><\/div>
\n