Lucciola
ViewA bar sign that keeps its promise
Fiamma — neon signs bent by hand in Turin
Officina del neon
Torino — since 1987
Only neon.
The red is the gas.
Neon — from the Greek neos, new
(01) La bottega
We bend glass
over a flame
and fill it
with light
Fiamma is a workshop of three benders in San Salvario. Every sign starts as a straight tube of glass, softened over a ribbon burner and turned by hand, one curve at a time, on top of a full-size drawing.
We fill our tubes with pure neon only. In clear glass the gas glows this particular red — the colour of every page of this site — so what you see here is the material itself, not a brand colour.
Prima visione
ViewCapital letters for a single-screen cinema
Giulia Ferro
Buio
ViewAn artist's handwriting, bent without correction
Stella
ViewFive letters and one star over a narrow street
Gemma
ViewA shop window that smells of sugar
02
From glass
(02) Dal vetro alla luce
From glass
to light
(02) At the bench
- 01ScaldareHeat — the tube softens over a ribbon burner.
- 02PiegareBend — turned by hand, on a full-size drawing.
- 03BombardareBombard — heated under vacuum to burn off impurities.
- 04RiempireFill — a few millibar of pure neon, then sealed.
- 05AccendereLight — thousands of volts across two electrodes.
Scroll to bend
(03) Il mestiere
What is
in the glass
- (a.)1898
Neon is discovered in London by William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They name it from the Greek for “new”.
- (b.)1910
Georges Claude shows neon tube lighting in Paris. Within twenty years the tubes are writing on every street.
- (c.)Ne · 10
A noble gas: it doesn't burn or react, it only glows. Pure neon in clear glass is red-orange; every other colour comes from argon, mercury or a phosphor coating.
- (d.)Blockout
A sign is often one tube that has to jump between letters. The parts that must stay dark are painted black by hand.
- (e.)Electrodes
Every run of glass ends in an electrode at each end, turned back through the backing so the street never sees it.
- (f.)Tempo
A shop sign takes us between twenty and forty-five hours at the bench. Well made, it outlives the shop.
Every letter is bent over a flame
A mano — by hand. There is no machine that bends neon.
(04) Commissions open for 2026
Write us
your words
Send a sentence, a name or a drawing. We answer within two working days with a full-size sketch and a price.
Commission a sign→