Hello Lightning Tamers,
Welcome to 2026 ⚡
Last year was a year of growth—new products taking shape, travel and research expanding my perspective, new projects beginning, and new partnerships forming.
With the support of the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Grant, Taming Lightning was able to take some meaningful steps forward:
- An improved webstore experience
- A video tour of Global Rare Gases
- The launch of the Research Lab Library, collecting relevant books, videos, articles, and magazines
- Ongoing product development, including the 10kV-Neon21 Plasma Driver
2025 also welcomed the revival of Information Unlimited under the name Amazing1, condensing the legacy of experimentation and accessible to plasma drivers and neon devices.
Thank you for helping Taming Lightning keep the lights on. Your support—through reading, sharing, conversations, and encouragement—continues to make this work possible.
So, what does 2026 look like?
At the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the Neon and Plasma Studio is now fully operational. This summer, we’ll be able to run classes unlike any before, with the ability to process neon tubing and plasma artwork in a dedicated space.
A tremendous amount of care, labor, and collaboration has gone into bringing the studio to this point. It simply would not exist without the community members who lent their hands, ears, and hearts to help shape a space that meets PGC’s operational and safety needs.
I hope to reflect more deeply on this after the summer—documenting what worked, what I learned, and why it matters.
As I become more involved with neon and plasma at PGC, I’m also reevaluating how I best orient myself within Taming Lightning—how I balance making, teaching, researching, and documenting.
Looking ahead, I’m aiming toward:
- A smaller run of Taming Lightning episodes, focusing on manageable production, thematic depth, and voices you may not have heard from before
- One or two online video lectures or streams on topics best suited for visual explanation—designed to educate and inspire
- Continued expansion of The Research Lab Library, drawing from the Rakow Research Library and the Internet Archive
- Blog posts and short essays that help contextualize technical resources for plasma and neon art, encouraging deeper understanding
- Moving the Dyna-Meter from development into the store.
One of the biggest lessons from this past year has been the importance of pacing—not just for sustaining projects, but for sustaining passion. Conversations and emails from this community have reignited my love for research, leading me down numerous rabbit holes. Again and again, I’m reminded that context is everything when applying information and building real, working knowledge.
My favorite part of research is saying, “I don’t know.”
It’s always the beginning of a new adventure.
Anyone can be Taming Lightning.
⚡Percy Echols II
