Second-gen neon shop in the Crossroads is adding a ‘glow’ to KC.
By Randy Mason | Photos by Paul Andrews
If you see a strange glimmer coming from a nondescript building off to the side of Highway 71, no, you’re not going crazy.
Element Ten, named for neon’s spot on the periodic table, is a small studio at the east end of Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. The shop is inconspicuous, unless the front door’s open — the brilliant colors, abstract shapes and a distinctive glow are a dead giveaway.
Neon has always been a part of the lives of siblings Dylan Steinmetz and Olivia Shelton. Their father, Randy Steinmetz, traded farming for the sign business more than forty years ago. It wasn’t long before he was hooked on the art form.
“I told my wife, ‘I know what I want to do,’ the elder Steinmetz grins. “And here we are.”
Dylan still remembers his first time working with glass. “I think I was probably 10 or 11 the first time I got to hold glass and try to bend it. It was kind of familiar, but also kind of exciting,” he said.
In 2022, this trio formed its own family band — with each member bringing distinctly different skillsets to the table.
Randy, of course, has decades of know-how and contacts in the signmaking industry. Dylan went to art school in Washington and now leads their drafting stage, while Olivia pursued a career in marketing before she, too (with guidance from her dad) started on neon pieces of her own.
“In our case, the family dynamic is very positive,” Olivia says. “We have a kind of communication that’s often nonverbal. And we understand each other’s sense of humor. That makes it easier.”
In a world where computers play an outsized role in just about everything, working with fire, gas and glass remains very hands-on.
“You have to have a plan before you start making what you’re making,” Dylan explains as he holds up a pattern traced onto paper. “Ideally, you bend the glass once and it lands where you intended to put it.”
What can’t be planned are the jobs that will come through the door. The workload at Element Ten varies from vintage sign repair and restoration to completely new creations commissioned for businesses of all kinds.
The studio has crafted striking signage for Ragazza Food & Wine, the Seven Swans Creperie, and a Japanese collectibles store called Bubble Wrapp, to name just a few.
In 2024, a new cocktail bar named Sagebrush needed a large decorative feature to hang above the bar. Dylan recalls it as “a perfect scenario — with clients who trusted us blindly and liked what we gave them.”
Collaborating with local artists is part of the master plan for Element Ten. They recently teamed up with Paulina Otero, an artist and jewelry maker, on a series of neon wall sconces.
The inter-generational Element Ten team sees a glowing future in the neon business, fusing innovation with the historic nature of neon.
“The association with neon and nostalgia is alive and well,” Olivia says. “But I think this is a transitional moment where a new generation is excited about what neon can be. And we want to serve both audiences.”
