Meryl Pataky believes the custom neon signs she creates for altar-bound couples generate a feeling akin to falling in love, better known as a “spark.” The San Francisco artist, who showed her work at Art Basel Miami Beach this past December, transforms “raw elements created by stars”—silver, copper, carbon, and helium—“into electrifying works of art.” Having spent the last five years perfecting her craft, a complicated process of shaping glass tubes filled with noble gasses (which then glow when voltage is added to the mix), the Academy of Art alum still has days in the studio that feel like the first time: Neon has an inherent uncertainty and spellbinding composition—a close examination reveals vapors billowing through the glass tubes. The Mission resident looks to the cosmos to make sense of it all, drawing an easy parallel between the complex nature of neon and of human relationships. “We’re all composed of the same tiny particles that stars are made of, and we just happened to come together, on this small blue marble in space,” says Pataky, 31. “How amazing is that?”

This article was published in 7x7's Wedding 2015 issue. Click here to subscribe.