Balancing some wine

[Thalermade]

My attempt at creativity

The B (Walnut) was a present for some friends who built a small wine cellar in their house. The 78 (Red Oak) was part of a thank you to the couple who hosted our class reunion. I had the wine bottle engraved with a thank you note.


I printed out the numbers and letters, size 800, on the computer and glued them to the wood. I used a jigsaw to cut them out, and a bunch of hand sanding to finish. The coaster area was created with a 3 inch Forstner bit. I experimented with a leather coaster insert, but did not like how it looked. Both are finished with a couple of coats of MinWax water based Polycrylic.

Each one is ¾ inch thick. But not all wine bottles have the same neck length. Do to a short neck, I needed to do some minor “gouging” on the back of the 8 to get the bottle to set in and balance.

The pictures of the B did not turn out very well, but it is indeed Walnut.

Thanks for looking. Russ

[lrogers]

Those are cool! Easy to make, Shop presents!

[shoottx]

Very Cool

Neat gift idea!

[bthere]

Those are really nice. I love that type of creativity. It makes the gift personal is multiple ways.

[Bruce Cohen]

Russ,

That is really a neat, special concept.

I wonder if you could market them thru local wine dealers.

Need a partner???

Bruce

[Thalermade]

Russ, That is really a neat, special concept.
I wonder if you could market them thru local wine dealers. Need a partner??? Bruce

Thanks for the support.

When I first thought of using numbers and letters for the wine bottle holders, I thought the same thing. I even considered a bunch of other ideas including the use of company logos or college initials.

I visited a large craft fair and was surprised how many woodworkers had booths. And these folks were competing with each other, generally selling similar inventories. Not of this this type of wine bottle holders, but of things readily found in magazines.

But, I talked myself out of it by thinking that as soon as someone who is in the craft woodworking business full time sees these, they will realize how simple they are and will be able to churn them out considerably faster than I can, and eventually those folks will be out of business when Wal-Mart decides to sell them and has them mass produced somewhere in the world.

Maybe I need to be more of an optimist? I have seen in local Kroger stores the little cloth carry bags they are selling for wine bottles. I did do a little research and found some folks that make "golf club" wine bottle holders. But I can't imagine this is that original of an idea. Maybe I should try. We'll see. I will let you know.

Russ

[shoottx]

Russ,

That is really a neat, special concept.

I wonder if you could market them thru local wine dealers.

Need a partner???

Bruce

Are you appling for the shop part or the wine shop part?

[Bruce Cohen]

Are you appling for the shop part or the wine shop part?

To quote Count Dracula, "I never drink.......wine".

I'm open to any position I can get.


Russ,

Don't give up on the idea so quick. Yup, selling them at "Crafts Fairs" will llow the entire world to copy them. What I had in mind was really high end wine stores and using exotic woods, not the usual.

This is what I want to do with my jewelry box idea, but of course, sell them our of jewelry stores, I don't think I want to build ones that will hold a wine bottle.

Bruce