Our first big order!

We were ecstatic to get our first wholesale order!  

Then the realities of living in a small town struck a bit of panic in us, as we realized between the 2 Ace Hardwares, and the 1 Bimart.... we were hard pressed to find 20 light sockets and cords.  Yikes! But we got creative and managed to BARELY scrape together the necessary pieces without having to wait for an online shipment.  Lesson learned.  (But quite honestly, we weren't sure the wine lamps were something that would take off so we didn't order a lot of inventory).

First step:

Pick the bottles.

We wanted to get a good variety of shapes and shades of green.

Then, I started scraping labels off with a razor blade.  Once I had the labels removed, Skott scored and cut the bottoms off.  We got all 20 done one day before work.  It didn't take nearly as long as we thought.  Most bottles popped clean, we only had to do 2 extra due to chipping and burs.

Second step:

Sanding.

This step I dreaded but it ended up being not so bad.  I think I just hate breathing through those stupid masks and then my glasses get all foggy and my chin gets condensation on it.  Oh, and I tend to drool.  Don't ask me why, but big schlobs of spit just want to pour out of my mouth when I have these masks on. haha

Anyways, I started out with the belt sander and hit the bottoms with 80 grit.  Once they were sanded smooth, I switched to 120 grit and sanded again.  Then I passed them off to Skott where he used the orbital sander to get the inside edge and fine sand the other edges.  This step requires a lot of depth perception and if done incorrectly, can ruin the edge.  That is why Skott gets to do it!  Once Skott had the inside edges sanded, he passed them off to me where I used a wet sand method to do a final polishing sand and also remove any residue on the neck of the bottle from the metal caps.

Third step:

Washing

Once the bottles were sanded smooth, we hauled them into the bathtub and sprayed them with goo-gone to remove any glue and sticker residue from the labels.  Then we utilized the tub like a giant sink and using dishsoap, a toothbrush, and a rag, we cleaned every bottle.  And when I say "we" I mean Skott.  He washed and cleaned them all.  what a guy, huh?!

bottles are cleaned and ready to wire

 Before we could begin wiring, we had to drill the corks so we could feed the wires down into the bottle.

drilled corks

getting ready to wire

Then we started wiring!  This part was fun for me.  I got to snip the end off the cord, feed it through the cork, then jam the cork into the neck of the bottle.  Oh, and I got to cut all those annoying tags off the cords as well :)

Then I passed them off to Skott where he wired the socket, then put a bulb in and checked the connections. Then he re-wrapped the cord and secured it with a zip tie. 

You can see Fucie was a great help!

I was super worried about shipping 20 wine bottle lamps and didn't know how to get them all there without them getting broken.  We ended up wrapping each one in bubble wrap, then putting them into cut down wine boxes that were lined with bubble wrap, then packing the necks with packing paper, securing the corners of the box with hard Styrofoam, and putting a layer of cardboard on the top and bottom of the box.
We put together hanging instructions complete with step-by-step photos, and spray painted the washers for hanging them.  Minor meltdown when the paint didn't adhere to our standards.  So at 1am, we were back out in the garage, sanding down the metal washers and repainting them with an enamel paint.  Sometime in the middle of the night when I woke up to pee, I turned them and sprayed the other side.  At noon the next day, they weren't drying fast enough.  This is when we noticed the directions that said 24 hr cure time.  (who reads directions on spray paint anyways??? haha).  At this point in time, the only thing holding us up is the silly washers so Skott got the brilliant idea to use a blow dryer on them.  Perfect!  That did the trick.  We headed to the post office where we were (strangely) elated to find out we were only 4 lbs and $5 off our shipping estimate/quote.

Package arrived safe and sound a week later.
Click here to see the online store.
We are so proud and excited to see how people respond to our lights.