Maker’s Mark lamp
Shane Belanger, who currently makes a living as a bartender in the Westerly area, can pour you a “top shelf” drink and then craft a lamp out of the empty bottle, for you to place on your shelf at home.
Belanger,38, began “upcycling” 3 years ago, while working at an upscale local restaurant, where the often artfully labelled liquor
bottles landed right in the recycling bin, once emptied.
The former carpenter decided to give “Jack”, “Jim”, “Johnnie, “Jose” and others, a second life as Liquor Bottle Lamps. And when an Indoor Flea Market opened at Stonington’s Velvet Mill in mid-November, Belanger poured his creativity into creating a line-up of his Liquor Bottle Lamps to sell there. At prices ranging from $30., without a shade, to $40. with one, Belanger’s decorative decanter lamps can be purchased for much less than your average “night on the town.”
Belanger blends glass cutting skills he taught himself in college, while re-purposing bottles into incense burners to make spending money, his skill with a drill, and knowledge of electrics, in perfecting his own technique of turning liquor bottles into lights.
And what’s the most popular Liquor Bottle Lamp?
“There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” Belanger says.
“People gravitate towards what the person they’re purchasing the lamp for, drinks…Most people will buy one of my lamps as a gift for their significant other’s man cave—or woman cave!”
Hendrick’s bottle lamp
Belanger, who spent 9 years working in Alaska, would ultimately welcome a life as a travel writer. Towards that end, the Norfolk, Virginia-born Belanger, founded a website, WesterlyLife.com, which promotes area events and encourages local businesses. He is currently offering his website for sale.
This past November, he published a book,”The Ultimate Guide To Great Table Service,” which distills his 20 years of serving the public, into a concise e-book, available in Kindle format on Amazon.com. Belanger is also at work crafting two additional publications about life as a professional server.
“One of them is a real stress reliever–a tongue-in-cheek look at the biz of bartending,” Belanger promises.
Belanger and his “micro-batch”, Premium Label Liquor Bottle Lamps, can be purchased at The Velvet Mill’s Flea Market, 22 Bayview Ave., Stonington CT, 06378. The Flea Market also features quality antiques and collectibles and is open Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., through early April. Belanger can also be reached via e-mail: [email protected]. For additional information about The Stonington Flea Market, contact: www.thevelvetmill.com.
PHOTOS: courtesy of Shane Belanger and Doug May, for The Velvet Mill Flea Market
