Wine tote made from old wine mags – I give it 94 points
Site reader Katie has taken the old mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” to heart. Instead of merely recycling her old wine magazines she is know weaving their pages into handsome wine totes.
She wrote via email: “I weave the entire thing….got the idea because they are making purses now from recycled candy wrappers, potato chip bags, etc…so I thought, why not magazine pages? I covered each piece with a layer of packing tape so it would be waterproof and then figured out how they weave the purses together…then it was just a matter of altering size, and creating a pattern with the color. The inside is lined with a canvas pouch to carry the weight of the bottle.”
She also doesn’t hide her disdain for the magazines’ penchant for giving wines a score out of 100, which carry a false sense of objectivity–and don’t tell you which wine goes with duck breast, she adds. So now she says she “finally” has a use for the mags.
Related:
Katie’s new blog, Gonzo Gastronomy
HOWTO: make a furoshiki wine carrier
One of the "seven best wine blogs." 
One of the three best wine blogs
On September 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm ,aditya wrote:
Wow .. this is really cool!
On September 11th, 2008 at 2:11 pm ,Dr. Debs wrote:
She could make huge $$$s selling these. Is she?? I’m not sure I have time for weaving…
Also, somebody needs to give her a ring when they’re looking for donations for the Wine-Food bloggers Menu for Hope. If she put some of those up I’d bid on them, for sure.
On September 11th, 2008 at 3:27 pm ,WineWench wrote:
Hey everyone….Tyler, thanks so much for the add. As for selling these, they are time-intensive as they’re made by hand, so I doubt I could sell these for anything less than at least $60-$70 each, and I don’t know that people would actually pay that, especially in this weak market! I’d be curious to hear all your thoughts!!
On September 12th, 2008 at 11:24 am ,Greg Schroeder wrote:
I hate to say this, but the only way to produce these at a reasonable cost would be to have them made for you overseas – just like the purses are that you modeled this after. If you choose to do so, we’d love to carry these in our Amazing Grapes Wine Store in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Let me know!
On September 14th, 2008 at 6:35 pm ,Steve wrote:
This is a great idea, but no you couldn’t get enough people to spend $60 in order to make enough money. Great thing though – you consider putting them on mixtgoods.com or etsy.com.
steve
On September 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm ,Dylan wrote:
Really well done! I love when people up and go on a creative endeavor. It’s important to act on that voice that says, “have fun and make something.” I’m pretty sure the people who have listened to that little voice are all very successful.