Column - Shorelines

Courtesy of Veronica Church

Tim and Veronica Church make creations out of recycled bottles and sell them through their Web site, ReWINEd.net, and at area art shows and festivals.

Courtesy of Veronica Church

Wine bottle lanterns (right) are popular with ReWINEd customers as are their glass angels made from broken wine bottles.

Courtesy of Veronica Church

Wine bottle lanterns (right) are popular with ReWINEd customers as are their glass angels made from broken wine bottles.

Tim and Veronica Church want your glass bottles. They also want your neighbor's bottles. And, as you could probably guess from the name of their business, ReWINEd, the couple takes those discarded bottles and makes them into decorative, yet functional, pieces of art.

Whether it's a cobalt blue vase accented with blue and green glass beads and pieces of a Rolling Rock beer bottle serving as its base, or an elaborately beaded cork key chain, these are one-of-a-kind works of art.

According to their Web site, ReWINEd.net, "We are obsessed with bottles and corks. We collect them from all our friends, wineries and restaurants. We create beautiful and functional art while educating about the importance of recycling."

The couple got into the bottle-recycling business by happenstance when they were showcasing other works of art at the Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival in 2007. Veronica, a stained-glass, mosaic and watercolor artist, couldn't help but notice the large number of bottles that were being thrown away after the festival.

"We were packing up to leave and saw there were hundreds of bottles. They [wine festival officials] were hauling them [to a bin]," recalled Veronica. "I couldn't believe how many bottles there were."

That's when the Churches had an epiphany: They would create unique works of art out of those wine bottles and corks while helping to reduce the nearly 27 billion bottles that get tossed into landfills each year.

"Now we're known as the 'recycling people,' and we're going more in the direction I wanted to go [with making art]," said Veronica, who used to own Eclectic Creations, an artists' co-op in Burnt Chimney. "Sometimes you need to change what you're doing to move in another direction. I like things that are artsy and functional, and I like making functional, useful pieces that somebody can do something with."

Since launching ReWINEd, the couple has been working with area wineries to relieve them of their bottles and corks while spreading the word about their recycled creations. At the recent Wine and Unwind Festival in Salem, the couple collected empty bottles from the participating wineries. At the end of the evening, they hit paydirt.

"We had 21 cases of empty bottles. It worked out really good for us," said Veronica.

"We were the last ones to leave [the festival]. We had the maintenance guys helping us carry the bottles out to our car," added Tim. "Everybody's been really great about not throwing their bottles away. We've come home and had bottles sitting outside [on the porch of their Wirtz home]."

Just like their other business ventures, which include a cleaning service and screenprinting business, the Wirtz couple works together as a team to produce their ReWINEd art. Tim cuts the bottles with his diamond-wheeled glass cutter while Veronica takes those newly cut pieces and puts her elegant, artistic touches on each one. Even bottles that break by mistake are salvaged to make their popular glass angels.

Other works of ReWINEd bottle art include kaleidoscopes, lanterns and votive candle holders. The couple also crafts beaded (and unbeaded, for the guys) wine cork key chains and cat beds out of wooden wine crates.

They showcase their wares at shows and festivals throughout the region. This year alone, the couple has attended more than a dozen events. Their next event will be Brooks Mill Winery's open house (6221 Brooks Mill Road, Wirtz) on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28 and 29, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

On Saturday, Dec. 5, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Veronica and other artist friends will be organizing a one-day festival called the Blue Ridge Artisans Christmas Arts and Crafts Festival. It will be held at The Club at Heatherwood (Heatherwood Road) in Boones Mill.

For more information about ReWINEd, visit www.rewined.net or call Veronica Church at 354-0005.