Garage Band: D&J Creations builds business one bottle at a time in NewBo

CEDAR RAPIDS - What started out as two empty Champagne bottles in 2010 has grown into a thriving business for Don and Joan Gray, a retired Central City couple.

'When my wife's father passed away, he had been in the U.S. Navy and wanted his ashes spread in the harbor off San Diego,” said Don, who also serves as Central City's mayor. 'After we did that, we drank a couple of bottles of Champagne in his honor.

'When we got back home, Joan wanted to do something with the bottles and not just have them sitting around.”

Don, 69, had seen some bottles at a craft show in Colorado with Christmas lights inside of them. After he finished putting lights in the Champagne bottles, the couple put them on a buffet in their home.

'We had people saying, ‘That's pretty neat. Can you do something like that for us?' That's how D & J Creations got started,” he said. 'If you looked at something we made and sold in 2010 and what we make and sell today, you would think they were made by different people.”

Don carefully drills holes in bottles and threads a string of 20 miniature Christmas lights into the container. Using a higher number of lights would make the bottles too hot to touch.

Despite his best efforts, Gray occasionally has a crack form in a bottle minutes after he's finished drilling the hole.

'I think you ruin the integrity of the glass,” he said. 'It depends on how the bottle is made. Cheaper glass is more likely to have a crack form after drilling.”

The Grays initially sold their lighted bottles as a temporary vendor each weekend at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids. When that program was eliminated, they learned about a shop that was vacant nearby at 208 12th Ave. SW.

Joan, 57, was recruited as a partner by Kellie Sauser and Jennifer Morris to open NewBo Shops at 208 in Cedar Rapids in March 2015. The shop offers a variety of items made by local artisans who rent display space by the month.

In addition to the three partners' own goods, merchandise includes textiles, candles, leather goods, furniture and home decor, table and yard games, and children's clothing.

The Grays also sell lighted bottles at large craft shows in Des Moines, Sioux City and other Midwest locations. More than 1,000 beer, whiskey, wine and other bottles of all shapes and sizes have been repurposed and kept out of landfills.

'We usually take anywhere from 220 to 300 bottles to a craft show,” Joan said. 'We try to build up an inventory over the summer months because we are very busy during the fall preparing for holiday sales.

'People buy them to use as night lights in the bathroom or hallway. Often, they want a particular bottle because it brings back memories of someone or something in their past.

'We have people who bring back bottles when they visit other countries. They want them as a remembrance of their trip.”

The lighted bottles typically sell for $20 apiece. Don gets most of his raw material by scrounging through bottles at recyclers, but also buys bottles with a particular color, shape or design that he knows will sell based on past experience.

'There's a little red decanter that Avon sold with a set of six matching glasses,” he said. 'When we put lights in one of them, we sell it as soon as we set it out.”

Within the last year, Don and Joan have developed a lighted bottle that looks like stained glass.

'They are real popular and we've sold a ton of them,” Don said. 'Typically, when Joan brings them into the shop, they sell very quickly.”

'They are very time consuming because I take fake lead and draw circles all over the bottle and then have to go back and paint all of them. I've also done straight line versions of stained glass, but again the work is very time consuming.”

When Don and Joan started D & J Creations, they did not expect the business to last very long or grow to the extent that it has over the years.

'We figured it would go for a couple of years and then go south and we would try something else,” Don said. 'We are busy, but I'm retired and I don't have to spend an entire day building bottles.

'If I'm not doing this, I'm doing something else.”

At a glance

Business: D & J Creations

Owners: Don and Joan Gray

Phone: (319) 438-1260

Available at: NewBo Shops at 208, 208 12th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids

On the web: Search 'D & J Creations-The Lighted Bottle People” on Facebook