Shot Glass Display Cases
Taking vacations and trips create memories that are easily captured with pictures. For many people, they will also like to purchase a memento like a post card, key chain, sticker, or spoons. My memento of choice is the souvenir shot glass and shooter. I think they are attractive and create a great talking point when showing them off with family or friends. This creates the need for this project.
More than two years ago, I had a box of shot glasses and shooters that I had purchased from the different vacations that was sitting in the basement. I new I wanted to make a display case for them but I was struggling with the design of it. I went through a dozen or more designs that ranged from wide open with individual shelves for each glass, cabinet style with a hinged door, and also sliding doors. I also had to decide if I wanted the case to be more tall than wide, more wide than tall, and what material I wanted to use for it.
I eventually landed on a design that was wider and short with sliding doors however I was still waiting on the opportunity for available materials. After having multiple commissioned projects, I was able to obtain materials that I felt would make a great display case. I had a locally sourced, urban maple board with some curly figure and voids that I felt would look great with a black epoxy fill. I got to work on the build.
The build started off well, but ran into a few avoidable hick-ups when I made some cutting errors which resulted in me making a slightly smaller case than I initially was wanting. After setting the pieces up to get my first glimpse of the piece, I noticed that I had made another error in measuring which resulted in the case not being tall enough for two rows of shot glasses which I was initially wanting. It was, however, tall enough for a single row of shooter size glasses. This meant, I needed to make a second case. I took advantage of this by utilizing a different material set, different joinery, and slightly different size which resulted in a case that was able to have two rows of shot glasses. The second case was primarily made of scrap ash wood that I had. Because the ash did not have much exciting character, I opted to utilize African Mahogany to create a contrasting back panel.
The rest of the build process for both cases went as I had planned. I learned quickly from the early mistakes that I needed to slow my self down, double and triple check my measurements and tool set ups, and trust myself in the process. I utilized thick, clear, plexi-glass for the the sliding doors for both cases and hung them using french cleats.
Overall, I am extremely happy with how the cases came out. They are great a displaying my souvenir glasses. The cases in themselves are a great talking point with the design choices while still letting the glasses be the main focus and purpose of this project.
