The light of your life

Once drained, the beer bottle's practically valueless, other than as a receptacle for tobacco spit, or -- when a bathroom trip's inconvenient -- a receptacle for ex-beer. Now, one Lewisville man has created a wondrous use for cashed glass: The Tejas Home Barlite.

Tejas is a custom-fab home-and-business fixture workshop run by a guy with 30-plus years of steel-shaping experience; his sweetest niche combines his love of yeast's slur-inducing byproduct with his desire to preserve Mother Nature through recycling: beer-bottle chandeliers known as Barlites. Constructed from brown- or black-patina'd stamped & shaped steel, frames include the four-bulb, 41-bottle, wedding cake-looking "3 Tier" (with cutout-star arms and a glossy or matte finish), the rectangular "2-Tier Pool Table" (eight bulbs and a scroll-buttressed riveted top band), and the eight-bottles-dangling "Little Crown Deluxe" (circular frame sports repeating Longhorn logos); if so inclined, you can supply your own bottles -- don't let anyone say you're not crafty. Tejas also purveys non-alcoholic lights, like the "Bar Is Open Pancake Light" (circular frame houses state outline inside state star), the outdoor-ready "Texas Star" (3-D steel outline with mica inserts), and the "Longhorn Wall Sconce"; many designs follow a "spaghetti western" theme (Texas iconography, Italian simplicity) that ensures when you bring a girl home you won't be The Man With No Game.

One final offering, which might or might not tie into your beer habit: hunting-bow wall racks in 1/2/4-weapon configurations, with stamped-silhouette tops ranging from the state of Texas to various wild animals -- another perfect home edition, if you're into ex-deer.