Tequila-inspired chess set wins national contest
By Diane Bell
6:12 p.m.July 1, 2013

We’ve come a long way from 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

Spring Valley artist Brandon Montgomery crafted 52 empty bottles of Patrón tequila into a glass chess set and table worth $10,000. That was his prize for winning the tequila maker’s first national bottle art contest. His chess table includes players made of mini Patrón bottles with hand-carved corks.

It competed against a Patrón bottle floor lamp, a bottle bee mosaic, a footed bowl, a chandelier with bottle globes and other creative entries evaluated by judges including Cindy Allen, editor-in-chief of Interior Design magazine, and Evette Rios, correspondent for ABC’s “The Chew.”

A Navy lieutenant with a college degree in art, Montgomery, 31, says he didn’t drink all that tequila. “I went to 35 different bars asking for empty bottles.” He’ll drink some now to celebrate, though.

Source: http://www.utsandiego.com

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