Needed a gift for a family member and thought a custom coaster set addition to his at-home bar would be perfect. Just like he has his own go-to glass for drinks that no one else can claim, I wanted him to have a differentiated and special coaster to go alongside that glass. However, at the same time I wanted the gift to be a set, without the feeling of just 4-6 of the same thing.
Therefore, the design requirements for the project had to have both strong differences and similarities for the two types of coasters that made up the set. Playing to the WAZER’s strong card, material type was an immediate variable to use as a differentiator. Then the other variable was just personalizing the coasters with different wording. I decided to have the person’s nickname followed up by “drink” for his coaster and followed up by “bar” for the rest of the guest coasters. Some more thought went into the design that made it personal but I won’t bore you here.
The final product can be seen below with some of these pics:
Finishing the project and Improvements for next time:
In terms of the 1/2" thick granite coaster, it took quite a bit of time to cut (~55mins) and the edge quality was poor on the bottom half of the material (really stretching the limit of the WAZER on this thickness of material). The latter was easily solve with some quick dremel and file cleanup, but doing it again I would’ve went with a thinner granite piece or used a softer stone.
Additionally, the top surface around the area of the cut lost its high polish and therefore the surface needed a quick repolishing. In hindsight, i should’ve put a thin film or tape across the entire top surface before cutting so I could retain the original polish after the cut and not have to redo it.
The glass was very straightforward with each piece just taking a few minutes (~7 min) to cut and being done right out of the machine (minus the light sandblasting/frosting on the backside to add depth to each one).
The gift was appreciated by the receiver and continues to be a great fit to the home mini bar with it being a talking point for new guests that come over.