Our Story

Glass on the Grass was conceived by Stephen on top of Mt. Hotham on a picnic blanket at a summer music festival.

We (Stephen & Lee) were celebrating a friend’s special birthday, so we prepared delicious food and brought a couple of bottles of truly exceptional wine with proper wine glasses to savour the experience. I am sure you can guess what happened. We poured the wine, toasted the birthday boy and then needed to put our glasses down so we could eat. We all thought we’d found perfect spots to balance our glass, but within a few minutes, at least three of us had our wine tip over.

While Lee and the rest of the group shared wine glass mishaps, Stephen, who had more of his own fair share of incidents, noticed a guy who had put his wine glass on the grass and was holding it between his toes; this sparked an idea in Stephen, who is a qualified Industrial Designer.

Several prototypes later, Glass on the Grass™, the slide-on coaster that helps stabilise a wine glass on grass, picnic blankets, sand, and pretty much any outdoor surface, was born.

The overwhelmingly positive feedback testing it out on picnics, B.B.Q.s, outdoor cinema and pool parties gave us the confidence to invest in our idea and go from prototype to tooling and production.

Finding the right local manufacturer who understood our vision wasn’t easy, but we have, and it’s been a great partnership. We always strive to use as much recycled material as possible and are proud to say we have zero waste in our manufacturing process.

Of course, this was just the beginning; this is where Lee’s design, brand, marketing, and sales skills came in. Together, they have turned Glass on the Grass into a product thousands of people love using. It has been and continues to be an incredible learning journey. We’re honoured to have fabulous stockists who are as passionate about our product as we are.

Our passion for eating outdoors has led us to create a second product, ShooFly. The stylish, eco-friendly food cover is perfect for your platter and feast. Made from fine stain-resistant, eco-friendly RPET mesh (recycled water bottles) edged in weighted eco-linen prints, they are easy to use, store and wash.

It’s the simple things in life that make life special. We’re just about making sharing food and wine outdoors with family and friends more enjoyable.

Thanks so much for reading our story
Cheers,
Lee & Stephen

The Inventors

Stephen Flewellen & Lee Drury,  inventors, co-founders and joint owners of Glass on the Grass are business and life partners. Together they also own Breathe Create Pty Ltd, their company that holds the Design Registration and Trademarks for Glass on the Grass™. Their love of outdoors, passion for intelligent design, and track records in making things happen compelled them to join forces.

Stephen Flewellen

Stephen Flewellen

Inventor | Co-Founder | Design Director | Co-Owner

Born in South Africa to British parents, is an Industrial Designer highly accomplished in Retail Point of Sale designer with 20+ years of experience spanning the UK, Europe, United States and Australia.

Stephen has a proven track record in product design. Glass on the Grass is the first product he has 100% joint ownership.

Five years ago, after numerous visits to Australia, he moved here permanently.

Stephen is responsible for the product design, development, prototyping, tooling, production and point of sale. He has worked closely with world-class product and fabrication engineers throughout the development and manufacturing journey to ensure form, function and usability.

“We were determined to make our final product in Australia. We partnered with an Australian managed world-class prototype and tooling company based in China to further develop our prototype and then make the injection moulding tool needed to produce our product. We then shipped our tool that weighed a tonne into Australia!”

Stephen also came up with the name Glass on the Grass™

Lee Drury

Lee Drury

CEO | Co-Founder | Head of Brand Sales & Marketing

Born in Australia, has a hands-on approach to building a brand. Degree qualified with over 20 years’ experience in brand development, marketing, communication, and events across the Event, Wine, Global Hotel Chain and Not for Profit Sectors.

Lee, Glass on the Grass CEO has set up the business and worked with consultants to create the brand, manage design registration, trademarking, communication and packaging.

She heads business strategy, sales and marketing. She has appointed an excellent lawyer and, accountant.

‘In our first year, we have sold over 100,000 units and have 150+ retailers right across Australia, New Zealand selling our clever Aussie Invention with expansion into the US well underway. "

Lee is determined to make the Glass on the Grass brand experience exceptional. They have chosen to embrace being a small business by giving customers a personal experience at each stage on the way.

As part of the personal approach, we encourage our customers to join our Picnic Club

Product Development

From original idea to launch the product has taken almost three years.

We began with sketches, then technical drawings to create 3D models using our 3D printer. These technical drawings were modified until we had two fully functioning prototypes. Once we were happy with the basic design and functionality, we put them to the test. Feedback for these early prototypes was incredible – they were a brilliant conversation starter. We were overwhelmed with positive comments

“I could so use one of them right now!”
“Where do I buy them from?”
“I need one now, please let me know when you start selling them.”

Our next step was to partner with Star Rapid, an international world leader in working with designers and inventors to transform working prototypes into production-ready prototypes ready for tooling.  At the end of this process, we had our own custom-made one-tonne steel tool and our first test production run.  Our case study can be found here.

While this was taking place, we registered our design, trademarked our brand, and our business planning was well underway.

The formal prototype testing process took place over 12 months to test materials, flexibility, usability, function and form. Testing took place all over Australia. We also had teams in NYC, the UK, Spain and Greece testing our product.

While a distinctively Aussie product, our plan has always been to make Glass on the Grass a global brand so even in our production sample stage we have been working with professional photographers in Australia, USA, UK and Europe. We’ve since added Japan to the list.

We have invested heavily in production and development because we believed in our product. We have had a lot of positive feedback throughout the process. As a boutique company, we recognise the importance of collaborating with partners who are leaders in their field.

As a small business getting the word out about our product is our key. We are authentic and approachable.