Check out "container gardening" here at garden web. "Bonsai practices" is not what you need.

Markapp

You may not need to design aspect of bonsai, but some of the pruning and other cultural practices would be a great help in what you are trying to do.
One of the things that bonsai growers do is called root pruning. It makes it possible for a tree to occupy a small pot and still have room to grow and function, rather than have a pot crammed full of long roots.
The usual practice with house plants is to grow them in a pot till they get crowded, then jump the whole thing into a new larger pot a bit larger than the old one. The plant grows for a while and at some point the process happens again, perhaps over and over. What that means is that a plant that is fairly old may have a massive pot, which of course is awkward to move or store. Doing selective root and branch pruning means you can keep that plant in the same pot, basically for ever.
I have done this with figs (Ficus carica) for several years and it has worked out well. The fig trees get root pruned and repotted every other year or so, just the same way as my bonsai trees.

I agree with Markp6. You can use bonsai horticultural techniques to keep most woody plants in small containers. You can use whatever shaping techniques suit your personal prefferences, but it is still important to keep a low leaf/root ratio. Fruit trees "dwarfed" in this way should still fruit too.
Turtle

I have a grape tree that is in a bonsai pot and is less than a foot tall and maybe 2-1/2" diameter at the base. It is very woody. I plan on soon repotting it to a bigger pot and trying the root pruning techniques earlier msgs were mentioning.

hi all. i was planning on buying a wine grape bonsai, but i don't know the first thing about bonsai at all. the plant i'm thinking about buying is somewhat expensive, so i don't want to just throw money down the toilet. here's a link to the bonsai i had my eye on: http://ww2.1800flowers.com/product.asp?seid=3&p=3173&sv=276&search%5Ftype=s%5Fcollection&fc%5Ftrack1=&cur%5Findex=2&channel=#

how difficult is it to maintain a wine grape bonsai? i was thiking about keeping it in my office, where i get much better sunlight than i do at home. is that advisable?

Your expensive purchase will die if you keep it inside. Grape is not an "indoor" species. INdoor bonsai are made from tropical plants like ficus and schefflera.

Grapes are temperate zone plants that require a dormancy period, alot of light and humidity (indoor humidity levels are lower than a desert's) Bonsai Grapes, elms, pine and maples will decline and die when kept inside all the time.

If you want an "indoor" bonsai, look into a ficus bonsai...

thanks for the advice!!! much appreciated.