Save Your Corks

Save Your Corks! Recently I was visiting Block Island and I found the coolest corkboard at one of the gift shops. It was made out of wine bottle corks. I took a picture of it and when I got home I decided that I was going to make it. In order to make one of these corkboards you need a lot of wine corks. Fortunately I knew someone that had collected them over the years and they gave them to me. If you're a bartender or you know someone who is a bartender you can ask them to save the corks for you, or you can simply order them online.

The corkboard that I saw in Block Island didn't have a border but I knew that for mine I would like a border. I wasn't sure what to use. I thought about using a picture frame at first. After rumaging through my art supplies to see if I had anything that was usable I came across an old canvas that I never used.

I flipped the canvas over and realized that this would be my best option for making my corkboard!

It has the perfect size wood frame and the canvas backing is flexible for when you're trying to arrange the corks. It provides the perfect depth for the cork. Before inserting my wine corks into the frame I decided to paint the frame. Seeing as it is wood you could probably stain it. I painted the frame black.

You can see from this picture that this is one of those projects where you have to have some patience. Once the paint dried I strategically placed the corks into the space provided. Believe it or not, its a lot more difficult than it sounds. Not all the corks are the same size so they don't fit perfectly together. It was kind of like making a puzzle. I also had to cut some corks to fill in the gaps.

After I found the perfect place for each cork I began gluing them to the canvas with the glue gun. I haven't finished gluing them but this is what the final product should resemble. It might look a little better once I fill in some of the smaller gaps and hang it in the kitchen!