Cork Tree Ornaments
Cork Tree Ornaments
My sap bucket was beginning to overflow with my saved wine corks so I decided it was time to come up with a project. Hey, no judgement…it’s not like I drank it all in one night. 😉
Since the corks were too big for the tree I had in mind, cutting them in half was the perfect option. The cuts didn’t look smooth, but I was using a serrated knife. Yes, a chop saw probably would have created a cleaner cut, but I value my fingers and they would have been a bit too close to the blade for this cut.
And then I was “stuck”. Yep, you’ll get that pun in a moment.
I started out using craft glue to attach them together. Nope, didn’t work. I tried E-6000. Nope, didn’t work. I even tried hot glue. That also did not work. (sigh)
The problem was material the corks were made of. They were not cork. They were rubber. I am assuming wine companies have changed to rubber corks because of price, but I don’t know. What I do know is this particular rubber didn’t like any of the adhesives I could think of. Seriously, I had too many corks to throw in the towel. I was not going to let these corks win!
I finally came up with a different method of attaching. After drilling from one side to the other, on each cork, in each horizontal row, I connected them with wire. Curling the wire ends held the corks tightly together.
The trunk, top of the tree and the center cork in the center row were also drilled from top to bottom.
This allowed me to vertically connect each of the rows. Two ends of the wire extended out the top. They were also curled.
They didn’t look too cool yet, but after finally figuring out how to bring everything together I was strutting like a peacock.
I wound miniature greenery garland around the tree, but something was still missing, not to mention I needed to come up with a way to hang them. I tried twine, but it didn’t look right so I tried hemp cord. Perfect! A bow was added to the front-center of the tree and the hanger was threaded through the curls on the top of the tree.
Another project heading to the craft show this weekend.
Enjoy!
