Are you a wine drinking fanatic? Then this is the crafting project for you! Years ago I saw a picture of a wine cork noticeboard in the Guardian Sunday magazine, one of many things that I had saved in scrapbooks and boxes for future reference. When I started making the noticeboard I had no idea how long to would take and the number of bottles of wine I would (be forced to...cough) drink before I would finish.
To make the frame you will need:
- an A4 picture frame (although if you want to pin anything more substantial than paper on the board I would reinforce the back)
- enough corks to fill the frame (about 50-80 depending on if you use champagne corks too)
- a junior hack saw
- superglue
- a liver of steel or access to lots of wine drinking friends
- about 6 months of your life
Each cork needs to be sawn in half length ways, which is a time consuming but easy process; don't panic if some of your corks are not cut quite straight it adds to the charm (or so I tell myself!). Champagne corks need to cut before the bulb at the top of the cork and I used both parts of the cork. You can try to cut the champagne length ways but you probably need something a little more substantial than a hack saw. I found this to my peril, almost cut off my hand trying to cut one particular beast in half!!!
Once you've cut up enough corks lay them out on to the board into your favourite pattern.. I started with a double horizontal, double vertical pattern but later on converted this into a more random pattern. You may also need to cut up some corks into smaller pieces to fill the gaps made by random spaces.
I made the process more interesting for myself by cutting some corks then sticking them to the board.
This is a project that can be picked up and left to one side whenever needed. I find that craft projects that need large amounts of designated time to complete tend not to get done in my house, particularly when I have work to complete too. As you can see here this poor little corkboard was left all by its self for many an afternoon before finally being finished! This is definately a project to complete in front of the TV or while tea is cooking, five minutes here and there will do wonders for a craft project like this.
Do's and Don't's
- Do buy or save plenty of wine corks before you start working on the project
- Do work in small circuits (saw, position, glue and repeat)
- Do work in front of the TV or in short bursts
- Don't use only bought wine corks. The paler and plainer corks on these images are bought from ebay. And although they were helpful in filling out my cork collection I wouldn't recommend using them for the whole project as the stamps and stains are what make this project so interesting.
These corkboards make excellent noticeboards, display frames and features to discuss with visitors. If you want to create a smaller board (maybe for shopping lists or reminders) a smaller photo frame can be used as the base. I have also seen these frames put on the inside of cupboard doors to create concealed storage for receipts and private information.
Happy Crafting!
L x
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