Creating something new and useful from something already created is almost always appealing to me so the classic design of a wine cork just had to find a way to be enjoyed beyond the bottle. Considering what I needed most, I set out to make a simple hot pad for my tea kettle with the corks we had on-hand. Of course, being in love with color I couldn’t resist incorporating a bit of the green that coordinates with our tea kettle and the finished item is practical. Surprisingly it even draws some admiration from visitors – most notice the color coordination too!
I have always saved wine and champagne corks. I once considered using them to create one of those Large Wine Cork Boards (using a kit, of course)
To create the trivet, I chose eight similarly sized corks plus four champagne corks then lined them up in the configuration I desired (see below). It took some wrestling with them but I wound a strand of all cotton thread figure-8 style around the six in a row, up then back, knotted at each end. Then the same for the three on each side of the row of six. Then I just wrapped and wound and knotted until it felt secure but still flexible.
Two blog posts that may inspire you to look at corks in a new way:
Recycle Raccoon’s Easy Going Green – Recycle Wine Corks (March 2009)
Terramia – Crazy for Corks (May 2007)
If you are interested in the sustainability of cork as a wine bottle closure, check out Put a (Wine) Cork In It, an article by Pablo Paster on Treehugger.com.
