Cork Wreath

A while back I saw a blog post on LollyChops that caught my attention. Lovely Lolly had written a tutorial about making a wine cork wreath. I've been saving my corks for several years now and I've also been collecting corks from a local winery for the last year or so. I just wasn't sure for a while what exactly I wanted to use them to make, along with the cork wreath, I've seen people use corks to make very cool looking bulletin/cork boards and also coasters and trivets. Well, I now have the best bulletin board I could ever imagine hanging in my office (I plan to share about that soon!) and considering I had over 200 corks saved up, I decided against the coasters and trivets for now, I wanted to make something that would use up all of my corks, not just a few. A wreath just like Lolly's was the right solution. So I made a trip to Michael's craft store for a straw wreath, fired up my glue gun, and got to work. I had the idea at first that I'd put the wreath on our front door, I was thinking it would look nice there once the Christmas themed wreath I hung had been taken down and stored. But, I was also a bit concerned about how the corks would hold up being exposed to the elements. It took me a while to save up and collect all of those corks, I didn't want them to be destroyed after just a couple of years outside. Which is how I ended up with the idea of hanging the wreath in our dining room window. We have a set of gorgeous picture windows on one wall. I hung a Christmas wreath in the center window which is the largest, over the holidays, and I liked how it looked. Besides there are a few other "wine themed" items in the dining room already. One is the tray below which is made out of the lid of a wine barrel. I bought it at a winery in Livermore, CA, Murrieta's Well, where I used to work. (I poured wine in their tasting room, it was a very fun job and I miss it very much!)

Another fun piece we have in the dining room is the candelabra pictured below which is made from a barrel stave, also purchased at the winery where I used to work. It was actually a gift that I gave the husband for the first Christmas we spent together, before we were even married. I remember thinking that if my hunch about him was right that I'd get to enjoy the candelabra for a long time, I was right!And below is a picture of the wreath hung in our dining room window, in context with everything else in the room...by the way, I hate our dining room table, it was the husband's before we were married, it serves it's purpose, but I don't even remotely like the style. I dream of an 8 foot table with a granite or marble top on top of turned cherry wood legs and 8 cherry wood chairs...all in good time though, anticipation is good. We've actually looked pretty seriously in the past, and we've even come close to buying a couple of different tables, but there's always been a good reason to wait for something better. Our idea is to find a table with a good strong base and then buy a piece of stone (marble or granite) to mount on the table base. It will happen when it is supposed to. But, table dreams aside, I love the way the wreath looks in the dining room window. Not every cork tells a story or represents a special memory, but many of them do.So back to the actual crafting of the wreath, Lolly's tutorial is pretty darn complete, so if you're interested in the steps required to make a cork wreath I would refer you to her lovely blog (there's lots of good stuff there, check out the cork wreath tutorial, but also spend sometime looking at all of her other amazing ideas and free downloads!) Instead, I will share some pictures I took as I worked to show the process. I will mention that I didn't look back at her tutorial until after I had already bought my wreath, so while Lolly recommends using a 10" wreath, the one I bought was 18". In the end, it still ended up looking pretty full (I wasn't kidding that I had a ton of corks saved up!), but I decided that I will continue to add to it over time. I actually am pretty excited about that idea, now when we open a bottle to celebrate, or even just to enjoy with dinner, I will be able to put it on my "work in progress" wreath right away.

I love my new wreath, it's the perfect combination of wine-themed-repurposed-craftiness for me...a little later this week I hope to share with you my progress with one of my other recent projects/resolutions. It's raining like crazy here in WA, so lately there's lots of time for me to spend getting back into the swing of things with work, organizing and cleaning things around the house, and getting my crafting and sewing fix. Have a fantastic Monday!