Cork dork: Ten cool things to do with leftover wine corks
First time here? Check out the "site highlights," send in a question, subscribe to the latest posts by RSS, daily email, or free monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting!
After uncorking a bottle and enjoying the wine, probably most people throw the cork in the trash. Certainly there’s worse waste: It’s not as if there are junkyards full of corks, and since they are the bark of oak trees, they are biodegradable. But surely we can do better than simply throw them away. Here are ten ideas!
1. Kicking things off, consider this gorgeous “bowling ball” from Minnesota artist Jan Elftmann. We’ll come back to her at the end, but this is a good one to get things, er, rolling.
2. The wall o’ corks as you may remember from the 15,000 cork wall at Frankly Wine, a Manhattan wine shop
3. The cork vase: easy and can bring back some wine memories. As seen here at Pottery Barn. (Where we saved you $14 last year!)
4. Exquisite miniatures emerge from the Design Within Reach annual contest: the foil, capsule, wire, and cork from two Champagne corks to make a chair. Behold this year’s judge’s choice (and previous winners):
5. Recycle! A sustainable building firm in Missouri will collect corks to recondition into building materials: Since 2004, wine consumers have mailed in 1.5 tons of corks (approximately 400,000). Amorim, the large cork producer from Portugal, has also started a program called “Recork America” that may reconstitute wine corks into flooring and bulletin boards. There are drop points at some wineries and Whole Foods locations. But since flooring is boring to look at (except when serving as the background for this web site), here’s a picture of the cork cover for the iPhone!
6. Tip out a clock: similar to the popular cork wreath but a little more sleek and stylish. This one’s available for purchase at Etsy.
7. A trivet/hot plate pad or cork bulletin board. Classic yet practical–as well as actually feasible.
8. Apartment Therapy saw some nice ‘n easy place card holders.
9. Make a cork castle, such as this one in a wine shop window in Chicago’s Lincoln Square. And why not put Obama there? ChiBart
10. A chair made of 3,000 corks. Click through to the Gabriel Wiese gallery for many more styles…
11–BONUS! But the person we all need to emulate for cork artistry is clearly Jan Elftmann. In over 20 years, she has collected 50,000 corks. Perhaps her piece de resistence is her truck, which is covered in 10,000 corks. She also had a display of her Cork Bowling Alley at the Minneapolis Institute of Art click through to her site for videos and more of her art.
So what are you waiting for? Start uncorking your favorite wines! Or check out corks for sale on EBay. What do you do with your leftover corks?
One of the "seven best wine blogs." 
One of the three best wine blogs
On May 18th, 2009 at 8:12 am ,Dylan wrote:
The iphone cover, arm chair, and note holder are my favorites. It goes to show that a little creativity can go a long way. To think my first experience with cork was in science class when the teacher was trying to explain how plant cells functioned. Look how far the cork has come, from bottle neck to works of art. I have a lot of leftover corks myself–oddly enough I’ve saved them with no other purpose than collecting them. Once I used cork to make my own compass (floating a needle onto the cork bed suspended on water) but this post has me itching to do a craft project on a larger scale. Now I just need to find the time.
On May 18th, 2009 at 12:19 pm ,bowling balls wrote:
this is great, I love the ball
On May 18th, 2009 at 1:48 pm ,mydailywine wrote:
I am thinking about doing a sound proofing installation on my bedroom ceiling. Cork could be the answer…god knows I go through enough wine bottles:)
On May 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm ,priscilla cohen wrote:
Hinde-sight…. All of those corks I have thrown. I’d like to take a nap in the easy chair.
On May 19th, 2009 at 4:48 pm ,Another new post : Treasured Valley wrote:
[...] Cork dork: Ten cool things to do with leftover wine corks. [...]
On May 20th, 2009 at 8:10 am ,What to Do with a Wine Cork wrote:
[...] past the obligatory cork trivet you may want to try you hand at some of these. . . Check out: Cork dork: Ten cool things to do with leftover wine corks at Dr. Vino’s Wine Blog. Kind of makes the trivet look lame doesn’t it… [...]
On May 21st, 2009 at 7:16 am ,Mike Calnegia wrote:
How about a coffin to bury the cork forever. Yay screwcaps.
On May 25th, 2009 at 10:15 pm ,HDL Enhancement wrote:
Here is yet another construct with corks — a door to a wine cellar:
http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor/cellardoor.shtml
Cheers!
On May 31st, 2009 at 12:44 am ,John wrote:
some very neat things to do with your corks
On June 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 am ,john jorgensen wrote:
people are making kitchen tables and the like from concrete.
Why not make a floorplate, with corks for nice softening and non-slipping of concrete floor.
For showers, bathrooms…
On June 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm ,Susan wrote:
I’m inspired. I think I’ll make a doll house for my daughter…better start drinking!
On June 12th, 2009 at 1:43 am ,Cork Lover wrote:
Cork recycling is a great initiative that is environmentally responsible. And choosing wine sealed with natural cork closures helps to preserve the Mediterranean cork forests. More information regarding the ReCork America program including a list of drop-off locations is available at http://www.recorkamerica.com
On June 20th, 2009 at 7:47 pm ,Chris; mother of the bride wrote:
I saved the corks from my daughters wedding week celebrations and made her a cork tray which I covered with plexiglass. Each time they use it friends recall the particular bottle and occassion.
On June 30th, 2009 at 10:15 pm ,Bottles as bricks, jugs, sprawl, Holy wine - sipped and spit | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[...] monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting! SIPPED: reusing wine bottles We like reusing corks. And we previously saw the 13,500 bottle wall house previously. And recently another bottle wall [...]
On August 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm ,Vent your spleen: synthetic corks! | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[...] But you get the idea. That middle ground between true cork and screwcap is occupied by the synthetic cork. On the plus side, there’s no TCA taint, which can arise with natural cork. But on the minus side, the little rubber bullets can be hard to get off the corkscrew (particularly the solid ones), nearly impossible to shove back in the bottle, not biodegradable, and until someone makes a wall of synthetic corks, they haven’t had much appeal being reused functionally or artistically. [...]
On September 17th, 2009 at 7:03 pm ,Corkfinger - Amorim, ReCORK America and cork recycling | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
[...] in the garden or added to compost as a way to keep them out of landfills. And don’t forget cork art! Permalink | Comments (5) | SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Corkfinger and cork recycling", url: [...]
On October 1st, 2009 at 2:47 pm ,A rolha verde « Sonia Melier wrote:
[...] para correção do solo. Isso sem contar com objetos de arte e decoração, como mostrados aqui pelo blogueiro Dr. [...]