My First Cork Wreath!

When my aunt sent me a text asking if I wanted the two buckets of corks she had I was like "HECK YEAH!" I had no idea what I would do with them but I knew it would take me a lifetime to save that many corks on my own!  My aunt was volunteering at her local recycling center and had asked them to save them for her because she wanted to make a wreath but later decided she couldn't do it.  So...a couple days ago I started thinking about the wreath and decided I would make it for her for Christmas.  Here's how it went...

I started by doing some research, on Pinterest of course, surprisingly there's not as many cork projects out there as you would think but I knew I'd find wreaths, and I did!

My main reason for looking was to figure out how to attach the corks to the wreath...I had purchased a 12" foam wreath from Joanns.  The wreath that I purchased was more like regular styrofoam with square edges and not the thin round extruded foam type wreath.  I picked this type because I thought it would be more forgiving when I was attaching the corks and the extruded foam type of wreaths have always seemed more brittle to me.

In the end toothpicks seemed to be the direction I was leaning for attaching the corks to the wreath.  How hard could it be right?  Corks aren't very hard, I'd just stick the toothpick into the center and stick them into the foam....or so I thought.

Turns out corks are harder then you would think and toothpicks aren't 2x4s meaning they break easily...very easily.  My best solution was to use needle nose pliers and to push the toothpicks in a tiny bit at a time.  It wasn't a perfect plan and there were many broken toothpicks but I thought I was good.

I knew I wanted some type of adhesive to keep the corks in place after they were inserted into the foam and decided on Glossy Accents because I had a bottle that was starting to yellow and I wanted to finish it up.  I dipped the ends of the toothpicks into the Glossy Accents before inserting them into the foam in the hopes of the Glossy Accents filling in all the nooks and crannies of the foam and holding the toothpicks in place.  If I had it all to do again I'm pretty sure I would just go with hot glue.

I started sticking the corks into the foam at different angles trying to make sure the white foam wasn't visible between each cork and the toothpicks started snapping....and so my husband was off to the store for more.  He returned we 1600 toothpicks and I started replacing the ones that broke with the new, even more delicate toothpicks...

Turns out two toothpicks are better then one!  But don't kid yourself, they still broke.  

When I couldn't position the corks well enough to cover all the foam I would cut a cork in half and stick it in between the corks for better coverage.  If I ever got my hands on this many corks again I may consider cutting all the corks in half so they would go further since toward the end I was really worried I wasn't going to have enough corks to finish.  

In the buckets my aunt had given me there was a mix of actual cork corks and what I was calling synthetic corks, I'm sure there is a proper name for them but I have no idea what that would be.  Some of the "synthetic" corks had these seals on them which I ripped off and tossed in a pile figuring I could use them for something down the road.  

Then it dawned on me...I was partial to the cork corks of course because they looked like cork but I knew there was no way I had enough to do the whole wreath in the cork ones so I tried to use the other ones sparingly throughout the wreath and more along the edges.  The closer I got to filling the wreath the more I realized I was running really low on the cork corks.  If I added more of the "synthetic" corks into the wreath I could then add the seals back onto some of them and sort of camouflage the fact that they weren't cork.  I think they look awesome scattered throughout the wreath!

No matter what I did though, there was no getting around the fact that I was running out of the real corks...I knew I was going to be adding a ribbon to hang the wreath by and that the ribbon I had purchased was 2 1/2" wide so I grouped all the "synthetic" corks at the top where they would be covered by the ribbon and used the cork ones where they could be seen.   

I chose a burgundy and gold wired ribbon which I found at Pat Catans for 2 for $5 in the Christmas ribbon bin.  I wanted the ribbon to have the burgundy and gold colors because I think those colors together have a Tuscan feel and would be great on a wine cork wreath.  

Bow time!  For the hanger I just simply took a length of ribbon and wrapped it around the top of the wreath and tied a slip knot.  I created the double loop bow that I had learned from my days of gift wrapping at JCPenney.  Sorry I don't have pictures of the bow making process because it requires two hands to complete, maybe one day I do a post on how to do it.  

I attached the bow by sliding a long piece of wire behind the bows center and pushing both ends of the wire through the foam on either side of the hanger, I twisting them together on the back to keep the bow in place.  

Here is the finished wreath!  I am in love with how it turned out!  I love the mix of cork colored ends with the wine stained ones and the ends with the tattered seals.  I can't wait to see how much my aunt likes it, I just wish I didn't have to wait till Christmas...and find a way to store it till then!  I'm so sad it used up all but a couple hand fulls of corks and I don't have enough to make myself a wreath!  Oh well, turns out there's page after page of people selling large lots of used corks on eBay...maybe I'll break down and buy some for my own wreath, it might look nice hanging on the wall of my "fat chef" themed kitchen...I wonder if they have "fat chef"ribbon on eBay too!?!  Hmmmm...stay tuned!