Keeping active at Jelinek Cork

Those who work together also like to play together and that is exactly how we feel at Jelinek Cork. We work hard and play hard! With locations all over the world we rely heavily on technology to communicate but we never lose track of the value of face-to-face communication. When we meet up in person, we like to make it fun and to build a team regardless of where we physically work and reside. What better way to build a team and have fun than with physical activity. This fall, Jelinek Cork staff from our various global locations have come together on a few occasions to participate in fun, team building, athletic events.  

Bratislava, Slovakia: Bratislava River Park Night Run.
Jelinek Cork participants from four

Jelinek Cork locations: Slovakia, Canada, Portugal and Czech Republic.

Mountain climbing in the High Tatras mountain region of Slovakia.

Jelinek Cork participants from four Jelinek Cork locations: Slovakia, Canada, Portugal and Czech Republic.

Savannah, Georgia, USA: 4^th Annual United Way Turkey Trot. Jelinek Cork participants: Canada & USA.

A day home from school + a box of cork

School will be out for the holidays soon and kids will be home looking for things to do. Why not let them use their imagination by getting into your wine cork collection. I gave my kids a box full of random corks - from used wine corks and champagne corks to cork balls and tapered corks. They spent a bit of time "brainstorming" what they wanted to create - they decided on trivets as it was both decorative and useful. They then spent the next couple hours "creating". All this involved were the corks and a bottle of white glue.

Crafting with cork - creating different patterns to create the ultimate trivet.

Concentrating on where to place the next cork.

The finished product - cork trivet.

The cork trivet - different patterns.

* Note: If you don't have enough wine corks or would like some variety in corks, we do offer them on the corkstore.com.

Holiday crafting with cork

Champagne cork "turkeys".

It may only be the beginning of November but now is the perfect time to begin crafting for the holiday season. Re-using wine corks is a great way to create holiday decorations and gifts and it also keeps the wine corks out of the landfills. 

Crafting with cork takes only your imagination and some cork. Add in some craft supplies such as glue, googly eyes, feathers and paint and the ideas are endless. Here are some examples of cork holiday crafts which have become gifts and holiday decorations.

Cork balls (painted) are threaded over thin wire to create these cork candy canes.

Wine corks make a great candle holder. What a beautiful, unique centerpiece.

Wine cork wreath. Add a bow and garlands for color.

Kids looking for gift ideas? Suggest they make these wine cork pencil holders.

These simple holders look nice and take only a few minutes to craft.

Wine cork Santa. Paint a cork, add some eyes, nose and a cotton ball. Cute!

For step-by-step instructions for creating some of these crafts, take a look at our YouTube channel.
Do you need more wine corks or champagne corks for crafting? You can find them online at the corkstore.com

Happy Crafting!

Life (for a cork stopper) after olive oil!

Beautiful Umbria, Italy is home to fabulous olive oils and wines. Olive trees grow throughout the magnificent country side of Umbria. These fine wines and olive oil bottles are stoppered with natural cork. Umbria celebrates these excellent wines and olive oils by displaying their corks both inside the bottle and, once the bottle is finished, outside. 

A large jug of olive oil is sealed with a natural cork stopper.

Olive oil is stoppered with this cork pourer. The bottle is displayed in a holder  made of re-used wine & olive oil corks.

 

 

This entrance to a restaurant in Umbria is made of hanging sparkling wine corks. Note the other containers - all made with re-used corks.

A close-up of the hanging entrance curtain. What a creative way to re-use cork stoppers.

Cork in Sculpture

The versatility of cork truly is remarkable. Many know it for bulletin boards, wine stoppers and even cork flooring however did you know this naturally sustainable material was used in the 1880s & 1890s in famous sculptures by artist Edgar Degas? X-rays of these sculptures show pieces of cork in the base and, in some sculptures, wine corks were used in the head of horses. Wax would then cover the cork but the cork itself helps with the support, texture and shape the artist wanted to achieve.

 

 These sculptures are on display at the National Museum of Art in Washington, D.C.

The Guam Kingfishers at the Albuquerque Biological Park (Pictures)

The Albuquerque Biological Park created a special nest log for its Guam Kingfishers. These birds require soft, rotten logs in order to excavate a nest so finding the "right" log can be a challenge for zoos (more about this). The "log" the Albuquerque Biological Park created uses cork which the birds can easily excavate. In the below image you can see the cork was installed in the open fronted plywood box. The hole in the upper left is the entrance to the cavity that the birds excavated.

The cork log nests were a huge success with an egg already hatched (and the baby growing up) and a new egg in the nest! The below image is of the baby Guam Kingfisher at 13 days old.

 

Take a look at our other posts about the Guam Kingfishers at the Albuquerque Biological Park. 

• Harvested cork also helps preserve endangered species

• The Guam Kingfishers at the Albuquerque Biological Park (continued).

 Thanks again to Peter Shannon, Curator of Birds at the Albuquerque Biological Park in New Mexico for sharing this information and these images with us. 

An adult Guam Kingfisher.

Old establishments supplying cork stoppers

This photo was recently taken in northern Portugal of an establishment which provides locals with their stopper needs. The translation is "House of Cork Stoppers". It is interesting to note this establishment was founded in 1850 - right around when Jelinek Cork Group was founded. Portugal today continues to be by far the largest supplier of the 14 billion natural wine corks used in the world every year. Corticeira Jelinek Portugal SA, also located in northern Portugal not far from the establishment Casa Das Rolhas, contributes to this impressive number. The Jelinek Cork Group of companies continue to supply cork stoppers to both large and small wineries throughout the world.

Hand-crafted Salt & Pepper Shakers (with cork!) support cancer research

Hector from Hector's Hobbies in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada has been hard at work creating and selling unique salt & pepper shakers for cancer research. At eighty-seven years of age, Hector was ready to stop making the shakers but as he continues to receive orders, he's decided to keep on making them. Each salt and pepper shaker is hand-crafted and contains a small cork on the bottom to hold in the contents. So cool and such a great way to re-use materials and support cancer research.

Cork oak tree seedlings

Cork oak trees are a remarkable tree and require specific climates in order to flourish. Recently, Jelinek Cork USA acquired some cork oak saplings to plant in gardens around Savannah, Georgia. Cork oaks grow primarily in Portugal, Spain and other Mediterranean regions. Though these trees can also grow in other regions, their bark typically does not produce the same high quality of cork as found on the trees in the Mediterranean. Learn more about cork oak trees.

So we will follow the growth of these baby cork oak seedlings and see how they flourish.

Day 1: Many cork oak seedlings arrive. The little trunk is forming from the acorn.

Day 2: The seedlings are planted in pots inside and gardens outside. The plants outside need to be covered with wire to prevent deer, squirrels and rabbits from eating the acorns and the growth.

The seedlings are given plenty of water and the sunlight from the warm southern sun will help them grow.

Stay tuned for updates as the trees begin to grow ...

The Guam Kingfishers at the Albuquerque Biological Park (continued).

We were thrilled to learn this fabulous news today - the Albuquerque Biological Park has been successful in hatching Guam Kingfishers in their cork nest logs! This is great news for this highly endangered species. If you have been following this blog, you have seen our previous post. If not, take a look at it for details on the species and the importance of their nests including the material (cork) used to construct their nesting log: Harvested cork also helps preserve endangered species.

Thanks again to Peter Shannon, Curator of Birds at the Albuquerque Biological Park in New Mexico for sharing this news with us.

Jelinek Cork circa 1940.

It is always fun to find old pictures and what a cool picture this was to find. It is of the old Jelinek Cork factory (then known as Jelinek & Son) in the Czech Republic in the 1940s. If walls could talk, this building would have a lot to say...

 

See the gates in the front? That's how you get into the complex. This next picture shows Henry Jelinek III with his brothers-in-law and other colleagues standing in front of the gates.

The building survived World War II but in 1948 Jelinek Cork was nationalized and the Jelinek family escaped to Canada to find freedom and a new start. The new North American company was started and prospered throughout Canada and the USA and began expanding into other countries. In 1989, with the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the ousting of the communist regime, Jelinek Cork Group re-established a division of JCG in Eastern Europe and today also have facilities in both the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic (along with Portugal and the UK).

In the 1940s, a bus stop close to the Jelinek cork factory was named "Korek" (translates to "Cork" in English) and shows the importance of the company.

Here is a "Now" picture: Henry (Sonny) Jelinek V (who now operates Jelinek Cork USA in Savannah, Georgia) and Henry (Casey) Jelinek VI are visiting the old factory and the bus stop still remains.

Jelinek Cork is a privately owned, fifth generation family run business with locations throughout the world. It was founded in 1855 and is one of the oldest continually active cork companies in the world!

For more information on cork and the Jelinek Cork history, visit jelinek.com or take a look at House of Cork by Henry Jelinek IV.

Jelinek Cork - Supplying Cork to Distillers Since 1855.

Jelinek Cork began supplying cork to distillers in 1855 and continues to do so today. This fifth generation, family owned operation knows cork. The knowledge and understanding of cork, a remarkable natural material, has literally been passed along generation after generation after generation after generation after generation.

In 1855, the civil war in the US hadn't even begun, Canada was not yet a country and it would still be more than half a century for Czechoslovakia to be formed ... yet ... Jelinek was already busy supplying cork!

Harvested cork also helps preserve endangered species

We received the following email from Peter Shannon, the Curator of Birds at Albuquerque Biological Park. We love hearing how our cork is used, especially when we learn that even after the cork is harvested, it continues to play a part in preserving highly endangered species.  

From Peter Shannon:
"In the mid 1980's, zoos were called upon to assist in saving the Guam kingfisher from extinction. 29 birds were collected from the island of Guam, and by 1988 the species was extinct in the wild. Over the past 25 years, zoos have managed to breed the species and increase its numbers to about 135 individuals.

Knowing very little about the natural history of the species at the time, we struggled with development of the best husbandry practices to successfully propagate them. One thing we did know was that once a pair was established, they required soft, rotten logs in order to excavate a nest cavity. A significant challenge for many of the zoos has been finding the "right" logs that the birds would be able to use.

For some reason I recently came across an article about duck decoys, and the cork blocks that carvers use to make them. The internal wheels started turning and I bought some of the low density cork blocks to begin experimenting. We built some open fronted boxes, cut the cork blocks to size and filled the boxes several layers deep with the cork panels.

We have two pairs of the kingfishers at the zoo here in Albuquerque. Within days of installing our cork "nest logs", both pairs began excavating nest cavities. And the day before yesterday, we had our first kingfisher egg in one of the "logs".

It will be three weeks before we know if it will hatch.

Just thought you would be interested to know that not only is cork forest management making a difference in preserving valuable wildlife habitat, the harvested materials may also be making a difference in preserving other highly endangered species. If these cork nest logs are successful, not only will the captive population of kingfishers benefit, the strategy may make a difference in facilitating return of the species to the wild someday. As Martha Stewart would say, "it's a good thing:."" 


Peter also shared with us a little history about the Guam Kingfisher.
"In the short form, here is the tale.......... In the 1970's, birds on Guam were disappearing at an alarming rate. It turned out that sometime at the end of World War II, the brown tree snake from Indonesia found its way onto Guam (probably hitching a ride on cargo ships). A largely nocturnal species, it feeds on eggs and nestlings and female birds sitting on nests. The birds on Guam had not evolved with this type of predator and had no natural defense strategies to survive this invasion. By the early 1980's, several species were already functionally extinct -- only males remained. This is when zoos stepped in to bring kingfishers and rails into captivity. Within a few years, both species were extinct in the wild. Control or total elimination of the tree snake has proven to be challenging. There is still no comprehensive technique for the snake problem. But in the meantime, zoos continue to do their part to keep these species going until sometime in the future the problem can be solved. Right now, there are agencies exploring the possibility of introducing kingfishers to similar island habitats until such time as they can be returned to Guam".

If you are interested in reading more, "And No Birds Sing" by Mark Jaffe is a good history of the Guam story.

Awesome! Thanks to Peter Shannon, Curator of Birds at the Albuquerque Biological Park in New Mexico for sharing this story with us.

School fun (while learning): Building with cork

In my previous post, I wrote about the box of corks my daughter's first grade class was going to be building with. As they are learning about communities, building and recycling, their task was to design and build a structure of their choice using cork (and glue of course)! The students could choose from whatever cork material they could find in the box (similar components are found in the cork craft grab bag on the corkstore.com). They needed to come up with a plan, design it and then build it. Below are some of their creations:

Kids and Recycled Cork

The other day, I dropped off a box of recycled wine corks with my daughter's first grade class. The classroom became a big buzz of excitement: What were the corks for? What should they build? How will they build it? After much discussion it was decided to use the corks to build a community. The kids can glue corks together to build tall skyscrapers, they can glue corks side by side to create little houses, they can even make little people, animals and trees from the wine stoppers. Roads will be built where recycled cork cars can drive, fire stations will be erected with recycled cork fire engines, bridges and train tracks all will be built with cork. Once construction begins on the cork community, I'm sure other ideas will surface.

The recycled cork stoppers are part of a unit the children are doing on recycling and the environment. Re-using what could be considered garbage by some, will save room in our landfills and give our "junk" another purpose. In my daughter's class not only are they learning about communities but they are doing so while learning and building with recycled materials.

I look forward to visiting the recycled cork community. It should be a fun learning experience for all!

Need more recycled wine corks for a craft or idea? The corkstore.com has them along with special Cork Grab Bags - bags full of various corks.

Jelinek Cork Fabric in Vogue Patterns Magazine

Cork fabric, also known as cork leather or cork skin, is produced from natural cork - the bark of the cork oak tree. The cork fabric is composed of thin sheets of natural cork adhered to a fabric support backing. It is available in a variety of different patterns and colors. Take a look at the corkstore.com to see the many patterns available. One may think "Cork Fabric? How can that last?". But it does. This amazingly durable fabric is comparable to leather in terms of durability. The main difference? Cork fabric can actually get wet and be washed - unlike leather. Besides being durable, beautiful to look at and warm it is also environmentally friendly, hypoallergenic, water resistant and stain resistant.

Take a look at this month's (February/March 2012) issue of Vogue Patterns Magazine. You'll see Jelinek Cork fabric featured (along with a promo code). The magazine also includes a cool project demonstrating how to make a wallet and e-book reader using cork fabric.

The magazine is available at newsstands or take a peek at their online sampler.