Recycled cork grain in the garden

Cork is the ultimate environmentally friendly product. Even cork that has been used can be given a new life. You may already know of wine cork recycling - where used wine corks are collected and then re-purposed into other cork products including flooring, building material or used in crafting. Another cork product that can be re-purposed is granulated cork (or cork grain). Cork grain is often the bi-product of wine cork production. The grain is then used in many applications including as a stand-in for dirt on movie/theatrical sets. Once the grain has been used for its intended purpose, it can actually be used again. Among other uses, it works and looks great in a garden - offering texture and weed control. 

A terrarium made of re-used material.

Recently, a few classes at the local elementary school were building terrariums as part of their science unit. They decided to use recycled material for the containers. The large 2 litre plastic bottles would work perfectly. They would cut these in half, insert the desired material (rocks, soil, plants, water) and then seal them back together with tape. They ran into a problem when it was realized most of the original tops of the bottles were lost. So, they decided a wine cork would work. Sure enough, the recycled wine corks fit into the opening of the bottle and, when inserted, closed off their pop bottle terrariums. Below is the finished product. As a side note, months later the terrariums have yet to be watered and the plants are all thriving.

Sealed with a cork!

Reused materials make an excellent terrarium.

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.

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.

You open a bottle of wine, you drink the bottle of wine. Now you have an empty glass bottle and (hopefully) a natural wine cork. The glass bottle can be recycled or returned for a deposit (depending where you live) but what will you do with the wine cork? All natural wine corks can be recycled and repurposed into something else (ie. cork flooring, bulletin boards, cork wall panels). You can contact us as we'll gladly accept them or bring them to a Whole Foods market. You could also be creative and reuse those wine corks. Save them in a jar or vase for a decorative look and then, when you're ready, get busy!

Its amazing what people come up with:

From crafts such as this beautiful cork wreath:


















To displays/bulletin boards (in this case a restaurant menu board):



















To whole homes covered in wine corks:















The Calgary Zoo in Canada even uses a wine cork in their piranha aquarium:













If you'd like to share your use for natural wine corks, please let us know.