My annual January project, which I worked on during February, was to turn a pantry into a wine cellar. We don’t need as much room for storage of canned goods and I do need to increase my space for wine.  So this conversion made perfect sense. I finished the walls and thought about the molding. It occurred to me that wine bottle corks might look appropriate as molding. In some places, I could simply glue the whole cork. For a week, corks were spread on the living room floor, grouped by state and winery. I like the effect of the area where I glued whole corks, however other areas would need something lighter looking. I would need to cut the corks.

You can cut corks with a utility knife. However, since I had to cut hundreds I decided to use a band saw. Since I didn’t want the cork turning as I cut it, I created a channel for the cork to move in. This stopped the cork from turning. It also provided the opportunity for me to push the cork with another cork as it passed by the blade. This was helpful in keeping my fingers away from the saw blade.  I cut some corks cut in halves while others were cut in quarters. I just glued the corks into place. I like the results. This project put a dent into the amount of corks that I have, although I need to come up with other uses of cork. I did see a photo of a chair made out of corks. Perhaps that can be next January’s project.