You can breathe a sigh of relief now….my tutorial on how to make a huge wine cork sculpture using just newspaper and wire hangers is finally here. I had to take it easy this weekend so Boo and I set up camp in front of the TV with the coffee table covered in corks and supplies. I let Boo pick the project and of course she chose the TALLEST of all land animals: a giraffe. A snail or bird would have been much easier to tackle!
I’ve been collecting wine corks from friends and family this year with this project in mind.
First we started off with wire clothes hangers…bending them into the shapes needed for the body, legs and neck. Using newspaper and packing tape we “bulked” up the body shape:
This step is completely optional…..but Boo wanted to add textured dry wall seam tape to the sculpture as her contribution. It helped the corks to stick but I think we could have left this step out:
Once the frame for the sculpture was finished I used hot glue to start attaching the wine corks to the body of the giraffe. I started at the main body and worked my way slowly to the neck and legs:
Once a large section of wine corks were attached, Boo squeezed wood glue in generously between the corks and let the piece dry and set for a while. Wood glue dries the same color as the corks so you can be as messy as you like. This was a great job for Boo….nice and messy. She loved seeing the wood glue ooze out as she flooded the cracks:
The finished giraffe!
It’s very sturdy with all the wood glue holding it together. The glue color made the entire thing more cohesive too:
A great way to decorate a bar area!
This post is featured on Babble’s The New Home Ec.
If you have leftover corks make sure to check out some of my other posts on wine cork stamps:
That is so gosh-darned cute!!
I have BAGS of wine corks (not sure who drank them all)! Thanks for the ideas!
Aaak!! I love this!!! Jut pinned it to my to-do board on pinterest! Thanks for the idea!
I love this, it is so cute I just want to cuddle it!! I’m going to have to start saving wine corks (and maybe hitting some friends up for some as well 🙂
On a side note: I just got a Silhouette machine and LOVE it. I’m wondering if you have tried the fabric ink yet? They claim it is easier and faster than screen printing and since I know you screen print I wanted to see if you had compared/contrasted the two yet.
Have a fantabulous week!
I love the giraffe idea I have been saving corks for years & my coworkers save them for me so I am doing an interesting wall in my kitchen
Love it! I am huge wine geek and have lots of corks. I might have to make this! Thanks for sharing.
My husgand and I are wine drinkers and have tons of these laying around. This would be a super fun project for my kids and I. Thanks for sharing .)
My best friend LOVES Giraffes and wine…Guess what she is getting for her birthday..THANK YOU for such a great idea!!!!!
This is AWESOME! I can’t tell the scale of this; must be fairly large?
What a wonderful idea! I didn’t know what to do with all my 1000+ corks…
Wow! I have huge boxes full with wine corks. I will definitely be doing this project. Super excited!!!
How cute! I have a little business called Stick A Cork In It doing wine cork art and crochet stuff… I have never thought of doing a sculpture like this! My little girl would love to make a mess out of it, too! She is also 4, and Boo reminds me so much of her whenever I see videos of her! Love it! Thanks for another great idea… I collect my corks from restaurants, so I have a gazillion of them waiting to be crafted into something cool! 🙂
Hope you’re having a great day, Ashley! Prayers for you and your fam, and for your friends you mentioned!
Dear my!!! I just loved this creation! It’s really beautiful.I’ll try to make it too.Thanks. Erika (from Brazil)
LOVE THIS!!! You should enter this in the cork Blogger DIY Design Challenge on About.com!!! http://video.about.com/recreate/DIY-Challenge.htm
I finally did the project (a few months ago), and now have taken some photos. My is not quite as cute and I did receive some intense burns, but it was such a fun process, and life is about the process. I wanted to inspire people to create one of their own, so I’ve included photos and a link to this AMAZING blog, on my Etsy shop: [email protected], look under supplies to see a photo of my giraffe.
Can we leave photos on here somewhere?
Thanks again, Ashley, you and your attitude are uplifting and contagious!!!
LOTS OF LOVE to the lilblueboo fam!
Melanie
Love thanx for step by step…nice little project!