Materials

• Tray
• Wine corks
• Beeswax
• Xacto X75320 Small Mitre Box Set
• Paint (for tray)
• Wood Glue

It goes without saying that you should have a glass of wine while working on this project, right?

I acquired a couple of blank trays at a craft store years ago. And I’ve kept nearly every wine cork from nearly every bottle of wine I’ve had for years with the long-delayed idea to make something with the corks. And I finally did!

Dale modeling the cork cutting device! First, I cut the corks in half using a small mitre box saw set. Long, steady strokes of the saw worked best for me! And, happily, the box fit the corks almost perfectly (though they were a snug fit). Cutting them in half also allowed me to pick out corks that were of roughly the same thickness to create an even tray.

Once I had enough corks cut I had to create a pattern that fit into the tray I purchased. Kudos to Dale for coming up with this pattern. I also had to make cuts to the edges of the corks to ensure a proper fit inside the confines of the tray. Lots of instructions I’ve seen online just magically have a tray that fits corks. Also, cork length varies by brand so fitting them altogether is the most challenging part of this project. I set them all in and arranged them to my liking before I started gluing!

Next, I pulled the corks out, set them aside in order of how I wanted them to be laid out and then I turned my attention to the tray itself. I decided to paint the tray the color of red wine. I had more than one tray, and I primed one but not the other. I would opt to not prime in the future—the primed one just didn’t look as great!

Finally, I had to put the corks in, one at a time. I used wood glue but you could easily use a white glue like Sobo.

And the final product! I liked how it turned out! Now I have a cute and functional wine cork tray for parties and entertaining.