Recycled wine cork earrings tutorial

Did you say you wanted another wine cork craft?  Well then you’ve come to the right place. After that bottle is empty and gone don’t throw away that cork!  Recycle them into wearable art. Cork is a natural material and is soft, lightweight, and so easy to work with.  Using a craft knife you can easily slice medallions out of your used cork and pretty soon you will have an awesome pair of earrings.

You will need:

·      Wine cork

·      X-acto or craft knife

·      Scrap glass from an old frame to work on

·      Various small beads in colors of choice

·      Needle nosed pliers

·      Small awl

·      Head pin (I used copper)

·      Fish hook ear wires (I used copper)

1.     Gather your supplies and choose two identical wine corks.  Using the craft knife slice about ¼” from the edge of the wine cork.  Slice straight down using pressure and a slight sawing motion.  Trim off any ragged pieces with the craft knife. (rubbing the pieces together sort of sands them smooth) Repeat for a second cork medallion. 

2.     Slice two more pieces the same size from the second wine cork.  You will have four medallions of cork.

3.     Use a small awl to drill a hole in the center of each medallion. 

4.     Put the earrings together.  Thread two small beads onto a head pin.  Insert the head pin into the hole you made in the center of one of the cork medallions. 

5.     Thread on another bead and then another pieces of cork.  Finish with a final bead on the top medallion.

6.     Use the needle nosed pliers to bend the protruding wire of the head pin into a loop and close.  Attach a fishhook ear wire to the top loop by opening and closing with the pliers.  Repeat for other earring.