Corked Up

Lately, whenever we finish a bottle of something that has a cork, I take it up to my workroom and set it on my table until I feel like it's time to carve a new small stamp. This time, I tried a new kind of cork, one of those faux cork replacements that they're using now. (Note, not because we are literally running out of cork trees or they're endangered, they've just figured out that screw caps preserve wine better so now there's not as much demand for cork. That may lead to cork forests not being managed or replanted in the future though). This new type of material is a very dense plastic, slightly stretchy just enough so that it conforms to the bottle neck. It was very hard to cut. It is not at all absorbent like the real cork and is very smooth almost texture-less. Thus, for my purposes, it does not make a great stamping material, although it does work to transfer an image once you've spent the extra time trying to carve it.

These are my most recent cork carves. All random shapes and odd almost symbols. I either use a stamp pad or use a nice juicy new marker.

It's fun to compare the different doodle shapes that I come up with and use them all together. I haven't tried them on fabric, and might attempt that next with the fabric ink stamp pad I have.

I keep them all in a bin, and am adding to it slowly, as we drink enough wine or other beverages that have suitable corks.