Upcycle Progress – Wine Cork Map of New Zealand

With regards to my upcycling project, I have already acquired all of my materials as of 02/04. All of the wine corks were shipped in and I am now in process of cutting the backdrop for the wine corks to be secured to. With the backdrop, I am considering instead to utilize cardboard (due to it’s ease of cutting and manipulating into unique shapes) rather than my original plan of recycled plywood. Depending on how much time it will take for either material will definitely guide my decision. Other than that, the project is progressing as planned and my goal is to have it fully complete/furnished by this upcoming Monday!

Image result for new zealand wall art

The image above is to provide an example of the size and overall shape that I am trying to accomplish. I won’t be creating a topological map by any means, but this is more or less what I hope it comes out looking like!

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4 Comments. Leave new

  • Austin, sweet idea! Going all in and doing it as a topological map would be so sweet – don’t throw out that idea yet! Maybe keep it rough and just highlight the main mountain ranges and features with some 3D aspects to them. Cutting some of the corks to increase/decrease height could be really cool. Otherwise, I’m really excited to see the final result you come up with as this looks like an awesome project! Keep it up!

    Reply
    • I was thinking about cutting up some of the corks for more material to possibly create a topological map. I think it would look cool but this project for me is a gift to my mother and I know that the simplest design will have the biggest impact. I’m not quite sure she would understand that the piece was a topological map even if I did create it haha. However thanks for the support and can’t wait to show it off once done!

      Reply
  • Justin Engbrecht
    February 7, 2020 1:09 pm

    Hello Austin. Great to hear you have all the required materials, and this looks like an excellent and inspired project! Are you planning to cut sections of the corks to a certain thickness, or secure full corks to the backdrop? If you wish to scale up the map, it might be worth investigating if it is easy to split the corks into two / three / four pieces without significant splintering. Additionally, if you’re feeling ambitious, you could cut the corks to slightly varying thicknesses and once secured to the backdrop it would add topography in a relatively simple way. If you plan to use cardboard for the backdrop in lieu of recycled plywood, are you planning to add a frame at the edges, like in the second image? Best of luck with the fabrication! I’m really excited to see your post next week with the final product of this Wine Cork Map!

    Reply
    • My plan at the moment is to secure the full variety of corks to the backdrop. The corks that I received are all from different varieties of brands and wineries w/ different labels and thicknesses. This difference between each cork makes the piece stand out but I do think cutting them to different heights would be a simple way to make this a topological map. After hearing multiple people present the idea I am considering it more and more, but I still believe I will stick w/ my initial plan of attack.

      Reply

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