Recycled wine cork craft

These are loosely based on kokeshi, a traditional Japanese wooden doll with no arms or legs originally from late 19th-century Honshu.  

Supplies:

Wine corks

Still wine has straight corks, sparkling wine has bulbous corks.  Artificial corks are fine.  If you are not a wine-drinker, take a walk around the neighborhood on recycling day to see who has empty bottles and make a new friend.  They probably throw great parties.

For decorating the corks:

Acrylic paint or paint markers

Permanent markers

Optional extras:

Head pins with open eye 

Googly eyes 

Mini pom poms

Craft chenilles 

Air dry clay – makes a great carrot nose

Glue – hot glue recommended

Tips: 

Use inexpensive brushes that can be devoted to acrylic paint forever; this is not the project for your best watercolor brush.  I used a #6 and a #5/0 from Artists Loft.

The googly eyes and pom-poms should be about 1 cm.  Look for these in the children’s craft section.

The head pins with open eye make a hanging loop.  Look for these in the beading section.

Air dry clay can be tinted with ink pad re-inkers or acrylic paint.

I found it useful to image-search kokeshi, peggle people or peg people, and mini figures for ideas.

Colors show up better on a white background, so you may want to paint the corks with a base layer of white paint.

As in any painting, you want to paint back to front.  Start with skin tone for the face.  Don’t forget a ring about 1/3 down the cork for the neck.  If you want beige but don’t have beige paint, mix equal parts brown and yellow, add a ton of white and a smidge of red.

It’s easier to make the smallest details and attach with glue rather than try to paint them or draw them with a marker.  Or maybe you’re a better painter or drawer than I am!  

The space princess buns are three 1/2” circle punches and three 1/4” circle punches.