Repurposing Corks for Air Plants and Orchids

Corks are a really great material because of their impermeability, buoyancy, elasticity, and fire resistance, so cork is actually a great material for many things.

Because it’s such a great material, the Plant Man got some inspiration to make some things to be used with his beloved plants including air plant mounts and orchid baskets.

I got the job of drilling holes in all the corks for him with a dremel ….fun! By the way, be careful drilling holes in corks as I had one cork split in half and the dremel sent a piece flying into my abdomen! It stung like a son-of-a-bitch!

I drilled two holes in each cork so the Plant Man (Andujar) could wire them all together using a heavier gauge wire. Aluminum wire is good because it won’t rust and don’t use copper because it kills air plants.

Air Plant Mounts

In a nutshell, you’re threading the wire through the holes in the corks and curling the end of the wire with some needle nose pliers to hold it in place.

Then you do the same thing with the next hole in the corks while adding another row…. The first row is one cork, the second row is two corks and so on until you reach the desired width. Then go backwards until you end up with one cork in the last row.

Then glue an air plant to them with some E6000.

You could use the same technique to make other things like a trivet or go larger to make a cork board.

Orchid Basket

Making a cork orchid basket is done much the same way except you’re forming a circle instead of a straight line.

Create smaller rings toward the bottom of the cork basket and larger rings at the top of the basket to give it the basket shape. You can make it as big or as small as you like.

Then put an orchid in it the same way you would use a wood orchid basket.

[Email Subscribe]

Follow Us!