Wine Cork Keychains

Original inspiration

So the whole concept of {re}cork'd came from a small idea. I'm a native Californian, land of wine, and would often go to the Central Coast area to do wine tasting weekends. We would usually stay at the home of one of our friend's mom. In the guest room I spied a simple cork with a key chain ring on it. I thought to myself, "I could do something with that. I could make those for my friends." I took a picture of my inspiration with the idea of going home and making presents for my friends for Christmas.

I had been saving my corks for a while, putting them in vases to use as decor around my house. So now I have the corks, the idea and a plan. Maybe I could even make enough to sell to some local wine stores in my area.

Then my life changed. I got laid off from my job and moved across the country. That will be a whole different blog entry but it laid the foundation for {re}cork'd. I wanted to find something new to do with my life. A new career, something I could be passionate about, I could be my own boss, be able to travel, be creative. So that little idea of cork key chains took fruit. I fell in love with the craft store, Hobby Lobby. For those of you who aren't lucky enough to have a Hobby Lobby around you, you have been robbed. They didn't have Hobby Lobby where I had grown up in Southern California, but here in Tennessee, it's all over the place. It is a craft person's paradise.

I have gone craft crazy in Hobby Lobby. The funny part being that I have never really been into crafts. Here, I roamed the aisles looking at everything. Beads, baubles, sparkly things. Things to paint, things to glue, things to decoupage (whatever that is). I'm in awe of all the things at Hobby Lobby. My mind was stuffed full with crafty ideas.

My creative process

Early Key Chains

So now armed with all my beads and wires and glue and charms, I spent hours decorating my corks. I let my creative side explode. I glued and bejeweled and charmed the heck out of some corks. Still not sure what I was going to do with them all, I went a little crazy. Hey, I was unemployed and it was the end of  winter. I had a lot of time on my hands. I had probably fifty or so key chains.

I decided that I was going to start my own business.  From a little seed of an idea, and circumstances of life, so {re}cork'd was born. The simple key chain became the inspiration for a new journey. It's been fun so far.