How to Make a Giraffe With Wine Corks

Corks are a great material for building and constructing models because they are lightweight and easy to use. This quality is especially helpful when the model you are trying to build has a challenging center of balance. Making a giraffe with corks is one such challenge, but in a few simple steps, it can easily be done.

Things You'll Need

• Wine corks (at least 31)
• Wooden toothpicks
• Permanent marker
• Scissors or sharp knife
• Oven mitts

Instructions

1. Put on oven mitts or working gloves to protect yourself.

2. Press a toothpick into the center of a cork, so about half of the toothpick is inside the cork and half sticks out. Then push another cork onto the end that sticks out. You now have two corks connected, end to end.

3. Connect three corks from end to end using this toothpick method. Do this five times, so you have five "sticks" of corks with three corks in each. Four of those will be the legs of your giraffe.

4. Take one of the sticks, and lay it on the table lengthwise. In the side of each of those three corks, insert two toothpicks at a 90-degree angle from each other. Make sure the angles of the toothpicks match from one cork to another. Then stick corks onto those toothpicks, so that they from two more rows of corks lying parallel to the three corks you started with.

5. In one of the cork "sticks" you just added onto the original, stick three more toothpicks into the sides of each cork. Add a final row of corks to make it four "sticks" of three corks each. Together, the four sticks should form a little bundle and should not fall apart.

6. Use the scissors or knife to cut off any part of the toothpick that may be sticking out from the bundle. This "bundle" will be the body of your giraffe.

7. Create the neck, using four corks connected end-to-end with the toothpick method. Push toothpicks into both ends of this "stick" of four. On one end, stick a cork on its side to form the head of the giraffe, so that the head sits at a 90-degree angle to the neck. Push the toothpick on the other end into the body of the giraffe.

8. Take the legs that you constructed, and in each one stick a toothpick into the end, so that you can attach the legs of the giraffe to the body. Now you have most of the giraffe finished.

9. Add finishing touches. Cut a cork into half---or even into fourths---to create ears, and use the toothpick method to attach it to the giraffe. You can also cut another cork in half lengthwise and create a tail. Take the permanent marker and draw eyes onto the model. You can even add giraffe spots as desired.