Coaster & Home Decor☕Time for Coffee

If you are a coffee lover ☕︎, then you certainly appreciate the time when you can enjoy the aroma of a freshly prepared drink with your own hands. And this cup of coffee will be much tastier if you make an eco-friendly, hand-made wooden stand for it.

My son and I thought about making a coaster for a coffee pot and a cup. The stand that we made can be used for any hot item, such as a kettle or a saucepan. The rest of the time, it can be used as decor for your home and kitchen. It is also suitable as a kind of coaster for beer lovers.

It will take several hours to make the stand. Furthermore, it is so simple that even a child can make it. The only thing is that an adult will need help when working with sharp and hot tools. It is very important for children to develop motor skills! Such creativity develops imagination and also gives applied skills in working with tools and materials.

Materials:

⛾ Plywood or wood 6 mm (17×11 cm, or 8×11 cm)

⛾ Wine corks: 2 pieces

⛾ Paper

Tools:

⛾ Wood burner with tips

⛾ Jigsaw or hand saw

⛾ Renovator (multi-tool kit)

⛾ Pencil

⛾ Charcoal pencil or indigo carbon paper

⛾ Marker

⛾ Eraser (Rubber)

⛾ Mounting knife

⛾ Sandpaper

Let's start by cutting the plywood to the size that suits you. This can be done with a mitre saw or a jigsaw. I prepared pieces of plywood in advance by cutting them into small rectangles. Plywood needs to be processed with sandpaper, as well as its ends. You need to work with fine-grained sandpaper. Small wooden planks are also suitable. You can even buy ready-made wooden coasters. The preparation of plywood can be done using a renovator that has a sanding attachment for sandpaper in its kit.

Now you need to draw a future pattern for burning on paper. One of the drawings was prepared in advance. This is an image of a tiger based on African motifs. If you look closely, you will notice the silhouettes of people in this picture—hunters. My child drew another drawing.

Now we need to transfer the prepared image to the plywood work surface. To do this, on the reverse side of the paper, it is necessary to apply a strip with a charcoal pencil with the longitudinal side of the pencil, trying to use the entire image. For ease of use, the paper must be secured with a paper holder or tape.

💡 If you don't have a charcoal pencil, you can use a soft, regular graphite pencil. But definitely the softest.

After the image has been transferred to the working part, you can start burning. I used an electric burner I made, which is great for this kind of work. Also, for him, I prepared tips of various shapes and sizes. We need the sharpest tip, or you can sharpen it with sandpaper.

Next, with gentle movements, you need to burn on the workpiece the details of the picture. Any tree has a direction of fibres, which interfere a little during work. Therefore, do not rush to burn. In addition, it is almost impossible to correct errors after wood burning.

💡 Try to lead the sting in the direction of the wood fibres!

After drawing the pattern with a burner, it is necessary to prepare the cork legs for the stand. Wine or champagne corks work well for this.

They must be cut with a mounting knife into two segments, each separately, as shown in the photographs. To do this, first we outline the cut lines with a 15-mm marker for each. In the middle, we mark approximately 5 mm each—a cut for inserting plywood.

Now the cork legs need to be sanded well with a piece of sandpaper. This can be done manually or using the renovator's electric vibrator.

And in order for cork legs to enter the stand, they will need to be cut off with the help of a renovator. To do this, you need a narrow canvas. First, you can start cutting with a knife, and then finish the selection with a renovator's canvas or a simple hand saw.

💡 You can use a sharp, serrated knife to cut pieces of cork.

After you have prepared four blanks, it remains to insert them into the corners of the stand rectangle. They stick well without glue. If desired, you can glue them with any glue on wood.

If you don’t have wine corks, you can use self-adhesive chippers as legs. They are available at any furniture or hardware store.

With this, our stand is ready for use. I don't think it needs to be covered. Well, if it will carry a purely decorative function, then it can be varnished or coated with another protective coating (for example, linseed oil).

This stand can also have other shapes and sizes. It can be fixed, say, on the wall in the kitchen.

And it is also suitable as a stand for a teapot.

Cork is a wonderful material, and the whole construction process is generally environmentally friendly.

It remains to drink strong coffee ☕︎ and do what you love: creativity!