Cork Wall Art

I've had a vague idea of some sort of spherical cork wall art floating around in my brain for some time, so I asked family and friends to become alcoholics drink more wine and start collecting corks.  Luckily I also have connections to a wine maker, my grandpa. After a few months of collecting, I rolled up my sleeves, did some good ol' fashion paper mache and hot glued some corks.  Sounds simple, it was, and kind of fun.

What you'll need:

- a vessel to use as a mold

- newspaper strips
- brown paper strips
- 1 part water + 1 part flour for your paper mache glue (and a container for the glue, you can't just mix it on the table, what are we cavemen?)
- cling wrap
- hot glue & gun
- corks

What to do:
- line your vessel with cling wrap and a few layers of newspaper.  Allow each layer to dry completely before applying the next.  I did about 7 layers all together for stability.




- Once it was thoroughly dry and the cat left, I took the paper mache bowl out of the mold and removed the cling wrap.



- Next I did 2 layers of paper mache with the brown paper strips.  This layer will be seen between the spaces of the corks.  Once those layers are dry, trim the edges.




- I also glued in some cardboard strips for more stability for hanging later.



- Once the base was ready, I flipped it over and started hot gluing corks to the outside.  I began in the middle and worked my way out to make the arrangement look a bit random but evenly spaced.








I bet right here you were expecting a fantastic picture of the finished product artfully displayed somewhere in my house.  Me too.  There I was, gluing my heart out, only inches from the bottom when I grabbed the last cork.  Needless to say I'm not impressed, apparently I'm not an accurate guesstimater, so to all my family and friends, get drinking so I can finish!


Are you starting to notice my pattern of getting excited to do something, getting right into it, then realizing I have no idea what I'm doing or don't have enough supplies?  For example here when I took apart my sewing machine to replace a belt, ordered the wrong belt, and eventually lost a piece to put the sewing machine together.  Or here when I stopped paying attention to my knitting and ended up with a giant pouf.

So, I need YOUR help.  Now that the piece is almost completely covered in corks, it is heavier than I expected and kind of loses it's shape if you try to hang it.  My question to you is, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? WHAT MATERIALS OR METHODS WOULD YOU SUGGEST I TRY FOR HANGING THIS CORK ART?

OR Do you have similar tendencies, forgetting to check supplies before taking on a project or starting a project you know nothing about? OR have you been working with cork lately, drinking or otherwise?