Wicanders’ Cork Oak is Green, Beautiful and Tough!

While browsing the internet the other day, we stumbled upon a little treasure! We saw a picture of the beautiful piece of artwork below, made out of cork, and just had to do a little investigating to find out more…

Allison's Cork Scrolling Project

Wood worker, artist, and fellow blogger, Allison, from www.wood-alley.com, was given a piece of leftover cork flooring from her friend, a floor installer. She had never used cork flooring in a scrolling project before, so she tried it out and as you can see, the result is gorgeous! While reading her blog and checking out her pictures, we realized that this might just be our very own Wicanders Cork Oak Flooring!

The lovely Allison was gracious enough to let us know that the piece of flooring is Wicanders! It is a piece of the Series 1000 CORKLOC with High Performance Surface finish, or HPS. Because of the HPS hard wearing surface and HDF-High Density Fibreboard with CORKLOC, this piece of flooring stayed strong. This reminds us of how our tough floors are great for kids rooms and kitchens, where they get real wear and tear. And don’t forget about that 25 year residential warranty for Series 1000!

Allison said “I plan on using more of this material as I find it fascinating…” Well Allison, we find it fascinating too! But even more, we find it inspiring that you can make something so beautiful out of cork oak from the Montado cork oak forests. And to top it all off, it is an environmentally friendly product, perfect for green building and green design!

In Allison’s blog, she gives hints and instructions on how to do it yourself! You can see other artwork on her blog, or on lumberjocks.com (an online community of supportive wood working artists). We are so proud that our flooring held up to Allison’s drill press and saws!

Thank you for your art Allison, and let us know when we can see more of your Cork Creations!

Do you have a Cork Creation? Please share with us!

Until Next time,

Team Wicanders

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A Grown Up Field Trip…Green Design with Cork Oak

You can learn a lot on a field trip. Maybe even have some fun. Grade school field trips came up last week in a team brainstorming meeting. Some experiences totally depended on which parent was assigned to your group, and how much roaming, clowning around, or simply being a kid you were allowed to do. Others recounted going places that were probably informative and important, but not much fun to a 5th grader.

Our team captain recounted a scenario which included getting lost at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and almost missing the bus back to Maryland. That would have been cool today with travelling exhibits like “Real Pirates” which tells the true story of the Whydah, a pirate ship that was found off the coast of Cape Cod in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry Clifford. But back then you couldn’t slip into the IMAX® to see what they describe as “The Dark Knight’s larger-than-life images, state of the art digital surround sound, all-encompassing screens and patented theatre geometry—designed to put you IN the movie.” So much for 5th grade field trips!

Today we want to treat you to a grown-up field trip. It’s appropriate for kids, too, so if you have one or two looking over your shoulder, be sure to invite them into the action. You’ll all have fun. If you don’t have kids, the grown-up kid in the next office might want to join you…

Now, a field trip could take all day or more, but this one is only three minutes, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip.

Here’s a fascinating look into the other kind of useful and beautiful things talented designers are creating with cork oak. Click Here.

It feels really good to know that when you create, design, fashion, use, or walk on cork oak, someone in Portugal or Spain did not cut down a tree, or harm a habitat to harvest the bark. We’ve written about this before here, so we won’t belabor it again, but it makes us feel really good about what we do. Any mostly, that’s why our teachers took us on field trips…not just to have fun, but to help us feel good, learn, and appreciate the work of others.

So, if you get a chance, take a look at what our talented designers at Amorim have created for your home, or office, or hotel or hospital…cork oak floors that provide warmth, silence, comfort, and a healthy environment to live in.

Until our next trip…
Team Wicanders

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