So I made place mats out of my collection of wine bottle corks; but what about the cork stoppers from bottles of spirits?
They would have made nice little cork feet to attach to the bottom of some amplifier or game console, but I didn’t have any that needed feet like that; anyway, there were too many. But the slight variation in sizes suggested another possibility; a chess set! And here it is.
A more skilful person would have carved the cork into a likeness of each piece, but I thought it was more within my range to produce symbols to add to the top of each cork. A couple of bases had to be painted to make up the correct tally of black and white.
The main problem with this is that I am rubbish at chess, and no one in my family really plays, so the set is unlikely to get much use. But the great thing is, I didn’t throw the corks away…
Seen and Done 
You are very enterprising. Peter. i hate throwing these away so any use is good use.
Ethel
I would save the bottles if only I could think of anything to do with them!