Introduction by Alf Murtell: Paul Rowe has been making trivets or table centres using some of the design principles from our tutorial pages, examples of Paul's work can be seen below. The centre piece Paul has used is ¾" plywood by 4¼" square, with the marquetry design glued to it. This is then surrounded by wine corks glued to the base board.
The lipping for the four edges can be mahogany, walnut or wood of your own choice, this being ¾" by 1⅛". All are mitred and glued to the base board. Paul uses water resistant glue because experience has shown that heat as well as water from articles placed on the trivet can cause regular carpenter's style glue to fail.
Wedges are also inserted into each corner to give added strength. Rubber feet or felt pads can be added to the base to avoid scratching any surfaces it is placed on.  The marquetry centre piece would have to be polished before adding the corks.
The corks would be just proud of both the centre marquetry piece and the frame on the trivet, anything placed on the trivet would rest on the corks and not the wood. 
 

Two views of one of Paul's wine cork trivets.
These would make unique Christmas presents.

On methods of constructing the trivets Paul writes: construction starts with dadoing (sp) the outside frame pieces. They are then cut to length and mitred. These pieces are then all glued to the fibre board base and each other.
I usually insert a wedge in each of the outside corners at this stage to provide added strength.
I now round over the outside frame exterior edges with a round over bit in the router. The outside frame is then coated at least three times with polyurethane varnish.
After the centre piece has been completed and finish applied, it is glued in the centre of the fibre/pressboard base.
Wine corks are then trimmed (not all wine corks are the same length) to fit between the centre and the outside frame and glued in place. The corks will be just proud (slightly higher) of both the centre piece and outside frame. That way anything placed on the trivet will rest on the corks and not the wood pieces.
The centre piece of the displayed trivet is called "Irish Chain" and was found in a quilting magazine. The other centre piece shown was made using Alf's trellis work methods.