In 2013 I was inspired by a Debbie Travis Christmas ornament to make a "key" out of the various bits of found objects and other unwanted detritus I had in my art supplies.
(thank you Debbie; and thank you Canadian Tire - even though I am fortunate and have a good job I was still delighted that the key was only $2!)
I had some brass curtain rings...remember these from the 1960's? Generally on cafe curtains? I think the curtains in our house had reddy/orange and greenish type stripes...yes, a look of a certain era...here's a picture of the curtain rings I'm talking about:
Of course, the curtain rings I had were no longer as shiny. Pretty sure I got them at a garage sale at the lake.
I also had: a squished clamp, a piece of bolt, several sizes of rusted washers, a metal button with a toggle thing (this became the centre of the key and was probably off a winter coat), a key ring that had a bit of flash cause it was notched up, another piece of metal, and a metal pen holder clamp thing.
So I made this:
I really liked it so I made another one...
This one used more modern day silver curtain rings (you know the kind with the clip dangling off them to attach to the fabric?), a metal shaft from a light fixture, a lock, some chain, a thumbtack, some bits of jewelry, some metal thing from the road and a really cool rusted ring of metal (also from the road).
So that's how the keys began...I gave the first one to the excellent contractor as a thank you for the great job he did when he renovated our house (and he seemed to like my stuff, so...). The second key is at Void Gallery in Saskatoon. This is the first gallery to take on my work since I re-entered the world of creating (thank you Void Gallery!)
Oh, and I decided to see how well I remembered those curtains and found this picture:
Quite the colour combinations! That's me turning 5 in case you're interested.