Alas, I did not take a picture of the beautiful necklace and earring set made from squared off glass beads and smaller crystal beads before I took it apart to make it into a key…the set was part of many recently gifted items that the receiver asked if I could make into a key as a thank you for all of the gifts. Sure, I said. But no promises that you will like what I do - the key will be whatever it wants to be.

I decided that I would make at least two keys so that my commissioner would have some choice…in the end I used all of the pieces and made three keys.

Key 2775 is made with a lovely silver tube that I have no idea what it’s original purpose was - even though it has T 25 stamped on the other side of it. The very bottom of the key is one of the lovely earrings, parts of the necklace are above it to make up the key insert. The beads look handmade and of excellent quality; they are bluish with what I think is dichroic pink glass inside that sparkles in the light. The top is a pair of earrings and a broken butterfly that began life on Key 2739 but ultimately didn’t belong there and was replaced by a goldish leaf. As a side note: Key 2739 is one of a handful of keys I sold at a market this year mainly because the person wanted to buy a key and asked me which one was the most difficult to make. The larger green and purple beads are also from the necklace set (and I am pretty sure are Swarovski crystals). The small silver bits are all from the necklace.

Key 2776 is made from a cotter pin, many silver bits (some of which I cut down), four of those beautiful beads, more of those small crystals, other jewellery bits, and a round prism that appeared on my worktable and just happened to match the beads perfectly. The prism itself is very beautiful and glows as it catches the light. I don’t recall seeing it in my stash so I think it must have been a gift from someone at Makerspace.

Key 2777 is made with an Allen wrench, a silver napkin ring from a neighbourhood garage sale, some smashed window glass, a pair of earrings that were recently gifted to the 5000 keys project, the heart fastener from the necklace, small pieces of sea glass filler that I had before I ever decided to make keys, and the remaining beads. I did have a few of those handmade beads left - I smashed them and mixed them in with the broken glass. The top of the key is held with feathers (one of the things the recipient likes) - the first ones were from a pair of earrings and did not fair too well when I initially resined the key. One of the feathers caught on fire when I was finishing the resin (I use a lighter to pop any bubbles). Luckily for me I was able to get my mask off and blow it out very quickly. There’s a lesson there somewhere I’m sure. The original (grey) feathers also got damaged as I was trimming the excess (cured) resin from them. I saw some pretty craft feathers at the dollar store and brought some to the studio to try. I loved the delicate and fluffy look of some purple and turquoise feathers (that really complemented the colours of the necklace set) and debated about whether or not to just glue the feathers on and leave them as is. In the end I coated them with resin.

Lucky for me the commissioner was happy with the keys and ended up choosing Keys 2776 and 2777.