Sometimes I think about key making methods that I want to try; occasionally I think about a social commentary I want to make; mostly I make keys by using whatever happens to be sitting on my workspace at the time. A few people asked me about Key 2020 and what might go into it and how it might reflect the year. They mostly had visions of barbed wire and razor blades. The only “plan” I had for this key was to use some screen marker pins with the number 20 on them. Then somehow a cracked magnifying glass got left out on my workspace and I thought hmm…maybe I could pound the pins into this and crack the glass further. Wouldn’t that be some sort of clever commentary on how our view of everything was cracked open in 2020? But I’m not actually clever and when I tried hammering the pins into the glass I didn’t get nice cracks - just a few flakes of glass chipping out and a whole lot of glass dust. I coat my upcycled keys with resin and for Key 2020 the resin actually filled in the holes in the glass and made the cracks disappear. Was this a sign of a mass coverup? I added in a Cadillac crest that I got at a garage sale because it fit well on the key and looked like it belonged. I’d been saving the rhinestone US flag for awhile and it also seemed like it belonged. The other bits I added just happened to be close at hand and also fit well. The resin on one side of Key 2020 was drying while I was struggling with what to do with Key 2021 (which just wasn’t coming together). I decided to paint part of Key 2021 with some blackest black paint and then thought…hmm…maybe I’ll paint the glass on Key 2020 and see if I can do a better job of trying to create outer space then I did with Key 2001. I’m getting closer but not quite there yet. Key 2020 was mostly done when I decided to fill up the One Side with more resin and then had a flash idea to add some red glitter. I’m not sure if I thought about the red necklace piece on the top of the key as being representative of COVID 19 when I initially added it or not. For sure I thought of the red glitter as being a good way to represent the virus. It wasn’t until I was editing the photos of Key 2020 that I realized that the red glitter had gotten onto the Cadillac crest, essentially uncontained. It’s interesting to me that the gold glitter on the other side did not do this but remained inside the magnifying glass area.

Key 2020: that red COVID 19 representative glitter on the One Side is not contained, our small cracked view was filled and painted Black, capitalism surrounded the viewpoint, the US was sticking in everywhere, the Other Side was out of this world, rhinestones do make things sparkle, and butterflies represent death, hope, and transformation.

Key 2020 is made from a cracked magnifying glass, resin, blackest black paint, screen pins, a Cadillac crest, a chain, part of a necklace, glitter, beads, a rhinestone flag, and a butterfly charm.

I really struggled with Key 2021. I liked the way the black and gold bracelet looked and I was happy enough to use the brass part from our recently removed hot water heater but I couldn’t quite figure out what to with the key and how to finish it off…things looked better when I painted part of the steel terminal black. Much like 2021 I didn’t really know what to make of it so I called it complete and moved on. 5000 keys is a lot of keys to make and while I do want to make the most of each key some keys, like some years, are going to work better than others.

Key 2022 - 2024 found me back in my comfort zone using found objects (there really are a lot of washers on the road), small jewellery bits, and parts from that old adding machine. Wishing all who read this times of comfort and finding things that bring you joy.