Highland Hardware Key Dust
2015
genuine brass key dust, glass vials, key rings, oak tag, spray paint, acrylic, pine, hand-forged steel
An edition of 20 souvenir keychains made specially for the Highland Hardware Art Show in Holyoke, MA. These keychain vials contain authentic brass “key dust” (the byproduct of the key cutting/copying process) from the store’s machine. The dust had previously been collected by the owner over the years and stored in Folgers coffee container in the back.
Museum of Everyday Life, Glover VT
Vermont Key Dust
2018
authentic brass key dust from Vermont, glass vials, key rings, oak tag, spray paint, acrylic, pine, hand-forged steel
This version of the Key Dust Project was made for Locked Down! Keyed In! Locked Out! Keyed Up! at the Museum of Everyday Life, Glover VT. For this display I sourced key dust from a variety of hardware stores across the state of Vermont over the course of a two day drive. Because most hardware stores don’t save key dust like they do at Highland Hardware, my process involved convincing store employees to let me dust off their key cutting machines. I did this with a small brush and specimen bag and was lucky to get a vials worth from each store.