The Right Key

Initially drawing a blank on where to go with this one I went for a drive to the park, passed several homes, and an industrial park.  Sat on a bench for a while and came home, passing that same industrial park.  This time however, I noticed a locked gate and thought, “you'd need the right key to open that one.”  Bingo.  An idea was germinating.  I had some painted fabric that resembled an industrial park and looked like this.

I cut it in half and used the lower half, hoping it might work to represent a chain link fence.  Keys? I gathered up old keys around the house.  Will they work?  How will I portray them?   Using a stenciling technique, I traced them onto freezer paper, cut out the shape, and pressed the resulting stencil to the fabric.  With Shiva paintsticks I got the images of keys onto the fabric.  I also remembered a pointillist technique I had learned.  I found an image of an old key and went to work.  This just might work.

 

 

I went on a hunt through antique stores, thrift shops and found an old skeleton key and decided that I would do a rubbing.  I didn’t like the result, so I set the key aside. The piece needed some hand stitching along with the machine quilting to add what I thought would give it some depth. 

 

 

 



It still needed something else, but what?  I added just what an old key would need; keyholes.  Next, I added the keys.  Everyone needs THE RIGHT KEY to open something, don’t they?  There you have it.