The Keys of VACANCY

One of the traditions of the old motel that is fading away is the motel key. Not a key card but an actual key attached to a fob of some type used to manually unlock your door. The classic motel key fob is mostly nostalgic now, but we decided to create a special token for those who bought a VACANCY original but couldnt take it home till after the exhibit closes. A fungal token of sorts.

Given the not-square shape of the traditional key I needed to get creative when making the key fobs into their classic shape. I don’t use any automation so a CNC was out, I felt like making a pattern and using a router would be too uniform, so I decided to Rough-Cutt them on the band saw and shape them by hand on the belt sander. I mean, I only had 14 to do. Well, 13 and one restroom key seeing as our bonus piece is a gas station.

I save nearly everything, including the tiniest off-cut,s so I was able to use “scraps” (I hate that word) for each of the 14 fobs directly from their corresponding frames. This allowed me to make each fob unique as the frame, match slightly but still have their own character.

We tried a few different ways to “print” on the fobs, but none seemed to do the trick. So, with about a week before the installation, I bought a laser cutter, learned how to use it, and burnt the Motel details on the front and our VACANCY logo on the back. I made 2 of each key in case there was a screw up but only 1 will ever be released into the wild.

Then, with about 3 days to install, I started thinking. David has prints to sell and raise some money for his charity. It’s too bad I can’t make prints. Then, it dawned on me. I can make wooden fobs of each of the hardwoods, engrave them, and sell them for my charity! Well, I used 21 types of wood for this project,t and I didn’t want to just have 1 of each, so I made like 140 total fobs. All shaped by hand. The layer of dust in my shop was unrivaled. Some are really wonky, but thats ok. All in all, I was able to get at least a couple of each species and put their limited number on the front with our logo on the back. Example: I made 8 Spalted Hackberry fobs, so I numbered them 1 through 8. So whatever one you got, you are the only one with that number.

I also decided for the open to not only sell these but carry on my belt, motel janitor style, a large keyring of all Number 7’s, unfinished of all the different species. This way I could show people how the wood looked without a finish, showcasing its natural beauty. I think I just came off like a weirdo with a bunch of jangly trinkets. They’re not wrong.

Oh and the keys? I found a bunch of old motel keys with numbers stamped on them from various places.
I wont say where but some of them open some real interesting things…