skeleton keys-where to find?

It did not take the flea market crowd long to realize that old skeleton type keys were becoming very popular with the artsy crowd!

After spending a fruitless day browsing one of the larger ones in our state of NC and finding a $2.00 key (a bargain when everyone else wanted $4-7.00 per key!) I browsed the old stand by-Ebay.

It rapidly progressed from "old" and "ephemera" to 'reproduction"! And I could not be happier!

Sunsettraders on Ebay sells these reproduction and lovely skeleton keys for a fraction of the cost. 14 keys cost me $10.00. He has 21 listed for $14.00 and so on.

In my recent art journaling class retreat where I supplied everything, these were a BIG hit! Who would not want their journal to have the symbolic "key" and all it could mean somewhere within the journal or on the cover?

Thoughts such as "Key to my Heart" or "Key to my thoughts", "Key to Happiness", etc. all come to mind!

My cover below had the $2.00 key but visit other posts in this blog and you will see the reproductions in use!

example of a cover with key