KEY PACKET TUTORIAL

People have been asking what the significance of the contents of the key packets are. My response:

What's in the key packets and why.

#1: I have been making art out of dollar bills for about two decades. I have a dozen or so pieces that I will show in a gallery next summer. Therefore the inclusion of the dollar bill was a no brainer.

#2: I have a blog that I'm rather proud of and want to spread the word of it, thus the rubber stamped invitation on each dollar bill.

#3: Luckily a dollar bill folded in thirds fits perfectly in one of the plastic envelope that I purchased for Found Round Things, so I put the dollar inside to help protect it from the weather.

#4: To make absolutely sure that the discoverer of the packet could find Folio Olio, I included one of my cards that I hand out when someone wants to know my blog address.

#5: For a long, long time I have been picking up any round thing (almost) that I find on the ground. I call them Found Round Things and I give them their own home in one of the plastic envelopes which I staple to walls all over my studio.

#6: I include a card with an individual number and a date.

#7: All of the above are sealed in one small zip-loc, but I have a second same-sized zip-loc with an object that means something to me.

Pictured above are a poker chip, because I love gambling, especially poker. Then there are a few dozen old pocket watches I picked up when a local jeweler went out of business. I have a thing for clocks. The brown thing is a wooden disc that was in a house I moved into in the 1970s and I have moved them from house to house since, and now I finally found a use for them. Lastly is a shell with a hole in it. The hole was drilled by a ocean predator and can be used to string thousands of them together to make a kind of curtain. I've finished my curtain and these are the left overs. These "Holy Molies" can be found on every beach I've ever visited.

#8: The keys. I don't have a thing for keys, I just thought they would make a great washer. I used to use brace tags for this, but they got rather expensive.

 Anyway, I asked for the discarded keys from hardware store key makers and they were happy to give them to me.

I have three boxes this big.

 #9: After it's all been put together I give it a number. The number isn't meant to be the order it was placed, but rather just a way to give each packet a "name." 

 I print the labels on this label maker.

 I use a rather decorative washer so that the wedge shaped head of the screw will nestle in there nicely.

 #10: I use a special screw called a square drive because most people have never seen one and I like teaching people about new things.

 Not only that, most people don't have the bit required to remove the screw....and that's just the asshole in me.

 By the way, this is the greatest small drill ever made.

 It is powerful, the battery lasts for hours and hours (I have yet to change the battery since leaving home) and more importantly if you have a lot of work to do, one of the batteries will charge before you can wear the second one out.

 Sometimes I have to use shorter screws when I don't want it to penetrate a 3/4" surface.

Like the one I mounted tonight.

Another mounted at the end of the motel rack.

Also I leave one in every Gideon Bible I find.

And I have a whole lot of dollar bills ready to go.

Eventually I began using different stamps just to fuck with people's heads.

And just recently this one for places that have had DO NOT REMOVE packets removed.

And for you people still paying attention, Here's some of the other installations I have strewn during my journeys.

My wife and I have the habit of taking month's long road trips just to get away. On the first such trip I took along dozens of heavy brass tags I had acquired somehow.

And each place of interest we visited I attached one.

And documented it photographically. 

The second sojourn I took along dozens of army mess eating utensils and attached them with a purchased round numbered brass tag.

 These I further documented with the coordinates.

Then when I planned my third road trip I had already had a lot of experience with using dollar bills in making art.

A heavy duty tape dispenser full of cash.

A custom made carrying box.

Very tightly rolled dollars exactly as large as 12 gauge shot gun shells.

A TV tray to serve up $700 in cash.

 A gum ball machine full of money.

I used $2 bills for this one.

This is the one I'm working on now.

I hope that helps.