What is it about rust and patina that fascinates me? I was passing by a “junk” shop that I had passed many times and for once, I wasn’t in a big hurry, so I stopped in. After I had toured the premises and had not seen anything of particular interest, I started a conversation with the proprietor and asked him if he had any old rusty bits, like keys, watches, and broken jewelry. Being an avid metal detector, he pointed in the direction of a small glass case, covered by so many random ordinary things that it had gone unnoticed. I uncovered it and carefully went through its contents piece by piece. I ended up with a handful of treasures and went to the register and asked, “How much for all of this?” He replied that I held in my hand the results of approximately 1200 hours of metal detecting and after a bit of haggling, we settled on a price.
Some of the pieces will require a bit of studying and puzzling to find out what they need to turn into. This is what became of two of the lovely bits of treasure. What is the secret of the keyhole? Did it belong to a chest full of love letters, a door to a room, a simple box for mundane things? The story is yours to imagine.
