old keys won’t open new doors

I wrote about keys back in January, and after reading that piece, my friend and artist Nicole Ho, who had been experimenting with ceramic as a creative outlet, suggested making ceramic key pendants as a second collaborative project. Our first one had been such a great experience of creative friendship for both of us that it felt like a natural continuation.

You can read the article on keys here, but it was mostly about how car keys became a kind of natural accessory for me during school drop-offs. How, after seeing keys on Willy Chavarría’s runway, I immediately made the natural connection with immigrant workers in service jobs, with prison guards, with homes you never return to, with doors that never opened. No matter how many times you tried.

Soon after starting our project, we began noticing keys everywhere: Simone Rocha, Carven, Balenciaga, Micah Lexier, Marc Jacobs x Vaquera, Daniela Salcedo, those Gimaguas Havaianas, Michael Rider’s first Celine show, Calvin Klein, Paula Mendoza, Alighieri, Zara, Mango, H&M, our favorite substackers were wearing them too: Laurel Pantin, Irene Kim, Juliana Salazar….

Every new key appearing drip by drip on my feed would be followed by a text to Nicole:

Should we rush this project?

Are people going to think this is derivative?

Should we move faster?

Is it even worth it?

But it was late summer. Nicole’s kids weren’t back in school yet, and she, being the one actually making the keys by hand at a studio out of her home, couldn’t move as fast as she wanted to. I was dealing with my own set of issues and couldn’t move at the pace of TikTok dance trends either.

After every one of my panicky texts came Nicole’s wise words: how silly it was to worry about people’s perceptions. That this wasn’t about being pioneers or catching applause but more about our random 3 a.m. messages about how the key shapes reminded me of Caribbean crab claws and Tokugawa’s dental prosthesis, about the length of a chain, the shade of a glaze, the advantages of gold over silver, our hopeless math illiteracy, whether irregularity is better than symmetry, and that many designers had sent models down the runway in keys long before everyone else anyways.

That this was about dancing at our own tempo, not about being first. Even if it’s taken us longer to get here.

Every time, her words would make me think deeper about originality, gatekeeping, creative honesty, the importance of process. My own negative self-talk. That dormant anonymous IG account I created around 2017. How inspiration itself has become suspiscious in this oversaturated world of images.

So maybe that’s what this project was about—not just a ceramic key hanging from a chain, but asking ourselves those kinds of questions. About being fine with not having the answers. With not being first. About resisting nihilism and continuing despite fear and doubt. About honoring our timing, respecting our multiple roles, understanding that the rhythm of the process was as important as the final product. About two friends navigating their anxieties and the unexpected little freedoms the process generates.

our first drop from the collection “old keys won’t open new doors” is now available—

80-205. $153

200 EAST. $156

3095. $252

81st. $207

77st. $132.

The names of each key necklace represent old addresses Nicole and I once lived at, a homage to the doors we’ll never open again, and to the new ones opening for us.

<3

GS 🔏LDS.