Rollande declares this key prototype to be “three-quarters-done.” It looks a lot closer than that, at least to me.

At the moment, it’s about 50% larger than the key in the comics, but clever, crafty, cunning Rollande has further tricks up her sleeves:

“The key measures about 2.25” from the bottom of the “button” to the top of the key. The widest point is 1″. It is a 10th of an inch thick, or about three mm. at the head. ”
…
“Anyhow, I was looking the the Rio catalog, and they have this stuff I think you can take molds with and it shrinks so you can make matching, proportional earrings. THAT might answer our problems. I’ll have to look into it. ”
…
“I looked at RTV mold making stuff. (Room Temperature Vulcanization) … There is also stuff that you can put into your finished mold that will magically shrink 50%… But if I got something I would be happy putting IN the mold and then filled the mold with shrink-y stuff it, I could then make ANOTHER mold of the now tiny finished item. We could get tiny. I also could do this with a wax original as the stuff is room temperature. It raises some interesting possibilities.”

More soon as work progresses — I’m REALLY getting excited! It’s been about five years that I’ve waited to see this… six separate silversmiths (say that five times fast!) have told me that they could make me a prototype, and only Rollande has carried through this far! Hooray for Rollande!