Hi everyone,
Got really interested in artisan keycap making lately, so I figured I should give it a try. In this post I'll try to describe what I've been doing so far and the reasons behind it.
MotivationI'm a big fan of swirly designs by doomcaps and horror stuff from KWK/KBK, Brocaps, and Suited Up Caps. I was hoping that somebody would try combining both doomcaps colorways and some of the sick designs I've seen from the artisans listed above, but after seeing that doom is on a hiatus, I decided to take matters in my own hands.
ChallengesI live in Japan, which means I don't have access to the materials everybody else is using, so I had to look for substitutes. (Like seriously, they don't sell OOMOO 30 here, wtf?)
The other thing is that I'm living in a small apartment (like pretty much everybody else in here), so I don't have physical space or funds for a pressure pot or a vacuum pump.
There is also humidity which makes bubble-free keycap production almost impossible (especially without the equipment I mentioned).
Design ideasI feel like I have a taste of an edgy 14yo schoolgirl, so the topics I'm currently trying to explore in my keycaps are:
- Glitch art – exploiting techniques that would lead to production errors (e.g., bubbles, incomplete pours, gaps, etc) for aesthetic purposes
- Outrun +/- Horror – mostly miami-esque colorways (swirly or not), paired with grotesque monsters, occult symbolics, and other creepy stuff
Progress so farHere's the designs I've done so far:
(only Topre right now, waiting for Synth to start making MX molds)
Glitch IndexStarted with an incomplete pour, I really liked the result, so I've been trying to reproduce that ever since
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Swirly blanksTopre 1st row
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Evil Eyeaka I-was-trying-to-make-a-sandwordm-but-got-a-vagina-with-teeth-instead-I-ain't-even-mad
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Inverted Cross & PentagramFor when your keyboard is not KVLT enough
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Future plans, etcI could really use your comments and suggestions on my keycap design and general interest in such keycaps. Given that there is enough interest, I was hoping to run a small sale of blanks at a super low price to fund more silicon and resin purchases for future keycap designs, and I was wondering what you guys think about that.