recently sat down with @rmendis for a lil Q+A
1. What inspired you to become a maker of artisan keycaps?
HipsterPunks: 2013 i separated myself from a toxic lifestyle of heavy drinking, graffiti, and partying. I picked up a **** job working overnights and cut ties with all my “friends”. I decided to focus on my art and rebuild my life. One day I picked up a cheap laptop and and hated typed on it, so i looked for an external keyboard. I found these Ducky Shine III TKLs which looked awesome and bought one. I googled around for more mechanical keyboards eventually finding these skull keycaps which looked pretty sweet and decided to search for them. I set $20 aside to find one of these “clacks” which were only available on GH? I was politely told to “**** off” multiple times before finding out the true value to the little plastic pieces. However I found this other dude who was making keycaps, Brother caps? Bruh caps? I can’t really remember who the maker was now, but it was like a robot design with headphones on. I decided to rip off the design and sell it to make some $$$ to fund my new habit.
PunksDead: I was heavily into Kevin Spacey movies at the time! usual suspects, american beauty, kpax…you know all the bangers. I linked up with Hippy and we shared some common interests and decided to give this casting a shot. I was more involved with the under the table sales and DM threats to other makers. When we finished Death Lives i decided to sell extremely low and slowly increase the prices even though i was spending roughly the same amount on supplies. After the first check from Imav cleared i knew i could make a TON of money here.
2. When did you first start casting, and when did you release your first sculpt (what was it)? When was your first sale?
HipsterPunks: Early 2014, i was buying up alot of Gasmask keycaps from Martin and trying to get into Binge/Bro sales at the time. Bro just finished off his V1s and announced his V2’s made in steel. Geekhack was thirsty for keycaps. I decided i could probably do this myself so i read the GH forums... resin, pressure pots, molds? Apparently this dude “Mkawa” was a sponsored vendor with access to all this equipment. After speaking with Mkawa who explained how i need to give him over 2k for the “right” parts or i could potentially injure myself, i politely told him to “**** off” and did the research myself. Armed with toothpicks and sculpty i created the biggest piece of trash known as Death Lives. It generated interest from a few GH members and gave me purpose to continue.
PunksDead: Honestly i was just throwing **** into the resin and seeing what would stick. Spray paint/saw dust/glitter. We would release these little teaser photos and the responses were extremely positive, so we put up a little sale on GH for 5$ caps. Im 100% positive none of the DL1’s are intact anymore since we werent using pressure at the time. Lots of back and forth from Binge on casting tips, dude really knew his stuff.
3. What do you like most and least about the process of making caps?
HipsterPunks: I loved the Hype and Drama from releases on GH as well as the chemistry behind mixing resins and the different materials into resin. Sitting in my basement for hours breathing in mold release and chemicals that made me dizzy was a fun perk. The worst part and my eventual departure came from dealing with shipping and packaging. I would spend HOURS casting until i ran out of materials, shipping took just as long but wasnt as exciting. BunnyLake was a great dude who took over shipping at the end of my adventure but the passion eventually faded, and dust started collecting on my pressure pot.
PunksDead: i’ll be honest it was the money. My knowledge of casting wasnt as vast as Hipsters so i was there for mostly moral support and strategizing sales/marketing. I was always pushing Hipster to do some wild designs, im positive a bunch of early KBKs have his actual blood in them. I remember one night he was BLASTED and just crawling through his attic for spider eggs to use in the Mummy II sale. All the pre KWK stuff was weird, Hipster was coping with a lot of real life stresses at the time mainly depression and eventually had an episode where he quit the hobby prior to the KWK revival. Those last few nights casting mummy II’s for the mystery bag sale were dark days.
4. What are some of your top sources of inspiration when creating? (any other artists, people, music, places, things, etc.)
HipsterPunks: I have no actual sculpting background... so i would try to replicate these 2D images i had drawn and it was just a mess. So i would just sculpt little features each day slowly adding epoxy after it dried. Big visual influences were watching documentaries on cults and studying religious symbols. Music was the bigger influence as it would pull me out of uncreative holes and help open my mind. Artists like Modern Life is War, Lewd Acts, GG Allin, local bands and Hip Hop as well. The biggest influences were just competing with other makers, trying to go BIGGER, adding more detail. Early 2014 GH makers had a real bond with each other and we would bounce ideas off of each other without fear of design stealing or releasing similar caps. Reddit ****ed all that up…
PunksDead: **** reddit
5. Which of your sculpts is most interesting to you, and why? (feel free to list multiple, if you like)
HipsterPunks: I really wanted to do a realistic face under a hood, i had ZERO chops at sculpting and tried multiple designs before settling on the Conspire V1. The face came out great but the hood was rather… vaginal? I was really hitting my stride at that point in my GH career as i picked up a pressure pot while casting those, so youll see some early Conspire V1’s (V1’s is important here) with “pimples” on the face, thats not on purpose haha. I caught some flack from other makers about the credibility of the sculpt and many believed i didnt sculpt the face, I can ASSURE you i 100% sculpted that after many many failed attempts.
PunksDead: He’s lying, he chopped up a Bioshock “little sister” figurines face
6. Which artisan keycap not made by you is most interesting to you, and why? (feel free to list multiple, if you like)
HipsterPunks: most interesting? Moonpuh’s by SSIPAK, they came around when there were not many makers and they were so ****ing expensive. If your not familiar with a “Moonpuh” it looks like someone took a wad of gum and poked holes in it with a toothpick attempting to make it look like some handicapped sea creature that for some reason lived on the ****ing moon. Now this maker used pfu thin topre caps without reinforcing the walls. Every cap received was ****ed with some even showing up with half the stem missing. SSIPAK never really “apologized” but claimed he would recast and fix the issues before disappearing the next day.
PunksDead: most interesting is the Vandal V2 because i didnt make it and it rivals its predecessor on both elegance and execution. I recently got my hands on a few and was blown away by the craftsmanship. I recently contacted the maker to congratulate him on his success but was ignored. He is currently moderating some minor keyboard community live chat irc ripoff thing? Anyways he never got back to me I guess he is really busy.
7. What do you like most about the hobby, and is there something about the hobby you wish would be different?
HipsterPunks: the community, i met some really great dudes i talk to daily. Shout out to GX discord, Brocaps, MMB, ZuXzu, Nick, Bunny, DustinHxc, Ghost, Hayt, that french ****, H0rseC0ck, and Vesper i still love you bebe.
PunksDead: the scammers! Shout out to Ivan, Linkshrine, Mito, Hoffman, that dudes brother with cancer, and finally that dude over seas whos on the run from the law.
8. What one important piece of advice you would give to a newcomer to the artisan hobby?
HipsterPunks: Have fun and dont put yourself into debt over keycaps.
PunksDead: FLEX HARD and send me more money