Hello!
So this all started for me when I ordered my first mechanical keyboard, not really knowing much about layouts and whatnot, and not realizing that the replacement keycaps I had bought were a non-ISO set
. Instead of buying another set I figured I could just try and cast my own and since there weren't many (any?) artisan ISO enter keys that I could find, it might be worth having a shot.
I quickly learned that I have no sculpting skills or talent, so my aim became to make simple, retro styled designs. And I really enjoy it- it's become a bit of an addiction, there's something strangely satisfying about making something and having to wait 24 hours to see the results.
Anyway these give an idea of the direction I'm heading in:
It might be a little early to show them off as these are still just tests, they need sanding/finishing and the sculpts/moulds need redoing- but maybe you can get an idea of the kind of concepts I’m going for and the styles/colour schemes I’m looking at.
Unfortunately I don’t have a lot to say about the process that hasn’t been said a hundred times already.. I followed the same route as most people on these forums, with the lego and the air holes, trying different resins/plastics and pigments until settling on a combo that works best. Being in the UK makes it a little tricky as companies like allumilite aren’t very accessible but I found some great places like resin8.co.uk and MB Fibreglass. The moulds I made from silicon bought from scarva.com which has served me very well.
The main problems I’ve had so far have been with pigments, people don’t tend to talk about them all that much so it was a case of trying everything I could get my hands on, from acrylic paints to oil paints, powders, micas, metals, inks etc. Transparent colours were ok, alcohol inks in particular work well but finding good reliable opaque colours that really pop has been a bit tricky so far, I’ve had more success with the metallics, glitters etc.
A few experiments/testers/failures:
The first mould I tried- went for a fantasy dragon egg thing before settling on more practical ideas
The first proper batch of moulds in action...
These are some of the more successful ones- they still need cleaning up a bit but you get the idea. Probably my favourite so far “Chevron”.
Planning on doing a lot of simple night sky or cosmic-type colour schemes, specifically bronze and black, inspired by the cover to Carlo Rovelli’s book Seven Brief Lessons On Physics:
https://cdn1.gearandgrit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/seven-brief-lessons-on-physics-1044x783.jpgThis one is a nice fat satisfying blank, sits pretty high but personally I don’t mind that
Somehow didn’t realise until I’d made this that it’s a blatant Fugu imitation (honestly was not my intention… ) so not planning on making more of these.
Dot Matrix- hasn’t come out great but think it has potential
Slats- again, it sits pretty high but feels good to me
Some bronze
Testing some marine colour schemes
Bonus shots
So the next step is to settle on and remake a couple of the sculpts with a bit more attention to detail, and hopefully do a run of caps for anyone interested. I need to get hold of some blanks in different profiles, at the moment I’m using tai-ho cherry mx but am open to other makes/profiles. If anyone has some spare they are not using and would be willing for me to use and potentially ruin in the moulding process, I’d happily send them a successful result in return. Perfect colour matching with popular sets like Pulse or Skeletor might be an issue since I don’t really own many keycaps- just a couple of Tai-Ho sets most of which I have ruined making my casts- and just the one WASD board, so that explains the lack of in-situ photos.
Anyway it would be great to get some feedback on these, do any of the designs or colours appeal, if I were to invest in a pressure pot and make some slightly cleaner results would anyone be interested in a sale?
