Zen pond III – Cherry circle of life artisan keycaps https://www.jellykey.com/artisan-keycaps/zen-pond-iiiWe have 12 sizes in this collection1u – Cherry profile R4
1.5u – Cherry profile R3 – “Tab” & “\“
1.75u – Cherry profile R2 – “Capslock“
2u – Cherry profile R4 – “Backspace“
2.25u – Cherry profile R2 – “Enter“
2.25u – Cherry profile R1 – ” Left Shift“
2.75u – Cherry profile R1 – “Right shift”
3u – Cherry “Spacebar” for “Filco Minila”
3u – SA profile “Spacebar” for “Filco Minila”
6.25u – Cherry “Spacebar”
6.5u – Cherry “Spacebar” for “Corsair“
7u – Cherry “Spacebar”
how we bring the keycaps into being: eden effect and zen pond IIIOnce again, Jelly Key is extremely gratified to take pride in being the first group of artisans to bring the Eden effect into keycaps. We have to say it’s been very encouraging for us to have received so much love and support from all of our treasured customers for this particular effect. This takes us back to the early days of 2018, the beginning of Jelly Key’s journey to discover a new effect that could represent our unique expression theme.
Eden effect did not just happen overnight. It’s a dozen months’ worth of researching and exploring of the whole Jelly Key team with artisanship expertise and unwavering determination. Our team spent a lot of time producing the harmonious effects and colors on each keycap, but still guaranteeing the same shade. Each keycap would have a unique effect and imprint not to repeat on any other keycaps. The color rays that you can see on a finished product are a process of trial and error through different deposition times, awaiting temperatures, and color fusion. Well, old sayings are never wrong; hard work did pay off. The Eden effect was born, and that’s all we ever needed to achieve and bring to you the signature effect originally created by Jelly Key.
Fast forward to several months later, in August 2018, we introduced to the world the first handcrafting keycap collection delicately embedded with the Eden effect. It took the name of Zen Pond with a spiritual theme centralizing Koi fish – an iconic Japanese fish variety. We have been making the Zen Pond collection for quite a long time now, greatly inspired by Koi fish’s symbol of luck, prosperity, and good fortune; to be later transformed into Zen Pond keycaps under the meaning to bring peace and harmony in mind to whoever person that owns it. Creating such a collection with both magical Eden effect and beautiful living jewels like Koi fish is truly a phenomenal work of Jelly Key. The theme acted as a strong base for us to continue creating the next generations of this series, giving birth to Zen Pond spacebar/enter/shift artisan keycaps, Zen Pond II – A Story of Everything, and now, the latest collection – Zen Pond III: Cherry Circle of Life. Now, let’s find out how we made these cute little babies!
how small is it?In this Zen Pond III collection, we created 6 different positions of Koi fish, dividing into 3 sizes of 6mm, 7.5mm, and 9mm. Don’t be concerned by this tiny scale because you can still recognize very lively details inside the keycaps just under the size of a pinkie tip. In particular, the Koi fins are especially highlighted on their bodies to make it most visible and animated, no matter their size. You’ll be able to see ultra-cute Koi fishies in a rounded shape with a unique chibi style!
coloring the kois – tough work!Moving on to color and effect formation, again, it takes the Pouring Art of mixing alcohol ink with resin to produce this magical series. It conveys abstract and random aspects of expression. The reaction of alcohol ink in resin brings a hypothetical effect occasionally used in interior design for some specific purposes. Its elegant fluids play a crucial role in raising the power of imagination. In the collection, we applied 3 to 5 layers of paint for each keycap so the colors can have a certain thickness and be clearer to our eyes. More importantly, these color tones are entirely based on real Koi fish to increase their authenticity.
This is also the hardest thing we faced during the production of Zen Pond III. Koi fish molds in the collection are much smaller than the previous series of Zen Pond I and II, so it’s very challenging to paint the fishes and keep them spirited as much as possible. Not to mention that we also made Cherry profiles for the whole keycaps, which induced another difficulty in detail layout as the space in this profile is typically short.
One last important thing to note is that the Jelly Key team always tries to produce keycaps with authenticity as much as we can. This also means it is not possible to guarantee our designs’ color fluids will look exactly the same as shown in pictures on our website. More excitingly, however, each keycap will have its own unique and distinct fluid effect, so the only common thing they share is the color option. No single keycap will bear a similar look to any other ones with their signature color ray imprint.
