Hello Fellow Keyboard Enthusiasts!
My Name is Rocket Grunt Jake and I have been making keycaps and posting them over at Reddit for some time now, I figured it was time to start a thread here to share my progress and to give more regular updates. I'm excited to share my progress and get to know the community more as I delve deeper into the art of making artisans.
I started my journey in early April of this year with lots of ideas and even more to learn. I was inspired to start making my own keycaps when I began becoming a more active participant of the community over on Reddit which also coincided with my collection of keyboards growing.
My first sculpt was done with Super Sculpey and was my attempt at a pokeball.
While I was pleased with the quality of the caps I was able to cast using allumilites amazing casting resin I was rather dissatisfied with the sculpt itself and endeavored to try new techniques. My next brilliant idea for keycap making was to try doing my own legends. I had not seen anyone before try this and had grand aspirations.
First Attempt
They were rough but I could see that it was possible so I kept refining my process all the while getting more experience casting the caps themselves. Ultimately I was able to fairly constantly get a legend on a text with this being a prime example.
This process took maybe a month but I didn't garner much interest in custom SA row 3 keycap sets and the amount of effort needed to produce even one would have been astronomical. So I moved onto new designs!
Once I got my hands on the first edition of the Synth my prototyping capabilities and speed increased immensely. This was the first guy I made and I liked him a lot but again an interest check did not garner that much attention.
I then went on to make the first cap I ever sold, Gramps
I have a special place in my heart for this guy even though he wasn't the most popular cap made. I made nine of them for my original sale about a month ago, here they are all together.
After gramps came my current project which has gained a lot of attention since I firt posted and is what I consider my best sculp and idea yet. A simple Rose.
I had been making face keycaps for so long I told myself try something different, clearly you just can't sculpt a face. This was my creation after that revelation and I think it was a good choice to make. I have been practicing with several colors and have made multiple molds in an effort to produce enough of these to have an initial sale sometime in the hopefully near future. Here is a little glimpse at some of the colors I have made so far.
I hope you have enjoyed getting to know my history of making keycaps and I look forward to getting to know the community and sharing my future sculpting!
-RocketGruntJake
