[GB] KAM Sewing Tin 🍪 Extras live at zFrontier, ProtoTypist, Ashkeebs, Vala

[minicap]

click here for the update about the re-make

Extras live at:
INTL: en.zFrontier
CN: zFrontier
UK: proto[Typist]
CA: Ashkeebs
US: Vala Supply (35% off until May 27th)

More

A tin of butter cookies! You lift the lid, but there are no cookies to be found: only pins, needles, and thread...

vendors / about / samples / renders / kits & pricing / tailor
deskmats / artisan box / collaborations / credits / contact me




Vendors

Group buy live November 9th - December 9th
Estimated shipping date Q3 2022
Edit April 2022: Latest estimate is Q1 2023

US: Vala Supply
CA: Ashkeebs
INTL: en.zFrontier
CN: zFrontier
EU: mykeyboard.eu
UK: proto[Typist]
OCE: SwitchKeys
SEA: Zion Studios

Cables: Cookie Cables
Artisan box: P3D Store




About

KAM Sewing Tin is a novelty-heavy keycap set inspired by cookie tins filled with sewing supplies.
I’m a big fan of butter cookies (the swirly ones are the best), and I also love to sew.

The original idea I had was a sewing-themed set with all sorts of sewing tools. When thinking about the
colour scheme, I remembered the classic blue Danish butter cookie tin, and decided to combine the themes.

Profile: KAM
Material: Dye-sublimated PBT with matte finish
Manufacturer: Keyreative




Colours and Samples

The set has a blue gradient to reflect the shininess of the tin. The numrow is cookie-coloured
as a fun way to incorporate and highlight the cookie colour against the vertical gradient.

Note: the colours are not an exact match to the tin. Because of the shininess, the tin looks
very different depending on the lighting and environment and has a vibrancy that can’t be captured
in matte plastic.

Update August 12th 2022: Have received R2 samples, the issues from R1 have been fixed. See here for full info/thoughts on the R2 samples.

Update November 21st: I've sent zFrontier/Keyreative the request for R2 samples, including tweaking the two lightest
blues to be a bit brighter/lighter (other colours approved) as well as the following legend fixes:
- Alphas (incorrect alignment on 6,q,t,y,i,p,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,b - the alphas were vertically centered instead of consistently aligned,
the 6 was an error on my part that i fixed in kits/renders before the gb but after submitting sample files)
- scissors and cookie tin novelty (have printing issues in the current samples - scissors hole is filled in, cookie tin text is too thick)
- TKL text mods (for text legends)
- if possible, ergo kit to check printing of other novelties (tomato, brown-on-yellow cookie tin, zigzag stitches, cross stitches)

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get them all as there were some limits the last time I requested samples, will keep
this thread updated. The last round of samples took 6 months (May-November 2021), hoping this second round
will be faster given the reduced number of colours to match.

Previous updates/commentary on the samples:

More

Update November 18th (copied from post reply): For the colour matching, I've spent a lot more time considering the matches and I'm very satisfied with the overall look and the colour matching on the yellow and two darkest blues. For the lighter two blues, they are a tiny bit on the dull/dark side - only very slightly in sunlight, but more noticeably in the lightbox and with dimmer lightings. Ideally, these two colours would be tweaked to be slightly more vibrant, though they are quite close already. As it stands today, I do think the colours are quite lovely and form a gentle gradient that matches my vision for the set as well as the Pantones and renders well, but yeah, ideally would be a bit more vibrant.

I am currently leaning towards requesting a R2 match on those two colours. I am considering the risk that the colour match could get worse, as the change required is quite small and I want to make sure the gradient remains nice and "even". I'd hate to end up delaying production unnecessarily if a better match than these samples isn't actually possible, especially given Keyreative's queue times. However, I'm requesting a second round of samples anyway + we received these samples at GB time, so we do have a "head start" of sorts.


Update November 14th: I have received the samples from Keyreative!
Overall I am very pleased with the samples. The legends are sharp and clean. The colours are a good
match to the Pantones and the renders, and generally match the vision I had for the set. The gradient
is subtle, and does look better in brighter lighting (in dim lighting the blues look more similar).
I'm most likely going to approve these colours, but going to give some more time before making
that decision final.

There are some minor alignment/printing issues on some legends (e.g. alphas are vertically centered
instead of aligned consistently with each other) - I am working on collating these into a list to send
to Keyreative for round 2 samples.

Previous photos of R1 samples:

More

I have taken photos of the samples in different lightings on my Cute Keyboard Club Discipline65 and
with the Pantone fan. Some are below, you can view all of them in this imgur album.
Photos are not edited apart from the labels and collating/cropping them for the Pantone fan comparisons.[/size]

Renders

J-02 by ProtoTypist
Mixed base kit, Cookie Parade deskmat




Absinthe by /u/velvetjaguar and /u/reggatronics
Alphas + TKL text mods (note: fj should be homing)




Fuji65 by CMM.Studio
Novelty base kit + Alternate numrow kit + Yellow accents kit




Planck and Preonic by OLKB
Planck: Alphas + Ortho + Yellow accents
Preonic: Alphas + Ortho




Rama Works U80-A
Mixed base kit (note: fj should be homing)

More

ErgoDox
Alphas + Ergo (note: fj should be homing)




Cypher by Cable Car Designs
Alphas + TKL novelty mods + Numpad + ISO




Maja by Vulcan
Novelty base kit + Spacebars




MiniVan by Trash Man (Case by The Royal)
Alphas + 40s

More

Bepovan by Taylor (KnoblesseOblige) from Aeternus Company
Alphas + 40s + Yellow accents




Portico by TKC
Alphas + TKL mixed mods + Alternate numrow, Sewing Tools - Blue deskmat




Austin by driftingbunnies
Alphas + TKL text mods + Numpad (note: fj should be homing)




Nemui by Bachoo
Alphas + TKL novelty mods + alternate numrow kit (note: fj should be homing)

Absinthe, U80-A, ErgoDox, Austin and Nemui renders by Ltafuri
Other renders by me using Keyboard Render Kit



Kits and Pricing

Sewing Tin provides both flexible kitting options (mods + alphas) and simple, minimal base kit options,
plus add-ons that can be combined with either.

You can view all kits as an imgur album here.





Base kits - mixed and novelty
All-in-one kits that provide support for common TKL, 75%, 65% and 60% layouts.


 
Click "more" to see the rest of the kits!

More

Alphas, Alternate numrow, and Colevrak



TKL mods - text, mixed, and novelty
With alphas, supports TKL, 75%, 65%, 60% and HHKB. Includes alpha-coloured spacebars, F13 and stepped capslock cookie.


 
Spacebars, Numpad, and ISO
Combine with either a base kit or alphas + mods. Spacebars contains a 2nd B for Alice boards.



NorDe and Yellow Accents (Added September 17th)
NorDe kit created using this guide by Miguel Farah, thank you for the resource!
Yellow accent kit contains spacebars in common sizes plus accent arrow keys. 2c/2.25c/2.75c can be used for Alice bars plus 40s, double 2c is for ergo/ortho, double 2.25c for Whimsy, and double 1.5c is for split ortho boards.


 
Ergo, Ortho, and 40s
When combined with alphas or a base kit:
- the ergo kit supports Ergodox, Boardwalk, Sol
- the ortho kit supports Moonlander, Planck, Preonic, Lily58, Iris, Sofle, Corne, Ergodash
- the 40s kit supports Minivan, JD40, JD45, UT47.2, prime_e, dimple, whimsy

Note: These kits only have a novelty variant right now, as the gradient means text mods are a lot less flexible,
despite the uniform profile. Let me know if you'd like to see text mods variants for these kits!



Cookies and Buttons
For a macropad, macro column, or to just to have more of them! Also, cookie coloured versions 🍪


 

Tailor

To make it easier to visualise the different options and work out what kits you need, I made the Tailor:
an interactive website that lets you explore how Sewing Tin can look on different keyboards.

You can try it out here: https://kamsewingtin.com/#tailor






Deskmats

Design 1 - Cookie Parade (rendered with J-02 by ProtoTypist and Whimsy by Fourteen)
I had the idea for this deskmat really early on while designing this set - cookies walking together,
the swirly cookie leading the way with a needle as a flag, with cute expressions and poses! I tried
to give each cookie their own personality and mood (hang in there pretzel ;___; ).

Available in both 900x400mm as well as a smaller 600x350mm size.






Design 2 - Sewing Tools
Since the Cookie Parade deskmat is mostly plain, for the second deskmat I wanted to design a tiling
pattern, and capture the other main theme of the set, sewing. Available in both yellow and blue
in 900x400mm.






Artisan Box

I've designed a "Sewing Tin" artisan box to match the set. It has a 3D printed body and engraved acrylic lid.

P3D Store is hosting a group buy for the boxes, running until December 9th up to maximum of 200 boxes.
You can select from all of P3D Store's in-stock filament and acrylic colours.

Note: due to technical limitations, the default configuration is no lid engraving. To get the engraving like
in these photos, make sure to check the "Add Sewing Tin Engraving" box.

Update 11/13/21: P3D Store is likely to be winding down 3DP operations after this GB, so the boxes will
not be available for custom order in the future. However, you can reach out to Jake about ordering just a lid
if you are interested (see here for info about 3DP file availability)


Thanks Jake from P3D Store for making these samples, and anEmptyJarOfNutella for the original suggestion!



Below photos by Mr. CBA and @craftedbyannie (featuring Annie's lovely critter artisans 🥺)



More photos here.

The fully 3D printed version of the box will not be available for purchase, but the files were available on request
for personal use, if you joined the keyset group buy. (Request form is now closed and files have been sent out)




Collaborations

I'm super excited to be partnering with these awesome makers on Sewing Tin themed cables and artisans!

Cable Collaboration: Cookie Cables are making matching USB and TRRS cables in tin blue and cookie yellow!
Cable group buy runs until December 9th.



Artisan Collaborations:
- Bowbie Keycaps
- Crafted By Annie
- Cantoclicks
- klaykaps
- meof caps
- Miroticaps
- Myth Caps
- n.Na works
- okeydokey studio
- shirouu.kaps

You can see some little doodles introducing each collaboration here!




THOK Encoder Knobs

THOK has created these "button" encoder knobs to match Sewing Tin! Available from most vendors listed above.
Available in Mellow Yellow (powder coated yellow brass matched to the set) and Brass Gold (clear coated natural brass), combined MOQ 100.
Yellow knob shown in a render of the Whimsy by Fourteen; lower picture of brass knob is a photo.






Asero Foundry Metal Artisan

We've partnered with Asero Foundry to create a metal "Sewing Tin" artisan.



This aluminium artisan is in modified KAM profile with white laser engraved design and blue cerakote finish.
The ceratoke finish will be closely matched to the second darkest blue in the set (tab/pipe row).



Credits
I had a lot of help getting Sewing Tin to this point! Huge thank yous to:

- the lovely Keycraft Collective community for the support, and for giving this set a space to grow:
  there's too many amazing people to name everyone, special thanks to Rosie, Andromache, pwade,
  and pluma for the help and advice
- KAMrades Therese and Hakata for the advice and summoning circles, and Purry for bringing us together
- Ltafuri for the sweet Absinthe, U80-A, ErgoDox, Nemui, and Austin renders
- minimoonbun for the super cute banner and favicon, advice, proofreading, help acquiring sample keycaps,
   and all the other help and support along the way 🥺💙
- Mr. CBA and @craftedbyannie for the lovely artisan box photos
- DrHigsby for all the help with the 40s kit
- ImperfectLink and Keyboard Render Kit for the fantastic rendering kit
- acitrin, Mirubere, NoPunIn10Did, matt, hali, and honorless for the kitting advice
- dvorcol for the graphs!
- my amazing and lovely collaborators: thank you so much for your Sewing Tin themed creations!
- everyone who filled out the IC, i read every response and your comments warmed my heart 💙



Contact

Email: hi@kamsewingtin.com
Discord: minicat#0836
Instagram: @minicap.cat

I'll regularly post updates in this thread, my Instagram, and the #kam-sewing-tin channel in the Keycraft Collective Discord.


Signature

Help support Sewing Tin with this signature banner by minimoonbun:

Code: [Select]

[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=115240.0][img width=280 height=120]https://i.imgur.com/DThDnEW.png[/img][/url]
You can update your signature here - I appreciate the support!

[minicap]

Updates
2024-12-26 - Extras live at Vala Supply
2023-11-18
- Ashkeebs - GB orders fulfilled, extras live
- Zion Studios - GB orders fulfilled, but some orders are missing B-stock kits/gifts - please contact support@zionstudios.ph with your order number for replacements if you are missing anything
2023-10-29
- zFrontier - A-stock replacements for all original orders have been shipped. Some may still be in transit. A-stock extras are now live - note that these are A-stock ONLY (unlike ProtoTypist's extras) zFrontier will likely release their B-stock extras later on at a discount or as an event gift, exact plan not yet finalised
- ProtoTypist - ortho fix kits received and shipped to all affected customers
- MKEU - keycaps being shipped to MKEU by air (alongside other outstanding sets from zFrontier), estimated to arrive with them in November
2023-10-01 - Fulfilment continues, per-vendor updates here
2023-09-06 - SwitchKeys fulfillment update/issues
2023-09-02 - Fulfillment continues, replacements for ortho zigzag keys (only remaining issue in re-made kits) on route to vendors. Full update here
2023-08-17 - Re-made keycaps in transit to vendors. US, CA, UK, AU shipments are being sent by air and are expected to arrive in 7-12 days.
2023-08-10 - Re-make complete! Keycaps being packaged to send to vendors
2023-07-27
- Re-make production continues and is now estimated to complete August 10th.
- GB/preorder thank-you gifts are complete and either with or on their way to vendors.
2023-07-06
- R4 keycap samples for re-make received and approved
- Asero Foundry artisan complete and with vendors
2023-06-16 Keycaps are being remade: please see here for the full update/details
2023-05-30
- Keycaps are shipping to vendors (either in transit from China, or awaiting shipment at vendor's forwarders in China). Only vendor who still needs to make arrangements is MKEU, am attempting to contact them to figure this out.
- Asero artisan collab is awaiting cerakote colour mix/match-ing.
2023-05-05
- Keycap production complete! zFrontier orders shipped: shipping to other vendors being arranged
- Discord server has been opened - would love to see your Sewing Tin builds there!
- Asero artisan collab is awaiting cerakote and laser-engraving, and is expected to be complete this month.
2023-04-02 - Updated timeline from Keyreative - keyset is now estimated to finish production end of April
2023-03-31 - Keycap production update - reverse dye-sub started
2023-03-21 - New estimated production completion time for keycap production is end of May
2023-03-18 - Keycap production update - injection moulding & regular dye-sub complete, reverse-dye sub next
2023-02-22 - Keycaps in production!
2023-02-18 - Packaging files submitted to zFrontier
2022-12-29
- Keycap production files submitted to zFrontier, R2 colours approved
- Deskmats shipped to all vendors, arrived at some
2022-10-23 - Photos of R3 samples here
2022-10-15
- Keycaps - Received R3 samples, photos to come
- Deskmats - Production almost complete
- THOK encoder knobs - Received by all vendors
- Asero Foundry metal artisans - Still in production, no new ETA on completion
2022-09-02 - Due to a delay with the vendor placing the order, deskmats are now estimated to arrive with vendors in November.
2022-08-23 - R3 keycap samples requested for small tweaks to lightest 3 blues, will choose between R2 and R3 for final colours
2022-08-12 Full update post here
- Keycaps - Received R2 samples, much improved colours, legend alignment fixed
- Deskmats - Received R2 samples. Going in to production, estimated to arrive at US vendor in October
- THOK encoder knobs - Have been shipped to vendors
- Asero Foundry metal artisans - In production, estimated completion late August / early September
2022-06-11
- Deskmat samples received. Cookie Parade & Sewing Tools - Blue going for a 2nd round of samples for tone adjustments. Sewing Tools - Yellow approved.
- THOK encoder knobs being shipped to THOK, shipping to vendors/customers expected to start in the next few weeks
2022-04-17
- Keycaps - No updates since last time. New estimated shipping date is Q1 2023.
- Deskmats - Samples being shipped to lead vendor, ETA May 2022. Will be shipped to me afterwards.
- THOK encoder knobs - Awaiting shipment. Delayed from previous estimate, now estimated to ship from THOK in May 2022
- Asero Foundry metal artisans - In production, estimated to complete by July 2022 at latest
- Extra pre-orders are also now live on Vala Supply
2022-03-21 - THOK knobs are estimated to ship out April 20th
2022-03-15 - Heard back from zFrontier / Keyreative: due to recent COVID outbreaks, production has slowed down. No estimate for when the R2 samples will be complete. Deskmat samples should be completed in the next few weeks, and manufacturing should start soon for the Asero artisan.
2022-03-03 - No news from Keyreative, but some vendors have been invoiced. Waiting to hear back about R2 samples and format for production files. Also waiting on deskmat samples.
2022-01-05 - Latest estimate from Keyreative is that Sewing Tin will enter production in October 2022.
2021-12-30 - Artisan box production complete - all orders have been shipped by P3D Store.   
2021-12-27 - Sales numbers finalised - everything will be made! GB sales reached 141% of MOQ, 327% with vendor extras included. 
2021-12-18 - Artisan box files have been sent out to those who requested them.
2021-12-10 - Group buy complete! Awaiting final numbers from vendors. All keycap kits, deskmats and THOK knobs will be made: Asero artisan is TBD.

[Signature]

Approved

[clickyblob]

Love the design on the deskmats! Will be grabbing them for sure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[minicap]

Group buy is now live at most vendors! (ProtoTypist will be online soon)

The raffle for our collab with n.Na works is also live: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-qqmp6J826XK_kVhGslsjq175ObgHz1co5nyAFvDkTlADyQ/viewform



You can see more pictures of the Sewing Tin t.api here: https://imgur.com/a/3Yf4FZd

Love the design on the deskmats! Will be grabbing them for sure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you for the support!! 🍪

[minicap]

All vendors are live!

We've also got another delicious collab sale coming up tomorrow with CantoClicks: https://linktr.ee/cantoclicks

[minicap]

Bowbie's fulfillment sale for Butter Baby Blanks is open until the 15th: https://linktr.ee/Bowbie_Keycaps

And, our collaboration sale with Shirouu is live for the next two hours! https://www.instagram.com/shirouu.kaps/


i'm grateful to my amazing collaborators, all of the collabs have been super cute! (and there's still more to come in the next few weeks!) 

good luck to anyone entering the raffles ^^

[DerBonk]

Even though I just got in on another KAM set, I had to join this one as well. Excellent work on the theme, I love a keyset theme that is thought through so thoroughly and beautifully. The kitting is also really nice, for my purposes.

[minicap]

Exciting update today: after receiving the samples last week I've been taking a bunch of photos in different lightings, and have them all here to share today!

See this section of the main post for all the details: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=115240.msg3092960#post_SAMPLES
And this imgur album for the photos: https://imgur.com/a/qGpmYf3

In short, I'm very happy with how the samples turned out, although there are some small issues with some legends that I'll be asking Keyreative to fix and hopefully getting R2 samples of. The colours are a good match to the Pantones and fit my vision for the set - I'm most likely going to approve these colours but going to sleep on it a few times before finalising that.

Lemme know what you think about the samples!

Even though I just got in on another KAM set, I had to join this one as well. Excellent work on the theme, I love a keyset theme that is thought through so thoroughly and beautifully. The kitting is also really nice, for my purposes.

💙thank you for the support, DerBonk!!
Not sure if you've seen the Soaring Tin renders, but it should be possible to mix and match your KAM sets

[Mr Chrome]

Really surprised by how good the samples turned out. I think the colours are perfect! I love the buttery yellow and gentle gradient of the mods! The scissors novelty needs a quick fix, but I’m sure you’ve got that covered, and otherwise

GLWGB!

[DerBonk]

Not sure if you've seen the Soaring Tin renders, but it should be possible to mix and match your KAM sets

I was thinking about doing that, as well! Just found the render and that looks super fun. Glossy accents might also be cool 

The samples look super good. Really love the colors and it is very cool that you were able to show these off during the GB.

[surplusofchairs]

the samples look very good!

I’m still deciding between getting alphas or cookies/buttons. that render lives in my mind rent-free

[Sebboc]

Instant Purchase! I love how the legends/novelties turned out and the novelties are AWESOME! 

[minicap]

We're one week into the GB! With numbers from most vendors, we're currently at 38% of MOQ - thank you to everyone who's supported the set so far! 💙
Dvorcol has kindly agreed to make sales graphs for the set, one will be made in the coming days!

In other updates, I'm preparing to request R2 samples from Keyreative. Here's what I'll be requesting (though I'm not sure if I'll be able to get all of them, since there were some limits the last time I requested samples).
- Alphas (incorrect alignment on 6,q,t,y,i,p,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,b - the alphas were vertically centered instead of consistently aligned, the 6 was an error on my part that i fixed in kits/renders before the gb but after submitting sample files)
- scissors and cookie tin novelty (have printing issues in the current samples - scissors hole is filled in, cookie tin text is too thick)
- TKL text mods (for text legends)
- if possible, ergo kit to check printing of other novelties (tomato, brown-on-yellow cookie tin, zigzag stitches, cross stitches)

For the colour matching, I've spent a lot more time considering the matches and I'm very satisfied with the overall look and the colour matching on the yellow and two darkest blues. For the lighter two blues, they are a tiny bit on the dull/dark side - only very slightly in sunlight, but more noticeably in the lightbox and with dimmer lightings. Ideally, these two colours would be tweaked to be slightly more vibrant, though they are quite close already. As it stands today, I do think the colours are quite lovely and form a gentle gradient that matches my vision for the set as well as the Pantones and renders well, but yeah, ideally would be a bit more vibrant.

I am currently leaning towards requesting a R2 match on those two colours. I am considering the risk that the colour match could get worse, as the change required is quite small and I want to make sure the gradient remains nice and "even". I'd hate to end up delaying production unnecessarily if a better match than these samples isn't actually possible, especially given Keyreative's queue times. However, I'm requesting a second round of samples anyway + we received these samples at GB time, so we do have a "head start" of sorts.

I'm going to be preparing the files that detail the changes for the R2 samples this weekend, so this decision isn't locked in yet - will post an update when I've submitted the request to zFrontier / Keyreative.

Not sure if you've seen the Soaring Tin renders, but it should be possible to mix and match your KAM sets

I was thinking about doing that, as well! Just found the render and that looks super fun. Glossy accents might also be cool 

The samples look super good. Really love the colors and it is very cool that you were able to show these off during the GB.

Oooh, yes! The blues in Sewing Tin are a bit more on the purple-ish side than the blues in Soaring Skies, but i think accents would be cool!

There's also this scuffed mockup I made of sewing tin alphas + function row with Soaring Skies mods (Hakata and I decided to go with the cookie version instead for the render haha)

Instant Purchase! I love how the legends/novelties turned out and the novelties are AWESOME! 

Thank you for the support!! 💙

the samples look very good!

I’m still deciding between getting alphas or cookies/buttons. that render lives in my mind rent-free

🍪🍪🍪 Ooh! Are you referring to the fuji65 renders, or the candybar renders? here they are in case you haven't seen them 🤣



(By the way, I love your username lmao)

Really surprised by how good the samples turned out. I think the colours are perfect! I love the buttery yellow and gentle gradient of the mods! The scissors novelty needs a quick fix, but I’m sure you’ve got that covered, and otherwise

GLWGB!

Yup, that's on the list! Glad you like the samples and nice seeing you here again

[dvorcol]

[minicap]

Thanks for the graph, Dvorcol!

Today's update: I've submitted my request for R2 samples to zFrontier/Keyreative, with the changes I described before. I did decide to request for the two lightest blues to be tweaked to be slightly brighter/lighter - fingers crossed.

The first round of samples took 6 months (requested in May, received in November), I'm hoping the next round will be faster since there are less colours to match this time but I do anticipate that we'll be in for a multi-month wait. Will post updates as I have them.

edit: Small update to the small update! My zFrontier rep confirmed that they've received the files, and the R2 samples will be arranged after the GB ends. 🙏

[dvorcol]

[minicap]

6 days left! To all who joined the GB already, thank you for the support! 💙

Aiming to have another update on numbers before end of GB. 🤞

[dvorcol]

[minicap]

Thanks for the graph, Dvorcol! 💙

Just two days left to join the GB! I believe that everything can be made when considering last day sales, unreported sales (some vendors are still outdated in that graph), vendor extras, as well as potentially lowering the MOQ on the THOK and Asero collabs - I'll be discussing this with my vendors and will try to get a solid update ASAP.

If you've been hesitating, now's the time to jump in and grab your cookies! 🍪

[minicap]

ALL KITS WILL BE MADE (as will the deskmats and THOK knobs)!

Updated numbers brought us to 90% of MOQ, and Vala Supply has guaranteed that they'll be buying at least 10% in extras - so we are now guaranteed to hit MOQ on the keyset. Deskmats and THOK knobs will also be made, as the knob MOQ is being reduced. The only thing not yet guaranteed is the Asero - discussions there are ongoing.

Thank you all for your support so far 💙
If you were on the fence about joining the group buy, or know someone who is...now's the time to jump in! Just a few days left to join!

[TypicalOranges]

ALL KITS WILL BE MADE (as will the deskmats and THOK knobs)!

Updated numbers brought us to 90% of MOQ, and Vala Supply has guaranteed that they'll be buying at least 10% in extras - so we are now guaranteed to hit MOQ on the keyset. Deskmats and THOK knobs will also be made, as the knob MOQ is being reduced. The only thing not yet guaranteed is the Asero - discussions there are ongoing.

Thank you all for your support so far 💙
If you were on the fence about joining the group buy, or know someone who is...now's the time to jump in! Just a few days left to join!

Congrats on making MOQ! This set is so fun and creative <3

[dvorcol]

[minicap]

Final day! Last chance to join 💙

Show Image

Thanks for the updated graph, Dvorcol! :D

ALL KITS WILL BE MADE (as will the deskmats and THOK knobs)!

Updated numbers brought us to 90% of MOQ, and Vala Supply has guaranteed that they'll be buying at least 10% in extras - so we are now guaranteed to hit MOQ on the keyset. Deskmats and THOK knobs will also be made, as the knob MOQ is being reduced. The only thing not yet guaranteed is the Asero - discussions there are ongoing.

Thank you all for your support so far 💙
If you were on the fence about joining the group buy, or know someone who is...now's the time to jump in! Just a few days left to join!

Congrats on making MOQ! This set is so fun and creative <3

Thank you for the kind comment! 🥺🍪

[minicap]

And that's a wrap! (Mostly; a few vendors are still live if you forgot to join before ) Huge thank you to everyone who joined the GB and supported the set!

We're now awaiting final sales + extra numbers from vendors.

Reminder that the 3DP files for the artisan box are available for those who bought the set: https://forms.gle/ELU8fk6MNNN9wjXZA I'll be closing the form on the 16th and sending out files after that.

edit: Form has been closed and files have been emailed! If you filled out the form but didnt receive the files please double-check your spam and then let me know and I can look into it!

[dvorcol]

More

<-- without extras

[minicap]

Thanks for all the graphs, Dvorcol! 💙

Update: Keyreative recently released a new timeline with estimated production dates for all sets in their queue. Sewing Tin is estimated to enter production in October 2022 - this is slightly later than the previous estimate (Q3 2022 fulfillment). You can see the full info here: https://en.zfrontier.com/blogs/project-updates/keyreative-keyset-progress-report

We're in the process of getting everything invoiced and R2 samples ordered.

[dvorcol]

Thanks for all the graphs, Dvorcol! 💙

Update: Keyreative recently released a new timeline with estimated production dates for all sets in their queue. Sewing Tin is estimated to enter production in October 2022 - this is slightly later than the previous estimate (Q3 2022 fulfillment). You can see the full info here: https://en.zfrontier.com/blogs/project-updates/keyreative-keyset-progress-report

We're in the process of getting everything invoiced and R2 samples ordered.

My pleasure!

[minicap]

Thanks for all the graphs, Dvorcol! 💙

Update: Keyreative recently released a new timeline with estimated production dates for all sets in their queue. Sewing Tin is estimated to enter production in October 2022 - this is slightly later than the previous estimate (Q3 2022 fulfillment). You can see the full info here: https://en.zfrontier.com/blogs/project-updates/keyreative-keyset-progress-report

We're in the process of getting everything invoiced and R2 samples ordered.

Hey! It's been a while, so I'm here to post a status update. Unfortunately no significant progress - I've been contacting my zFrontier / Keyreative rep regularly, but have not heard back from them about the invoicing or R2 samples. However, some but not all of my vendors have received their invoice for the keycaps from zFrontier. I'm not concerned about this impacting our place in the production queue, but will continue to follow up to get these things sorted out.

I am also waiting for them to confirm that the production files I have previously sent them are acceptable before completing those for all kits - I'm not worried about the timeline here yet as we're only due to start production in October, but will make sure these are all completed well ahead of that date.

We're also still waiting on deskmat samples to be made.

[minicap]

Thanks for all the graphs, Dvorcol! 💙

Update: Keyreative recently released a new timeline with estimated production dates for all sets in their queue. Sewing Tin is estimated to enter production in October 2022 - this is slightly later than the previous estimate (Q3 2022 fulfillment). You can see the full info here: https://en.zfrontier.com/blogs/project-updates/keyreative-keyset-progress-report

We're in the process of getting everything invoiced and R2 samples ordered.

Hey! It's been a while, so I'm here to post a status update. Unfortunately no significant progress - I've been contacting my zFrontier / Keyreative rep regularly, but have not heard back from them about the invoicing or R2 samples. However, some but not all of my vendors have received their invoice for the keycaps from zFrontier. I'm not concerned about this impacting our place in the production queue, but will continue to follow up to get these things sorted out.

I am also waiting for them to confirm that the production files I have previously sent them are acceptable before completing those for all kits - I'm not worried about the timeline here yet as we're only due to start production in October, but will make sure these are all completed well ahead of that date.

We're also still waiting on deskmat samples to be made.

Follow-up: I heard back from my zFrontier/Keyreative rep - they let me know that due to recent COVID outbreaks, production has slowed down. No estimate for when the R2 samples will be complete.

Other status updates:
Deskmat: Samples should be completed in the next few weeks. After that, it will take some time for them to be shipped to my lead vendor and then to me, but I'm excited to see how they turned out!
Asero artisan: Manufacturing should start soon (no specific time range yet).
THOK knobs: No updates (they have been invoiced).

edit: Small add-on: THOK knobs are estimated to ship out April 20th (to vendors, or you if you ordered from THOK directly)

[Keyboard Lab]

who doesn't like cookies

[minicap]

Hello! Quick update round up (unfortunately haven't gotten new news from zF/Keyreative):

Keycaps - no update since last time
Deskmats - Samples being shipped to lead vendor, ETA May 2022. Will be shipped to me afterwards.
THOK encoder knobs - Awaiting shipment. Delayed from previous estimate, now estimated to ship from THOK in May 2022
Asero Foundry metal artisans - In production, estimated to complete by July 2022 at latest

Extra pre-orders are also now live on Vala Supply: https://vala.supply/products/kam-sewing-tin

edit: I've also updated the main post to include the new estimated shipping date of Q1 2023 to match the estimate on Vala's pre-order page, which was based off of Keyreative's updated timeline.

[minicap]

I've received sample deskmats! I'm generally happy with the printing quality. However, the blue deskmats (cookie parade and sewing tools - blue) need some tone adjustments and a second round of samples have been requested. I've requested this round to be expedited and it should hopefully be much quicker than the first round of samples 🤞

I've given the OK for the sewing tools - yellow deskmat! The pastel cookie yellow turned out nicely. I've taken a few photos of it with the keycap samples in different lightings to show you, the appearance does vary depending on the lighting since the deskmat is a bit reflective. (Also, as a reminder, these are the R1 keycap samples - some colours/legends will be tweaked before production)

In other updates: THOK encoder knobs are being shipped to THOK, shipping to vendors and customers (if you bought directly from THOK) is expected to start in the next few weeks. No updates on keycaps or Asero collab.

[minicap]

Hello! Big round of updates today, have summarised the key points at the top and included detailed thoughts on the new keyset and deskmat samples below. A few photos are included in this post, the full set can be viewed here: https://imgur.com/a/DP93Viy

Obligatory disclaimer: while I've tried my best to get accurate, representative photos in different lightings, it's still not the same as seeing the samples IRL. Final decisions will be made based on the samples in front of me, not the photos.

Keyset: Received R2 samples, am thrilled with how they came out!
- The lightest three blues have been tweaked to be lighter. The gradient is now much more visible, I'm very happy with the new colours 💙 But will be considering a bit more before approving.
- Alphas alignment has been fixed - letters now have consistent baseline as per design (R1 samples had each letter individually centered)
- Other legends have also improved, including fixed 6^ key, fixed scissors novelty, and improved alignment
- New samples of novelties not included in R1 samples - tomato, stork scissors, zigzag and X stitches - all turned out great

Deskmats: Going in to production, estimated to arrive at US vendor in October
- Received R2 samples! From the R1 samples, I had previously approved the "Sewing Tools - Yellow" mat but asked for the "Cookie Parade" and "Sewing Tools - Blue" mats to be tweaked to be a bit more purple.
- The R2 sample for "Cookie Parade" was good but the R2 sample for "Sewing Tools - Blue" over-shot and was too purple.
- Important note: The appearance of the deskmat varies a lot depending on the lighting, you can see this in the warm lighting vs indirect sunlight photos. The purple tones shows up better under warm lighting, and also doesn't show up as well in photos.
- I decided to approve the R2 "Cookie Parade" colour and the R1 "Sewing Tools - Blue" colour ☑️ the mats will be going into production in the next week or two
- Estimated ~20 days production + ~40 days shipping to the US (likely faster to other vendors) = estimated arrival October

THOK Knobs: Shipping to vendors from THOK, estimated to arrive with vendors in 2-3 weeks
Previously, the production of yellow knobs was complete but the brass knobs were delayed. THOK has now received the brass knobs and has shipped out all knobs to vendors.

Asero collab artisan: In production, estimated completion late August / early September




Detailed thoughts on keyset samples
I had requested 5 main changes from the R1 samples, they were addressed as follows:
1. Tweak colour matching for the lightest two blues (make them a bit lighter/brighter). In fact, all colours were updated - the three lightest blues are all noticably be lighter. I originally thought the third lightest blue was already a good Pantone match, but this new gradient is definitely overall better. This also means the alphas are a bit brighter, since the legends on the alphas are the third lightest blue.

The other colours (darkest blue + yellow) look almost the same but are very slightly different - it's not very evident from a top view, but more obvious when comparing the keycap sides together. The yellow is a little less orange, while the blue is a bit more saturated.

It turns out that Keyreative used a new colour printing software for these samples, hence why all colours were adjusted. I'm very happy with the new gradient but am taking a bit more time to make sure before locking them in. I have been checking the colours under different lightings and overall I feel they match the Pantones and the vision for the set very well, much better than the R1 samples.

There are some small tweaks that could be made to the individual colours (in particular, making the lightest blue a bit more purple), but when I consider the overall gradient, I'm very happy with it right now. One thing I will call out is that the darkest blue is a tad more saturated than the other colours - not too noticable when the keys are on a board, but more noticable with a "full gradient" layout (there's a picture in the album showing this.)
 
2. Fix alpha/letter alignment (vertically align letters with each other instead of individually centering each letter) - this is all fixed!
3. Update 6^ alignment - fixed!
4. Fix scissors novelty (hole should not be filled in) - fixed!
5. Fix cookie tin novelty (make the text slightly thinner) - unfortunately it doesn't seem like this was possible with the reverse dyesub.
Additionally, I had pointed out some issues with mis-aligned novelty legends and a couple of keys with faulty stems - no such issues in this round of samples.

The new samples also included the tomato, stork scissors, zigzag stitch, and X stitch novelties (weren't in R1 samples) which all turned out great. The printing quality continued to be very nice and crisp - all the thin lines in the novelties turned out well.

The remaining legends that haven't been sampled are the cursive text mods, other alphas (from Iso/Norde kits) and a couple of misc. novelties. I will be getting high definition pictures of samples for all kits to confirm before production.

One disclaimer about alignment - the alignment was much better in this round of samples, but some small variances are expected with due to the dye-sub process. Legends in the final production run may have small variances of <1mm.

Detailed thoughts on deskmat samples
Even more so that the keyset samples, the appearance of these mats varies a lot depending on the lighting. The purple tones shows up better under warm lighting (and also don't show up as well in photos). I've decided that the final approved colours match the set & my vision well enough either way, but to set expectations, the deskmats aren't going to be a perfect match to the renders for most lighting/setups.

The R2 900x400mm Cookie Parade sample had an issue with a non-square corner. We've confirmed with the manufacturer that the corners will be controlled more tightly during actual production.

I did consider asking for a R3 sample for "Sewing Tools - Blue" that would be in between the two existing samples, but decided against it as 1. I'm happy enough with the current colour: it matches the set well and 2. Given the overshoot with the R2 sample, I wasn't confident that a R3 sample would be worth delaying deskmat production for.

[minicap]

Small follow-up update on the keyset samples: after careful thought, I've decided to ask for round 3 samples to slightly adjust the lightest three blues to be a bit more saturated and the lightest blue to be a tinge more purple, and then will pick between R2 and R3 for the final colours 🙏 Given our position in the Keyreative queue, this should not delay production (i.e. I expect the R3 samples to be done before Sewing Tin is at the front of the production queue)

As mentioned before, I'm already really happy with the gradient, so this decision was made after a lot of consideration! In the end, I decided to ask for the R3 because 1. it shouldn't delay production and 2. i'd like to see if we can get the colours to be even better, while maintaining the cohesive gradient. All colours had effectively been re-matched from scratch in R2 (with Keyreative's new colour printing software), so this can be considered to be the first round of "tweaks" to those colours.

[minicap]

Hello! It's been a while. I haven't had time to take photos of the new samples/knobs yet (my day job has been hectic), but wanted to give this update first and follow up with those soon ^^

Keyset: R3 samples received
I have received updated samples for the 3 colours being re-matched (the three lightest blues). Receiving them so quickly was a pleasant surprise. I will work on getting comparison photos for you all to see soon, but my initial impression is unfortunately not good I requested the colours become more saturated and for the lightest blue to be a bit more purple. The colours did become more saturated, but became less purple in comparison.

I'm going to get more details from zFrontier on what happened here before making a decision. I had previously said I would pick between R2/R3 samples, given what happened with R3 I would actually either lock in the R2 colours or go for R4 samples. Here's the album with R2 samples for reference: https://imgur.com/a/DP93Viy).

To recap, I really liked how the R2 samples came out - they had a lovely gradient that matches the vision for the set well - but they are not a perfect match to the Pantones/renders. As per the changes I previously requested, they are a bit less saturated and the lightest blue needed to be a bit more purple. For me, getting the gradient right & having lovely colours that match the theme/vision is more important than getting the individual colour matches to be perfect (renders are also only approximations / can never match perfectly due to lighting, monitors, etc), but I do also want to make sure you are all getting the best product possible 💙

Other progress: I've completed the production files for the set, but am going to double check them all again before submitting them to Keyreative. I am also working on the packaging files for the set.

Deskmats: Production to complete within the next week
Production has taken longer than expected as many other deskmats for Vala-run group buys were ordered at the same time.

Afterwards, estimated 40 days shipping to the US, arriving late November/early December.

THOK Knobs: Arrived at all vendors
If you ordered knobs standalone, they should be shipping to you soon. Please contact your vendor directly if your order has been overlooked!

I have also recently received my designer copies from THOK and plan to take some photos soon! I think they turned out well, the yellow isn't a perfect match to the keyset yellow - it's a bit paler - but it's still nice and buttery.

Asero collab artisan: unfinished keycaps due to arrive with Asero in ~2 weeks, no ETA on completion
The keycaps still need to be ceratoked and lasered afterwards. I have asked Asero's owner Rikkachet for an updated timeline for completion repeatedly (9 times since the previous provided timeline of completion in late August/early September) but have not gotten any information - the update above was from one of his partners.

So, unfortunately I have no other information here, but I'll continue to try my best to get updates from Asero.

minicap's TODO list / what's next
- Take photos of R3 samples & share
- Get more info from zFrontier about R3 samples before making decision on approving R2 vs going for R4
- Take photos of THOK knobs & share
- Double check and submit keyset production files
- Finish keyset packaging files
- Continue checking in on deskmats & Asero progress

[minicap]

Following up, here's the photos of the R2 vs R3 samples in sunlight & in lightbox & with the pantones ^^ https://imgur.com/a/H5teB72
Obligatory disclaimer: photos are never as accurate as seeing the samples IRL but I hope this does give a good idea of how the R3 samples are more saturated but less purple than R2 💙

[minicap]

Hello, and happy holidays! This will be the last update for 2022.

Keycaps
Quick summary first, then all the details:
* Production files have been triple checked and submitted to zFrontier
* Heard back from zFrontier!
* R2 colours have been approved (NOT R3), which should let us enter production sooner

To recap: we were previously waiting on further details from Keyreative on the R3 samples, in order to determine whether to accept the R2 samples or go for R4 samples. We wanted some small tweaks to the R2 samples (slightly increase saturation and make the lightest blue more purple) - unfortunately, the R3 samples were not adjusted in the right direction.

If you follow other Keyreative updates, you may have seen that KAM Soaring Skies and KAM Lil Dragon both jumped ahead in the production queue - breaking the previous ordering, which was by GB date. When I submitted the production files last week, I also asked zFrontier if approving the R2 colours would get Sewing Tin into production faster. They replied with a rough estimated timeline of when the set could enter production "if everything is confirmed". I am deliberately not mentioning those dates here - want to wait until it's completely confirmed to avoid people being disappointed - but it was much sooner than I was otherwise expecting the set to go into production.

After careful consideration, I made the decision to approve the R2 colours, due to the following considerations:
* The R2 colours were very close already: while not being a perfect match to the Pantones/renders, I felt that they matched the vision for the set and formed a cohesive and lovely gradient. As discussed before, keeping the gradient nice and even was important to me (i.e. the effect on the gradient is also considered when thinking about adjusting colours).
* The R3 colours were worse than the R2 colours - so going for R4 samples would take much extra time & would not be guaranteed to result in a better match
* There have been many Keyreative production delays in the past few years - a chance to go into production earlier may not occur again

In short, when comparing "R4 colours with uncertain & not guaranteed improvement / timeline" vs "R2 colours sooner", I chose the latter. All in all, there's still a fair amount of uncertainty here, but I hope for you to love Sewing Tin when you receive it, and to also receive it as soon as possible. 💙

Deskmats
Production completed in late October, after which they were shipped out to all vendors! Some vendor specific information below:

* Vala Supply (US) - Deskmats arrived at Vala Supply! Standalone deskmat fulfillments expected to start in January. Fulfillment emails will be sent out when an exact date has been confirmed.
* Ashkeebs (CA) - Deskmats arrived at their freight forwarder, pending shipment to Ashkeebs.
* proto[Typist (UK) - Deskmats not yet received. When they are received & shipping for standalone orders start, it will be announced in their discord: discord.gg/qm944aC
* Zion Studios (SEA) - Deskmats recently received!
* mykeyboard.eu (EU) - Deskmats arrived at their freight forwarder (in China)
* zFrontier (CN/INTL) - Deskmats received

Excited for these to be shipping out to everyone soon!

Asero collab
While I have repeatedly asked for updates, the owner of Asero Foundry (Rikkachet) has not replied to any of my messages since September 3rd. Fortunately he did reply when one of my vendors messaged them, saying "sewing tin should be done I need to check". I will continue to follow up about this.

[minicap]

February update:

- Packaging files have been completed and sent to zFrontier 📦
- I haven't heard anything back from zFrontier / Keyreative since my last update, so no updated production timeline/estimate to share. Will continue to follow up with them!
- No news from Asero Foundry either - similarly, will continue to follow up here.

[minicap]

Keyreative just announced on their instagram (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17955191303430485/) that the set is now in production!

[dvorcol]

Keyreative just announced on their instagram (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17955191303430485/) that the set is now in production!

(Attachment Link)

Are these dates April or Q4?

[minicap]

Keyreative just announced on their instagram (https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17955191303430485/) that the set is now in production!

(Attachment Link)

Are these dates April or Q4?

Hey Dvorcol! I confirmed with them that it's April 🍪

[minicap]

Production update from Keyreative: injection moulding & regular dyesub is complete, reverse dyesub is up next!

[minicap]

Sharing new production timeline estimates from Keyreative, from their discord: Sewing Tin is now estimated to finish production at end of May, due to customs issues with their reverse dyesub materials.

[minicap]

Another production update from Keyreative: reverse dyesub has begun (these keys are specifically from the 40s kit!)

[minicap]

Updated production timeline estimates from Keyreative's discord: Sewing Tin is now estimated to finish April 30th (previous estimate May 30th).

[minicap]

Hey all! Excited to announce that production of the KAM Sewing Tin keycaps is complete! 🎉

Orders from zFrontier have been shipped. The keycaps for other vendors have been boxed up and shipping to vendors is currently being arranged. Depending on the vendor, I expect shipping from Keyreative -> vendor to take 1-2 months, after which the keycaps will then be shipped to you! I'll share more solid timelines after vendor shipping details are confirmed. If you've moved since placing your order, this would be a good time to contact your vendor to update your address.

In the last few weeks, I've also been checking over high resolution photos of various completed kits provided by Keyreative - no big issues found, some small issues were found, passed along to Keyreative and fixed. You can view some of the photos (as well as a video of the set getting packed!) on their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keyreative_keycaps/

For the other parts of the set: deskmats and THOK knobs were already completed and shipped to vendors last year. The Asero artisan collab is awaiting cerakote and laser-engraving, and is expected to be complete this month.

Thanks for your support and patience! So excited to see Sewing Tin on your boards soon. If you use Discord, I've just opened a Discord server with a gallery where people can post their Sewing Tin builds: https://discord.gg/gXrkuxg4gj please also feel free to post photos here, tag me on IG, etc!

[minicap]

End of month update:

Keycap shipment
zFrontier/Keyreative have been coordinating with each vendor to get their Sewing Tin kits shipped out from China. For all vendors except MKEU, the keycaps are now either in transit from China, or with their shipping forwarder in China awaiting shipment. Some additional, specific notes:
- Vala Supply: The keycaps were sent out from Vala's forwarder last week, expected to arrive in 30-35 days / start of July.
- mykeyboard.eu: MKEU is the only vendor that has not yet provided shipment arrangements. I am aware that MKEU has been having delays/issues with other sets, I've been attempting to contact MKEU about this and will continue to do so until this is figured out.

I'll plan to follow up in June with another shipment progress update & hopefully estimated arrival times with various vendors 🚢

Asero artisan collab
The last update I got was on May 18th, that Asero's cerakote partners will be mix/match-ing the cerakote, and a test template (the cerakote mix on a cap or thin piece of aluminium) will be provided for approval. Continuing to follow up with Asero for updates.

My own designer copy of the set is also currently being shipped to me and I'm very excited to see how the set turned out in person!

[minicap]

Sewing Tin re-make

note: i recommend resizing browser window to be narrower for easier reading, couldnt do it with bbcode

Summary: Sewing Tin’s production run (completed at the start of May) had some subtle & minor but widespread differences compared to the R2 samples / design files in terms of colour and legend sizing. While the keycaps are (IMO) still a good-looking, usable product they are different to what was sold to customers during the GB.

I noticed the issues shortly after receiving my designer copy of the set. Keyreative investigated the issues promptly and chose to completely re-make Sewing Tin at no extra cost to customers. The re-make is estimated to complete on July 30th.

Vendors are handling the situation in a few different ways: most customers will receive both the existing production run (“B-stock”) plus the re-made caps. Full details are in the last section.

Background

On May 31st, I received my designer copy of Sewing Tin. The first thing I did was put it on my Ergodox,  and I was honestly thrilled with the result! (I kept looking at it and feeling that it was surreal that Sewing Tin actually exists in 3D now.)

I planned to check through all the kits while putting Sewing Tin on as many different boards as I could. After a day I realised something felt a little off with my ergodox, so I pulled out the R2 samples to do a comparison. Before going into detail, here's some overall comparison pictures:



Obligatory disclaimer: I've tried my best to capture what I'm seeing in these photos, but photos are never as accurate as seeing it in-person for colours, and some of the more subtle changes were difficult to capture in photos.

There are some subtle differences between the approved R2 samples and the production run keycaps. I notified zFrontier/Keyreative immediately and then spent the following days checking through each of the kits to check which kits were affected and if there were any other issues.

I do want to emphasise they are very subtle changes - it took me a whole day before I noticed them!

The differences

1/ Colours changed
To recap: all colours from R2 were approved. The three lightest blues were re-sampled in R3 but NOT approved. The yellow and darkest blue were not re-sampled in R3.

The most obvious difference is in the yellow; it's now more saturated. The two lightest blues also changed to be less purple, and are closer to the R3 samples rather than the R2 samples, but these were very slight changes. The new colours are still close to the Pantones, and they still form a nice gradient.



2/ Alpha sizing increased
Every kit with number or letter keys was affected. The increase in sizing is small in absolute terms - letters like a are 0.5mm taller while the |\ legend is 1mm taller - but it is a noticeable difference, especially when the keys are compared directly side-by-side:



The numrow keys were the correct size in the base kits, whilst being erroneously increased in other kits.

3/ Smaller issues
- Ergo kit has rectangle cookie in 2nd darkest blue instead of circle cookie
- Ortho kit has incorrect 2u keys (zigzags in 2nd darkest blue instead of 2nd lightest blue, 1x cross 1x zigzag in lightest blue instead of 2x cross)
- Text is bigger on yellow “backspace” key compared to other cursive keys (affects TKL mixed mods, TKL text mods, Mixed base)
Otherwise, the kits had the correct keys/legends, with some minor issues such as staining and slightly mis-aligned legends.

Keyreative’s response
I compiled a detailed report about the above and shared it with vendors June 5th and Keyreative June 7th. Keyreative responded with a prompt investigation into the issues.

Here is their response:

I investigated the production history of this order this afternoon. we changed production supervisors in April and the staff was very disorganized, and due to our internal management issues, several inspection steps were missing. I am very sorry for this major quality issue and I don't think this is something that can be solved by a simple after-sales service.
I just announced this decision in a quality meeting, Sweing Tin this order to re-produce. I will receive the production schedule by tomorrow morning and let you know immediately.
Again, I am very sorry for this order, which wasted a lot of your time and effort and let you down. I hope the re-produced product will give you a satisfactory result.

All the goods will be completely remade.
This order will be re-produced to standard and all issues will be resolved.
The old goods are given to the buyer or vendor as compensation and we do not recycle them.
This time it made us re-examine the production process and indeed found management gaps, thank you for your tolerance.

Additionally, I was informed that legend size changed due to a mistake zFrontier made when converting the SVG design files I produced to PDF (they were upscaled too much, and the upscaled legends were used).

Keyreative decided to completely re-produce the set at no additional cost to customers/vendors. I was very pleasantly surprised as I was not expecting a complete re-production of the set to be possible and thought we would have to accept the unintentional changes. Obviously the ideal outcome would have been for everything to turn out correctly the first time, but Keyreative has done everything they could to make things right here and I am deeply grateful to them for it.

The re-production is estimated to complete July 30th. I’ve provided updated packaging files & requested the kits be clearly labeled as “(v2)” to avoid the different production runs from being mixed up by vendors/customers.

What’s next?
Each vendor has a slightly different situation (e.g. zFrontier has already fulfilled GB orders, some vendors’ shipments of the initial production run are already en-route to them, whilst other vendors’ shipments are still in China) so there are some variances in how the re-make is being handled. Each vendor’s plan is below.

To thank everyone for their support and patience, I’ve made some small gifts (sticker/postcard) that will be included with all GB orders - including preorders placed with Vala before the re-make was announced. Click here for a sneak peek at the sticker design.

zFrontier: The already-produced keycaps have already been shipped to customers. After the re-make is complete, the re-produced keycaps will be shipped to customers (including the thank you gifts).

Zion Studios, proto[Typist], Ashkeebs, SwitchKeys: The already-produced keycaps will be held until the re-make is complete. Customers will receive both the existing keycaps and the re-made keycaps for their order (e.g. if you ordered a novelty base kit, you will receive 1 original novelty base kit and 1 re-made novelty base kit).

Vala Supply: By default, both GB and existing pre-orders will be treated the same as above (already-produced keycaps will be held until the re-make is complete and customers will receive both the original and re-made keycaps for their order).

Optionally, customers can choose to receive the already-produced/B-stock caps earlier (after they arrive with Vala Supply in early July) by paying the additional shipping costs. Their re-made caps will then be sent to them after production completes. Customers will be receiving an email from Vala Supply about the situation shortly - to choose this option, either reply to that email or contact support@vala.supply with your order number.

Pre-orders are now paused and will re-opened closer to when the re-made caps are complete.

mykeyboard.eu: Unknown. I have not received any responses from mykeyboard.eu since the set has been completed: their original kits are still with Keyreative. I suspect this is related to their recent announcement re: cashflow issues (discord invite link). I will continue to try to contact them.

After group buy orders are fulfilled, some vendors will be selling stock from the initial production run as discounted “B-stock” keycaps (with full disclaimers about the differences and faults in this run). Again, there will be some variances, and details will be confirmed for each vendor closer to that time (e.g. some vendors may sell the A and B stock together as a set, some may sell them separately).

Conclusion
Thank you for reading this far, but more importantly, to those who supported Sewing Tin: thank you so much for your support and your patience. I apologise for the additional delay in receiving your Sewing Tin caps.

I've been working closely with Keyreative and my vendors to handle the situation over the past few weeks and I'm satisfied with the outcome. While I wouldn’t have chosen for things to happen this way, I deeply appreciate Keyreative’s gracious handling of the situation after the issues were discovered - they've done everything they could to make things right here.

The already produced caps are nice and completely usable - the yellow is extra buttery and the gradient is still lovely - but I’m ultimately glad that the re-make is happening, so I can give you all the best possible version of Sewing Tin as it matches my vision. Though if you like the “B stock” version more, that’s also fair (haven't heard any complaints from folks who've already received their caps from zF!)

[minicap]

I've received and approved updated (R4) samples of Sewing Tin for the re-make: the re-make continues and is still estimated to complete July 30th.

In summary, the issues found in the initial production run (colours, legend sizing) have been fixed and the R4 samples are very close to the R2 samples! There are some very slight differences that were approved due to being closer to the Pantones/renders than R2. Most importantly, the gradient looks great - overall I'm very pleased with the new samples.

I'll go into more detail about the samples below, here are some pictures of it to start with (obligatory disclaimer that photos are never as accurate as seeing the caps IRL and some differences are hard to capture in the photos; photos all either taken in indirect sunlight or cold lighting at my desk):



and comparisons with the R2 samples and previously produced caps (on the ergodox):


lastly, some close up comparisons:


Hopefully this shows how close they are to the R2 samples (and how different they are to the already produced caps). They aren't an exact match to R2 as Keyreative did re-match the colours as well as re-do the legends to fix the sizing. The brown is the most notable difference - being lighter and more like the brown in the R1 samples. Very slight differences can be observed in the blues (e.g. the darkest blue is a touch less saturated, but this is actually closer to the Pantone; the lightest blue is a touch lighter and purple-r). The alphas are also very slightly smaller compared to R2 but this actually matches the production files better.

All in all, I decided that everything was either close enough to what had originally been approved from R2 OR had been improved & overall everything was nice and cohesive, and therefore approved everything for production. This does mean that some caveats from the original decision to approve R2 samples still hold.

In other news: the Asero Foundry collab cap is complete and with vendors! I have not received a copy yet, but here's a photo courtesy of Vala (yes its upside down)