Category: Artisans

More things from things I don’t play…

Two new caps today: my HydralESC (formerly the Zergling) from Clackeys, and my constantly out of stock D.Va aluminum keycap from HolyOOPS ordered from Geekkeys that also took forver to get here (thanks, customs).

The HyrdralESC is another intricate 3D sculpted and 3D printed keycap (mine is in the “bronze” finish), and really impresses me with the amount of detail on it. The D.Va cap is milled aluminum, and has that satisfying cold feel and weight that you would expect from something aluminum. It’s anodized, with a polished top and laser-etched front logo.

Not quite sure yet where the HydralESC is going to live, but I think for now, the D.Va cap will be on my CNC switch keychain (which lives on top of my desk as a psuedo-fidget toy).

It’s here!

Finally, my first Fugu keycap. I’ve been trying to get one of these for ages from a raffle (as their prices on r/mechmarket are kind of crazy), and my blind-bag Prismatic Fugu in “eggplant wizard” arrived today.

Time to do a purple build.

Pic of the day: Keycap Kid Inner Key

Here’s an interesting one: this is KEYCAP KID‘s first foray into “artisan” keycaps. There has been some discussion as to what defines an artisan keycap, as his “Inner Key” was actually digitally sculpted, and 3D-printed. After printing, it is hand painted to it’s selected colorway. For his first cap for sale (with very limited numbers of 10 per colorway for now), he knocked it out of the park, in my opinion.

Not only is it incredibly high quality (it was printed using photopolymer resin, so no “lines” or any of the other pitfalls of traditional 3D-printing), but it’s an incredibly interesting and detailed design. I am looking forward to what he comes out with in the future if this is just a sample of what he can do.

Babby’s first jellykey

Welp, I finally got my first Jellykey. The much vaunted joinhandmade keycaps from Vietnam have always eluded me, as I always miss out on them on the secondary market, or always miss out on the group buys.

This particular keycap is the Jelly Saga Christmas Treat cap in peppermint that I ordered back in November, and it arrived today after a bit of a to-do (USPS wasn’t as cooperative in delivering this as they should have been, but it all worked out).

Their keycaps have always had a reputation surrounding them, with nearly everyone saying they are very high quality, and you know what? It’s a spot on description.

For anyone not familiar with casting in resin, making something that is poured resin that has multiple layers is a tricky process, and the more layers involved, the higher the risk of failure and having to completely scrap the item you were casting.

These caps are all made by hand. Someone made the mold, someone poured the resin, and someone did the finish work. They actually have a great page on their site about what goes in to creating these caps here: https://www.jellykey.com/our-craftsmanship

Needless to say, even though this is a relatively simple design, its execution is gorgeous.

Pictures also can’t convey just how nice this cap feels. Every surface is so incredibly smooth, you can’t help but run your finger all over it. It’s just so… smoooth.

All the usual hallmarks of a well made artisan are here as well: nice, thick walls, strong stem, superb fit on the keyboard. It uses an MX-compatible stem, and is R4 OEM profile. The packaging is their standard Jellykey packaging, which is to say fantastic. I am a sucker for good packaging and package design, and I love the presentation box their keys come in.

This will now live on the Escape key position of my ABKO, as it matches nicely with the rest of the board.

While this is my first Jellykey, it’s certainly not going to be my last.  I have more heading my way, and I know that I will be just as happy with them as I was with this.

Artisan review: CatCaps

Over the weekend, I received some artisan caps from Reddit user catweewee of CatCaps. I had actually initially ordered a cap some time ago, but due to some miscommunication on both our ends, my original order never made it to me. After discussing it with CatCaps, we realized what the issue was (the short story is that my address can be confusing, and has resulted in shipments from other vendors to never make it to me as well), and she graciously resent my order with some additional caps thrown in for the hassle.

What I received was a Jimmie the Scottish Fold cap in Aurora blue, a Bobby the Walrus in gold, and another Bobby the Walrus in cotton candy (which is doubleshot). I had previously purchased one of her AntCaps in the light mint colorway, so I was already familiar with her work.

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