Artisanal Keycap Roundup V11 Mega Keyboard Edition

Dodgy

Dodgy has been around for a while I only wish they were a little more active. They have quite a unique two piece construction and an excellent stamp on the back.

There was a new design in January which I was quite a fan of but no sales to speak of. I’m sure there will be more in the future but it is a shame some makers are so rare in their appearances.

Clack

It has most definitely been confirmed that clack is or has least been back for the past month. This month has brought us clackvent. Where each day has brought a lucky person a keycap, I am not one of those but there is still hope for the future.

How clackvent works is you follow the thread like a hawk and await the daily instructions on how you can attain a keycap. This is often a simple task but the volume of people doing it means it is infinitely harder to getting the single cap.

Retro

Sad news for now but Retro is currently on hold. Nothing seems too bad, but I hope this is not the end of retrocaps.

PunksDead (Alive)

“I can assure you that this is not an April fools joke :thumb:”

Well today is the day and hopefully something happens. The reason for all the excitement and hope that something will happen is the amount of teasing that has mostly taken place on instagram.

Tease 1 Tease 2

Tease 3:

A photo posted by BunnyLake (@ctrlalt.io) on Mar 31, 2016 at 4:56am PDT

Threads worth watching in the eventuality that something happens.

WiddleKitty

Keycap with Coffee Grounds

I’m fairly certain these keycaps are from WiddleKitty. WiddleKitty popped up not so long back with some impressive first tries. They also made their own aluminium master

Pictured above is a keycap with coffee grounds in the top which gives it an incredible visual texture.

The other eye-catching cap I saw a long time ago was the Ransom Note keycap:

I would be very interested in getting one of these coffee keycaps. I have tried a similar theme myself but mine turned out more like milky latte’s.

Please do a sale.

ZorbCaps

Zorb has had a lot of sales since I last mentioned them. Pictured above is the Carbon MetalJaw which was featured in the Carbon Mine Sales.

But luckily there is one running right now but this is also a sad sale. As zorb has retired from designing their own keycaps, all future designs will be outsourced to their 9 year old sister. This seems like a solid decision and I can see why this has happened.

Running as of the 1st of April: It’s only $15 for a design by one of the hottest designers currently out there.

WoB

WoB has launched a new site featuring the many designs that were teased on instagram. These are very creative but not entirely to my taste.

One thing I am quite interested in is the rifle keycap puller which was teased a long time ago at the beginning of WoB.

R.A.G.

flehrad has finally ascended and bought one of the better keyboards on the market. And with this ascension they quickly began work on making some mod sets. Mod sets are not at all easy and get even trickier when you introduce more colours. I am interested to see where this goes.

Jelly Key

Jelly Key has been the talk of the town for what seems like forever. But they are still not widely available. They do look awesome and there isn’t much else to say.

They will probably be sold through the facebook store which has been in testing.

There is also another store but every jelly key is sold out.

Ericaps Debut

These are on the top side of my favourites from the past few months. Bold colours and simple designs done with apparent competence. Ericaps had a debut sale on the 16th of march featuring 3 designs.

KatzenKinder

This month KatzenKinder has been prototyping MX + Fn set. A couple of sets were sold on mechmarket. But I expect more will be coming when they are no longer in the prototyping stage.

HumbleOracle

Just a first attempt but it’s nice to still see people pop up.

KeyForge

Sneaky Potato has a number of designs but I would say the saber is my favourite.

Rama

The RAMA CNC caps have been produced and shipped, and they do look exactly as promised. They also look to come in some incredible looking packaging.

In other keycap news. RAMA also has an Aluminium mould prototype. This is similar to HWS’s $ynth.

Hullabaloo_Goat

Hullabaloo_Goat wants some sculpting feedback. If you have anything constructive, I’m sure it would be appreciated.

HWS

My favourite of the Lot

On the 23rd of March there was an Easter sale. This sale took place on techkeys.us and was first come fist serve.

HWS and Massdrop

This is not the first time they have collaborated with Massdrop, but the good news is that it will happen again.

HWS :~$ynth

There has been some movement on the keycap making aid the $ynth. On the left you have the pre-production model and on the right you have the production. It’s not quite ready as it was almost released a couple of weeks ago.

HKP

HKP also rode the easter sale wave featuring a nice amount of pastelly pink.

Eat_the_Food

Very popular and very awesome. I was taken by these caps the moment I saw them. Eat_the_Food or Nightcaps was the hype before jelly key. It started out with the half shell pictured above.

I wanted to share this image because it looks like a matte painting from STAR WARS.

Fugu Set

There are too many good caps to show off so have a look at the whole albums.

So far Nightcaps has been a constant stream of good stuff.

Coz

The Coz Caps Sale happened on the 19th of February and appeared to be very popular.

They have also made some new designs that have yet to be sold.

KeyKollectiv

As always it is a little hard to keep up with all that KeyKollectiv has done as they get up to a lot. But one thing that happened was the booper and KeyKollectiv collaboration.

The other good news is, mods are back on the menu. The latest mod sale is currently live.

SuitedUp

The French Cuff sale happened featuring new designs.

I also highly recommend reading Bambino’s thread as there is lots of good information if you want to make some keycaps. You will also get to see a lot of upcoming keycaps.

Demiils

Just a little bit of sculpting from a new person. I really like the look of the pig and even with the uneven surface it looks like something from a clay animation.

Chesapeake_Stripper

I was skeptical of these keycaps when I first saw the renders but they have come out very nice. With the renders as smooth and detailed as they were I just didn’t think they would translate to the 3d printing.

They are available to purchase from shapeways.

KeypressGraphics

Totoro Cap in the wild

A couple of new designs on keypress graphics. But they really caught my attention again as I saw the Totoro cap on reddit.

It is also worth mentioning that they are doing an artisan roundup of all the keycaps on shapeways.

CFC

CFC has been popping up a little bit here and there with flash sales of boba heads. They are not readily available as of today.

Typed on HHKB Pro 2

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