Keycapscustom

If you are a keycap collector or just fall in love with unique keycaps, you can’t miss artisan keycaps. Even though you are not a gamer or work in the IT field, you might be into those sophisticated keycaps. 

What are artisan keycaps?

Firstly, we need to know what are artisan keycaps? The name itself says everything. Those unique keycaps are handcrafted by experts or amateur artisans. Each artisan keycap is a miniature work of art, they don’t chase after any trends. Even if the world out there is flocking to some certain temporary trends, artisan keycaps always have their own way serving a certain group of customers and they are never out of date.

How to make artisan keycaps?

Since we are amateurs and are only curious about this type of keycaps, we should go through a little bit of how to make an artisan keycap. No matter how special and expensive they are, these keycaps are made with the traditional molding method. 

Before creating your own keycaps, you need lots of materials like stem cavity, master base, sculpting base, silicon, etc. You can easily find them online. The next step is more complicated. There are 3 different types of artisan keycaps created by different techniques:

• Random Petri: this is the most simple technique to create an artisan keycap. This method is simply pouring ink into the mold to create special effects. Besides your technique, the ink you use is also one of the most important factors. 
• Encapsulation keycap: with this method, you can put anything into a transparent button, then pour resins into the button to form the keycaps. This method requires dexterity and creativity, and lots of tools like Vacuum pump, pressure pump, 3D printer, etc.

• Sculpting keycap: this is the most popular method. If you are handy enough, you can create lots of beautiful and interesting sculpted keycaps. You can shape the button with clay or use a 3D printer. However, these keycaps are not protected by resin, the pain won’t be durable.

Pros of artisan keycaps

First of all, let’s take a look at the advantages of these amazing keycaps.

Artisan keycaps are beautiful

If you know what you are into, you can have an unique and beautiful keycap set? If you are a cat lover, you can find lucky cat keycaps, or if you are a nature lover, you will have a collection of greenish jungle for yourself. Moreover, if you are a fan of Marvel, you will have a whole collection of superheroes.

High quality of materials

The materials to make artisan keycaps are diverse: plastic, clay, wood, acrylic, aluminum, precious alloy. etc. Depending on your personal preferences and suitable for your hands, you can choose any of them for yourself. Of course the cost will also change accordingly.

Artisan keycaps represent your personality

Additionally, the thing that makes this type of keycap outstanding is that it represents your personality and taste: just like other customized keycaps, artisan keycaps are made based on your needs and your taste. Therefore, it somehow shows your personalities through your keyboard. Besides, beautiful artisan keycaps can take the keyboard to another level of aesthetics.

Cons of artisan keycaps

Artisan keycaps are expensive

Equally important, before spending lots of money for an artisan keycap set, you should consider some shortcomings of these keycaps. Artisan keycap is very expensive. That is the first thing that you must consider before buying them. Everything has its price and the price of artisan is not cheap. The reason why is that crafting an artisan keycap is similar to making a miniature, complex, labor-intensive and creative work of art. When you buy an artisan keycap you pay for a work of art not just a mass produced keycap typically found from anywhere.

It’s take many time to get one

Then, you have to wait quite long to get one set. Working time is the reason, some samples must be ordered months in advance. The stages of making artisan keycaps are quite sophisticated and time consuming, so the total time to make a keycap will be quite long.

It’s not easy to use artisan keycaps

They affect your feeling when pressing the keys: since an artisan keycap is made of different materials, sometimes clay, sometimes plastic, metal or wood. Consequently, the feeling of pressing these keys is very different from the rest of the keys on the keyboard.

The shapes of these keycaps are unpredictable. Because of the imitation of characters and different themes, the shape of the artisan keycap also changes dramatically. Sometimes, the surface is flat, rough, or smooth. Like the materials, this factor also affects your experiences with these keycaps.

Quality is always a big concern

Since artisan keycap itself is handcrafted by different artisans. The materials and processes vary from person to person; therefore, the quality also varies accordingly. Moreover, the skill of the makers also makes them worth or not. 

In conclusion, artisan keycaps are more like tiny and sophisticated works of art than normal customized keycaps. It requires material, taste and skill to form an unique and high-quality keycap set. If you are so much in love with them and you have available budget, you should get one for yourself in Keycapscustom.com!