I’m making a couple more keycaps with new techniques such as painting with acrylic and using Dr Crafty for the clear casts. I’ve even added a polymer clay fish!

I’ve finally reached that point in every keycap maker’s journey where they make goldfish keycaps. Though not an original idea, it’s a lot of fun to make and looks great on keyboards!

This was my first attempt at sculpting. Hopefully my future fish will look better.

After casting keycaps over a couple of months, I’ve finally finished my first bottle of resin. Now I’m trying out a different brand and realize not all epoxy resins have the same properties. I started with Unicone Art a couple of months ago and now am using Dr Crafty.

Here’s a comparison of the resin brands Unicone Art (left) and Dr Crafty (right):

If you look closely at the photo above (and ignore the different dye colors), there are a lot more tiny air bubbles in the left keycap than the right. I let all resin degas before casting, but it seems like for Unicone Art, the air bubbles have a harder time making their way out.

I prefer strongly Unicone Art for its casting property and turnaround time. However, Dr Crafty is visibly clearer.

Maybe I’ll try to cast the bottom pieces with Unicone Art and the clear top with Dr Crafty. Will report back.

These will be the final star keycaps I cast. I’m pretty satisfied. Aside from different colors, there’s not much left to explore.

I might try to make a few lakes keycaps. I’m not loving the overall key design ’cause it leads to large air bubbles trapped everywhere.

It seems like everyone during quarantine is making keycaps.

If you’re looking to get started, there are lots of videos online. Here are my recommendations:

1. How to Cast Artisan Keycaps with Silicone and Resin is a comprehensive guide to making your first keycaps. They also have other videos for advanced techniques.
2. Making Custom Resin Keycaps is a recent video showcasing how to make different types of keys. I wish I had this as a reference when I first started. It would’ve saved a lot of time.
3. Cloudy Sky Resin Key Caps is quite a bit different from the first two videos by using off-the-shelf molds. Due to the mold design, you won’t get precise fitting of the keyboard and the keycap, but this is super low investment. You only need resin and the mold. This is all the fun of keycap making with minimal work.

I use the same concept from video #2 to design my molds and actually cast with the technique described in video #1.

Here are my posts:

1. How to Cast Embedded Keycaps – It took me a long time to figure out for embedded keycaps, you need to cast the bottom piece first (the part with the stem) and then invert it into a well of resin. I tried all sorts of unsuccessful ways to cast the top piece first. If only I had :Making Custom Resin Keycaps” for reference.
2. Materials for Making Keycaps – Everything you need to get started with L2K casting

There are a lot of non-keycap resin artists with great videos for inspiration:

Artsy Madwoman is my favorite. She has a vibrant personality posts many videos on colorful projects

I’d been avoiding using paint in my keycaps and restricting myself to resin. I’d felt using paint was “cheating” and a slippery slope to where I’d buy tiny plastic figurines from eBay and plop them in pre-fabricated molds. All of the artistic challenges would be gone.

But it’s 2020!

So what if I’m making keycaps in easy mode. I should go easy on myself and my hobbies.

So here are some easy mode keys:

^ This one is actually all resin. I’m including it ’cause I like the colors.

Even though acrylic paint makes the surface a little more textured, the colors really pop. I actually like them a lot.

More acrylic keycaps to come.

Ever since I started in this hobby, I wanted to create interesting keycaps that have a relatively flat surface. Any prominent texture would distract me from typing. I couldn’t find the industry term so I’m calling these types of keycaps “embedded keycaps”. Think Zen Pond from jellykeys versus Jade Empire from Keyforge.

After feeling confident from casting single color keys, I experimented with making more advanced molds to make embedded keycaps. I thought about literally embedding objects (which you can do to create glitter or gold foil keycaps), but I wasn’t sure how to embed more intricate objects and have them not float and move during the curing process. I decided to go with advanced molds for now and I’ll make a separate post on mold design.

It took a lot of iterations of mold design and casting technique before I created anything resembling an embedded key. I was surprised by the difficulty but it was probably my lack of intuition for physical crafts. Below is my current process.

Three Day Process

This is a three day process to create embedded keycaps using three different mold pieces. While I used molds with simple geometric shapes, the same process can be applied to more detailed molds. The process takes many days because I wait approximately 24 hours for resin to cure between the steps.

First Day – Cast the Details

I cast the details of a two-part mold (such as the hemisphere or stars) as well as the stem mount. I wiggle the stem to release any air bubbles trapped in the mount. Casting the stem on the first day (instead of the second day) avoids creating air traps.

Second Day – Cast the Bottom

The second day is for casting the bottom of the keycap that surrounds the switch’s upper housing. I fill the mold with colored resin and press the two halves together. I need to carefully clean out the escape holes to help prevent air holes forming along the bottom ridge of the keycap.

Third Day – Final Cast

The third day is for combining the bottom pieces with a clear top for the final cast. I use molds with the desired surface profile in this step. I spray the molds with mold release, fill them with clear resin, and then inlay the bottoms from the previous day. The mold release makes the keycaps shiny.

That’s it! That’s my process. I’m sure I’ll change it as I learn more. If you’re just getting started, check out intro tutorials at http://artisanalliance.mx/ and my list of materials.

These keycaps came out great! Loving the glimmer! The bottom one has replaced Ghost Cat as my everyday key.

I’ve changed up my strategy for casting keys. Since I’m still struggling with air pockets at the base of the keys, I’m casting fewer keys per day to focus on technique. I still have low success rate but produced some great casts recently.

I’m hopeful that I’ll solve the air pockets problem (maybe with the help of a pressure pot). Stay tuned!

The unfortunately large air holes are back. I’d resolved them a few weeks into key casting but for some reason they’re returned. While I figure this out, I’m making some highly experimental keys.

I also borrowed Harry’s keyboard for to cast some OEM keys. It’s a little hard to capture in photographs, but they do have legends.

When I first saw a koi pond keycap by Jelly Key, I was amazed. I’d never considered keycaps could be anything other than single color plastic. I was suddenly open to all the possibilities. Think of a cat keycap! Or a dim sum keycap! Although I have some experience 3D modeling on a computer, I lack finesse with physical crafts, and never pursued making my own keycaps.

When COVID ramped up, and forced me to give up aviation, I needed a new hobby. Around that time, one of my friends started machining his own mechanical keyboard plates. That was the final push to send me ordering all sorts of key casting supplies.

I learned the basics from Youtube. Since I don’t have strong physical intuition, I did a lot of trial and error experiments. I still don’t have a great success rate yet, but I’ll keep iterating. I’ll write a separate post on everything I’ve learned.

If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll see I went from single color keys to two layers of color to embedded cat key. Right now I’m experimenting with alcohol inks and mica powder. Alcohol inks can give you the watery effect in koi pond keys. Mica powder gives a metallic shine. After I’m able to reproduce the effects I want, I’ll apply them to embedded shapes.

In the meantime, check enjoy these progress photos