deskthority

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Vote in the final round of this category to win a New 75 and a ViBE keyboard from Vortex!

Nomination rules:
Please suggest nominees for the best artisan keycap or novelty set produced after November 26, 2016. You may also nominate an artisan, for example for the complete work this year. You must provide an image and short explanation for each suggestion. You cannot nominate your own made keycap(s) or yourself.

Current suggestions:

• Grimey As Fvck for Artisan of the year, their sculpts are mindblowing and capture the complexity of artisan keycap making and the essence of grime in an artistically pleasing way
• Nightcaps from eat_the_food's Poisoned Summer sale
• brocaps for "best artisan" because of all of the amazing colorways and new stuff he has brought out this year. The Christmas sale, valentines sale, 420 blind nug run, 4th of july, Halloween sale and whatever others I may have missed, all had some of the nicest colorways Ive seen and the "thurrg" from his last sale is an awesome new sculpt. He also reworked the gamer sets to a nice new design and is dropping full resin topre sets with those new gamer sets which is what I am most hyped for.
• Zorb, I just love the Sparkey
• HWS - Binge for best artisan for his hard work in 4x4. hope this control the aftermarket price.
• Sneaky Potato over at Keyforge. Sneaky certainly isn't new to the artisan community with quite a few successful sculpts last year, but he really stepped up his attention to detail and colorway complexity with his Shishi and Orichi sculpts this year, placing his cap quality on par with the most desirable artisans currently available.
• Jelly Key - For creating very impressive and unique little pieces of art.
• Also, I'd like to nominate Maos Keys/Maos Store on AliExpress for actually selling artisan keycaps at a more reasonable price-point (~$5-7 shipped)
• the Orochi (by Keyforge). I'm not naming it for my clear love for this sculpt but because it is extremely detailed and well made. I also appreciate the effort to make an artisan. Also i got into Artisans when i saw the Orochi on reddit

The first round ends on Sunday 26 November, 19:00 UTC.

Note: This category was split from the Best keycaps category.

Wondering why exactly artisans and keysets are somehow grouped together? Or am I misunderstanding something?

dalesnail wrote: Wondering why exactly artisans and keysets are somehow grouped together? Or am I misunderstanding something?

They are both used to decorate a keyboard whilst sitting on a keyswitch, are they not?

I nominate Grimey As Fvck for Artisan of the year (or if I need to nominate a sculpt, Garbo Puss). Their sculpts are mindblowing and capture the essence of grime.

The face only a mother could love:
https://imgur.com/rEUDido

GAF caps - they capture the complexity of artisan keycap making and at the same time convey the theme of grime in an artistically pleasing way.

Khers wrote:

dalesnail wrote: Wondering why exactly artisans and keysets are somehow grouped together? Or am I misunderstanding something?

They are both used to decorate a keyboard whilst sitting on a keyswitch, are they not?

While that is correct, I too believe they should be handled in different categories. One celebrates the effort a designer made to make the best of technical limitations, be it 2 colored double-shot or color limiting dyesub. Encapsuling a theme with a colorway and novelties. The other centers around the attention to detail of a single cap, utilizing either 3D design and printing methods or sculpting with clay to create a mold from, as well as the usage of colors in various techniques.

There are two entirely different methods of creation behind these, involving very different techniques, limitations and other factors. I believe the award should take those into account.


Also added motivation for the nominations to my post.

Khers wrote:

dalesnail wrote: Wondering why exactly artisans and keysets are somehow grouped together? Or am I misunderstanding something?

They are both used to decorate a keyboard whilst sitting on a keyswitch, are they not?

Is a picasso wallpaper?

dalesnail wrote: Is a picasso wallpaper?

If you're rich enough.

Compgeke wrote:

dalesnail wrote: Is a picasso wallpaper?

If you're rich enough.

lmao, fair enough

Oblotzky wrote:

Khers wrote:

dalesnail wrote: Wondering why exactly artisans and keysets are somehow grouped together? Or am I misunderstanding something?

They are both used to decorate a keyboard whilst sitting on a keyswitch, are they not?

While that is correct, I too believe they should be handled in different categories. One celebrates the effort a designer made to make the best of technical limitations, be it 2 colored double-shot or color limiting dyesub. Encapsuling a theme with a colorway and novelties. The other centers around the attention to detail of a single cap, utilizing either 3D design and printing methods or sculpting with clay to create a mold from, as well as the usage of colors in various techniques.
[...]

Pictures like this:

and establishments such as jellykeys mass producing "artisans", muddies the waters considerably.

Khers wrote:

Oblotzky wrote:

Khers wrote: They are both used to decorate a keyboard whilst sitting on a keyswitch, are they not?

While that is correct, I too believe they should be handled in different categories. One celebrates the effort a designer made to make the best of technical limitations, be it 2 colored double-shot or color limiting dyesub. Encapsuling a theme with a colorway and novelties. The other centers around the attention to detail of a single cap, utilizing either 3D design and printing methods or sculpting with clay to create a mold from, as well as the usage of colors in various techniques.
[...]

Pictures like this:

and establishments such as jellykeys mass producing "artisans", muddies the waters considerably.

Color by numbers = sculpting or molding

Got it, whew glad you cleared that up

I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

So you would not consider the original sculpt artwork?

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

Are they not?

Also something to consider is the actual work behind artisan keycaps, where as keysets are just mass produced out of a factory.

dgneo wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

Are they not?

Also something to consider is the actual work behind artisan keycaps, where as keysets are just mass produced out of a factory.

I wouldn't consider them as such and with regards to mass production; see my comment wrt jellykeys, who incidentally won dta for best artisan keycap last year, above.

dalesnail wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

So you would not consider the original sculpt artwork?

Given your seeming emotional attachment to the subject, I'm starting to suspect you're a keycap maker. If so, I would like to nominate dalesnail for his picassos of the keyboard world.

Khers wrote:

dalesnail wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

So you would not consider the original sculpt artwork?

Given your seeming emotional attachment to the subject, I'm starting to suspect you're a keycap maker. If so, I would like to nominate dalesnail for his picassos of the keyboard world.

Maybe you can trade me your clacks for this GMK set I have

Khers wrote:

dgneo wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

Are they not?

Also something to consider is the actual work behind artisan keycaps, where as keysets are just mass produced out of a factory.

I wouldn't consider them as such and with regards to mass production; see my comment wrt jellykeys, who incidentally won dta for best artisan keycap last year, above.

If you don't consider them art, why do you collect them then?

Khers wrote:

dalesnail wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

So you would not consider the original sculpt artwork?

Given your seeming emotional attachment to the subject, I'm starting to suspect you're a keycap maker. If so, I would like to nominate dalesnail for his picassos of the keyboard world.

Kind of a catch all psuedo smart way of saying "You mad bro?" don't you think? Im not a maker, but a painting and a coloring book aren't the same thing.

Also here to nominate GAF caps. Excellent work with considerable thought put into the sculpts. They show great skill in casting as well. ^^

butts

I'd like to nominate GAF as well. As clean as grime can be. Very unique sculpts and style in general.

Please don't make me make a sequel.

Edit: I'd also want to nominate eat_the_food/Nightcaps for his Poisoned Summer sale.

dgneo wrote: If you don't consider them art, why do you collect them then?

The fact that someone collects something does not make it art, not even in the eyes of the collector. Consider that people collect bottle caps, and I am inclined to think that you'd agree with me.

Moreover, the fact that I don't consider artisan keycaps art does not make me not consider (some of) them pretty and willing to let them utilise some of my keyboard real estate. Just like I would do with a nice set of keycaps.

With that said, I do believe that you, me and dalesnail have to agree to disagree on this.

dgneo wrote:

Khers wrote: I'm at least not equating artisan keycaps with art.

Are they not?

Also something to consider is the actual work behind artisan keycaps, where as keysets are just mass produced out of a factory.

Whole sets have to be designed too, you know. If artisans are art, then so are mass produced sets.

This category is a mess.

If I'm nominating an Artisan, am I nominating the maker? A singular cap?

I'd really like to be able to nominate the artist.

Meddle wrote: This category is a mess.

If I'm nominating an Artisan, am I the maker? A singular cap?

I'd really like to be able to nominate the artist.

IMO, I think this category is perfect as you must choose 1 keycap or set and it must be from this year. Thus we are not judging a manufactures/artists full history, just one creation from this year.

Actually you can also nominate an artisan for a complete production this year, just to confuse you more The voters will decide by vote!

You seriously misunderstood something.
The maker is whoever designed/produced it.

I think the misunderstanding is the category in and of its itself.

Say you'd like Marcus/Eat_the_food to win: For this to happen, everyone voting/nominating Eat_the_food would have to agree on a single cap to nominate? Alternatively, would every nomination for his many caps count as a collective vote towards Eat_the_food?

This is easy when it comes to keysets. A vote for Plum is a vote for Jessica, a vote for Carbon is a vote for T0mbery.

Then nominate that guy, so you can vote for that guy. Problem solved.

Alright, so we're nominating the creators and not the caps, gotcha.

My nomination goes towards GAF.