Winner:
The official nominees in the Best artisan keycap category were:
Grimey As Fvck keycaps and for artisan of the year
Nightcaps from eat_the_food's Poisoned Summer sale
HWS Binge for best artisan and his hard work in 4x4
KeyForge's Sneaky Potato
Jelly Key
The Wingnut, as voted for by the keyboard community, goes to...
Spoiler:
Jelly Key Jelly Key, from Vietnam, began offering artisan keycaps in 2016. Each keycap is literally handmade, and the materials vary considerably from one keycap to the next. Some artisans make only a few caps, and you need to pray to random number generator gods to get a chance to buy one. Jelly Key runs its new caps as group buys, which means everyone orders their caps, and then the company makes the necessary number.
"Inspired by the greatness of nature and from our imaginary about the perfect place for taking a moment away from our normal life. A life that is so tiring, busying, and full of anxiety. But those place was forbidden to us."
Runners-up:
Spoiler:
2nd place: KeyForge's Sneaky Potato
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 Orochi sculpts this year, placing his cap quality on par with the most desirable artisans currently available.
The Orochi was sculpted shortly after Shishi, to provide it with a rough contrast to the smoother features of the Shishi.
3rd place: Grimey As Fvck keycaps and for artisan of the year
Various people nominated the GAF keycaps. Considerable thought was put into the sculpts, showing great skill in casting as well, with magnificent detail and color layering, resulting in a really unique look. Many of the caps consist of four shots, which clearly shows the difficulty of the sculpt and casting process. They show a grimy side to artisan making, reminiscent of graffiti artists.
The mind-blowing sculpts capture the complexity of artisan keycap making and the essence of grime in an artistically pleasing way.
Honorable mentions:
Spoiler:
Nightcaps from eat_the_food's Poisoned Summer sale ETF's summer raffles on /r/MM excited many people for the chance to snag a couple of Nightcaps from the man himself, instead of suffering the extreme markups introduced by the private third-party. There was one sale per day, unannounced, posted on /r/MM, and each day would be a new color scheme and there would only ever be 20 made.
Delicious, fresh Nightcaps, perfectly sliced and cut.
HWS Binge for best artisan and his hard work in 4x4
Binge from Hunger Works Studio is not only a great artisan of Hunger Keys - HWS also offered the "4x4" fulfillment style sale of tripple-shot keys where the fan feedback decided what colors were used. This enabled HWS to provide them with a key they would like to own without delaying production for 100% customization.
"The shades and hues of each represented color are delicately tuned to the will of the Unicorn Ice Cream God, He Who Must Not be Neighhhhm’d (fka Hoof Prince). This is as much science as it is magic."
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:42
by dgneo
LOL
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:44
by dalesnail
>letting a troll slip through
>letting the troll post win
:gottem3:
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:46
by mbsurfer
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:47
by pwade3
:thinking_face:
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:49
by scottc
Maos from Aliexpress was robbed! Jelly key was a close second though.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:49
by mike52787
wow
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:51
by Buggot
Not sure what the troll post was, but I voted for JellyKey...
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 20:55
by dalesnail
Buggot wrote: ↑Not sure what the troll post was, but I voted for JellyKey...
Even though I know you smugly satisfied, this gif always makes me laugh.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 21:39
by AMongoose
Was really rotting for the orochi here.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 21:42
by Slom
AMongoose wrote: ↑Was really rotting for the orochi here.
Something is rooten in the state of DT
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:03
by jkaos92
JellyKey with 67 votes :facepalmDT:
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:08
by webwit
Did the voters not know something you do?
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:08
by Meddle
Well that's a joke.
Re: Best artisan keycap
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:12
by hansichen
Artisans are a joke so it's understandable that a joke won.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:13
by N3RDLY
Wait I thought this was a category for real artisans?
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:15
by OutragedPudding
N3RDLY wrote: ↑Wait I thought this was a category for real artisans?
I mean, that's why I voted for everything but Jelly Key. Was this supposed to be a joke vote?
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:19
by jkaos92
I guess that people that doesn't browse reddit really often (like me) can't know much about all the things behind Jelly Key. But ok, let's accept that JK "won" again
And no i'm not only talking about broken stems or crooked caps.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:20
by scottc
My favourite part about this award is how angry people are that JellyKey won.
I'm not particularly interested in artisans, but I voted for them because:
- They look novel and interesting, not another over-done monster face
- They do group buys manufacture to meet demand, so there's none of this exclusivity bullshit
I saw people complaining about broken stems. That's hilarious, because I also saw lots of new people nominating the likes of Kailh, who debuted in this community with a real hit:
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:23
by andrewjoy
I am glad this won. Not only do i think it genuinely looks the best , but it rustled some feathers.
I am guessing i should offload some of my salt shares looks like the price is going to drop he he he.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:23
by Lustique
They also look like actual key caps, which is a big plus…
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:25
by jkaos92
scottc wrote: ↑My favourite part about this award is how angry people are that JellyKey won.
I'm not particularly interested in artisans, but I voted for them because:
- They look novel and interesting, not another over-done monster face
- They do group buys manufacture to meet demand, so there's none of this exclusivity bullshit
I saw people complaining about broken stems. That's hilarious, because I also saw lots of new people nominating the likes of Kailh, who debuted in this community with a real hit:
broken or crooked stems was the minimal thing about JK but still i never saw that happening with other artisans with that rate.
Also that photo of Kailh is of years ago (2012?) while this is a "best of the year vote". No one would have voted for Kailh in 2012, believe me. Your photo isn't really relevant.
Posted: 06 Dec 2017, 22:26
by Meddle
They do group buys manufacture to meet demand, so there's none of this exclusivity bullshit
Almost like they're a company making them in a factory. Seems odd to not vote for true community members, but that's just me.
Jelly key was a close second though.
looks like the price is going to drop he he he.
I'm trying to go back through the threads now but all I see is a bit of controversy