A whimsical project: fancy (Norbaforce) keyboard keyrings

#1

Here’s a little video about my project making keyboard keyrings with a high-end jewelry workshop in New England (the same one that made the officially-licensed Star Trek artisans I produced a while ago). The same workshop also does work for some of the most well-known luxury brands in the world.

Here they are in my shop.

the Norbaforce Keyring
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I made the resulting product in three finish and material options.

Tiffany & Co style tarnish-resistant polished sterling silver

the Norbaforce Keyring
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Tarnish resistant sterling silver with antiquing and polished highlights

the Norbaforce Keyring
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There is also this antiqued bronze version with polished highlights.

the Norbaforce Keyring
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Each version has my mark on the back.

the Norbaforce Keyring
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This thing was a lot of fun to produce. I always love learning about lost-wax casting and working in new materials and processes.

#2

What different materials can they cast these from? Or will practically any kind of metal work?

#3

The range is pretty wide. They can even do titanium. However, different processes are sometimes required. Zinc aluminum and pewter they can do using rubber molds, so that material is much less expensive. These are made using the precious-metals process of wax casting, which uses plaster-like investment for the one-time-use mold.

#4

This is adorable, but what about ortho/HHKB versions?

(. . .Said the other crowd of keebers who allow silhouettes to define them).