Introduction
We are all no strangers to the myriad of cute designs amidst the Artisan keycap community, with their landscape of assorted shapes, colours and all manners of inspirations. However, I wanted to shine a light on a new rising star within the UK community: BasilKeys, the creator of Gertie and Boots.
While it’s tough to innovate within this sector of the hobby, what can be applauded and commended is the mastery and craftsmanship it takes to make such items, and BasilKeys demonstrates this very well with her work. She first was brought into the world of Artisans after spotting a Jellykey post on Reddit, and bought it before even getting a mechanical keyboard— a clear sign of either her poor financial decisions (I kid, I kid) or a passion for art, something that she does have a background in, as seen with her prior works of digital art and commissions that she had been doing for the past decade.
Passion, of course, often leads to creation. This was no different for BasilKeys, with her first and most early works being showcased on Instagram, posting and sending updates and photographs of her first sculpts before she opted to try selling her work.
Alongside this, BasilKeys in general is rather new to the hobby, having only been here for a year, and even less with selling and developing her work. She mentioned to me that she didn’t sell anything for the first few months, but instead treated it as if it were a hobby rather than a business, sharing progress and pictures of her trial and error with friends within her own community. Like all things, she had faced an assortment of challenges, but with input she was able to finalize her first artisan – Gertie’s – design. Her first ‘sale’ was more of a giveaway, with the various people paying to cover shipping costs, as it was her thank you to the friends that she had made along the way.
One of her big challenges was finding information on how to work with certain materials, since polymer-based clay artisans seemed like somewhat of a new thing back then, and BasilKeys had to track down a lot of the information herself. In order to prevent others from making the same mistakes that she had done, however, she opted to open an Artisan Clay Maker discord for those lacking information, helping others start out in the hobby or experiment as she had done before, which in a hobby full of creators, I’m sure was helpful. This also helped with pricing and handling customers, given her history in art in both online and physical marketplaces, along with lessons that she had learned herself – particularly with signing up for more work that she could handle given the effort and detail that she focuses on with her designs. Along that, there’s one clear thing that every artisan maker and artist should follow, above all else: Trust yourself, and be confident in your skills. It’s your design. Your work. They don’t want anyone else’s, they want yours. Be proud of that.
Since polymer-clay based artisans were new back then, some of the trials that BasilKeys had to endure were that of getting the key to be small enough, as since she wasn’t casting from resin, the clay needed to be built on a base stem; with the easiest option being that of a keycap. Adding clay atop of that, however, made it too wide to be usable. It made sense, then, after experimentation and work – along with a lot of time – to settle on sanding the base down in order to fit the required detail and vision for her work, and it’s something that shows in the myriad of Artisans that she has made.
Prior Work
For her work, BasilKeys has created two clear and distinct designs, being Gertie and Boots, with the prior being inspired from events in her life: the adoption of Gertie who came from a Wood Green animal shelter. This realer incarnation lived a horrible life as a “battery hen”, one of the many animals that sit in a cage amongst five others, popping out eggs for a living, with her beak cut off on the end so her aggression and fighting would be halted.
She served as the inspiration for Gertie after her being rescued and finally taken care of when others did not, and this compassion later nestled itself into her artistry and venture into Artisans. Boots, however, had a more simple creation: BasilKey’s love for cats.
Current designs have begun to incorporate more silly and bizarre costumes, pushing herself to see what she can do with her skills and craftsmanship. BasilKey’s most current work includes Gertie in suits or clothing, as shown in both Astrogertie or Seamonster Gertie.
For her newer designs, being that of Boots, BasilKeys has opted to experiment with miniature details such as accessories along with colour-palettes, using her background in art and design, to see what may look the most aesthetically pleasing. Her audience and community both help in ensuring that these designs of hers are well-loved, and likewise, I can’t wait to see what else she creates, while carving out her own niche in the hobby – finding inspiration in life, enjoyment and compassion.
Unsurprisingly enough, it’s no shock that BasilKeys has also had her fair share of collaborations within the community, with her working alongside various designers to make works with Keepo for KKB Alhambra—which she had done so to spread her name among the community, as she was a much newer face at that time. During those projects, BasilKeys learned how to colour-match (one of her first challenges) with a lack of references. Another project that she had done was for KKB Darling, which bolstered her online attention greatly while also showcasing to the community what her skills were.
The Future
Like most creators and designers within the hobby, BasilKeys aims to look ahead and see where else she could go, with an openness to collaborations given the trials and tribulations that she had faced in the past, and opting to always improve and demonstrate her passion in her work, while also aiding those who had faced the same pitfalls that she had befallen to in the past.
For me, not only does BasilKey’s work look amazing and adorable, but they’re also the standard that I uphold others to; a high-bar, no doubt, but it’s one that I’m resolute in. Like everyone else, we’re in the dark as to what comes next in her journey, but having talked with her, plans of Topre-Support or even an ISO Gertie are in the conceptual stages.
Along with most things within the hobby, we can only trust the process and wait. And that’s something that I – alongside many – are very happy to do.
BasilKeys Discord:
https://discord.gg/rvzeV6t69J
All photos are taken from https://basilkeys.tumblr.com/