A friend of mine runs a small artisan keycap studio, and today I got an invite to visit and watch the process up close.

The keycap is fully handcrafted metal, and the decoration is done through gold wire inlay — not gold leaf like I initially assumed. The artist uses incredibly fine tools to carefully hammer and press gold wire into the engraved grooves of the design, filling them section by section until the gold forms a solid, seamless surface. Once trimmed and finished, there are absolutely no gaps — it just looks like the gold grew there.

The subject is an anime portrait, and watching those fine hair details slowly come to life in real gold wire was genuinely hard to look away from.

I had no idea this level of handcraft existed in the keycap world. Sharing here because I figured this community would appreciate it more than anyone.