No matter how advance we become, one cannot be deviated from his/her roots. Those who claim to be geeks or computer lovers have shown interest for dressing their wares in Victorian high style. As a result of this, we have a designer creation of customized keyboards that is being assembled by Richard R. Nagy of Datamancer.
I happen to make a visit to their online channel and was stunned to witness the beautiful collection. A major collection is of the striking brass keyboard initially created by the endowed Jake von Slatt at the Steampunk Workshop. The idea behind Jake’s creation of these magnificent devices was to kill stress and feel a bit more relaxed. But little was he aware that his creation would one day be in demand for mass production.
The price note on each keyboard varies from $800-$1000 as per the tailored customizations and configurations. It may seem a bit too much but the ingredients used and the convolution of the design, choice of metals, options, finish justify the cost involved. Add to this the time involved in finding genuine antique keys, designing the custom key inserts, cutting and aligning them, painting each key and key stalk by hand, crimping 105 keys together followed by the another time consuming activity of cutting the metal frames, drilling the holes, file, sand, prep and polish the metal, assembling everything and other uncountable sundry activities. The manufacturing of a single keyboard takes almost 1.5 months to two.
I was taken away by the keyboard, which is a replica of Jake von Slatt‘s original design. It features a black felt faceplate, chrome keys, and a polished brass frame left undistorted that assures its emergence into a deep, rich patina as it ages. Also, “The Aviator” Keyboard residing there features a brushed aluminum frame, black felt faceplate, and “jewel” LEDs in blue, red, violet, green, or amber. The approx. dimension of the box used is about 24 inches x 12 inches x 9 inches and each keyboard weighs 5 and 7 pounds.
Dive into the gallery:
