After dark

Anyone who lives with a cat knows the house changes after dark. The box you meant to throw out has a tenant. The paper bag from the market is breathing. A slipper goes missing and turns up across the room, chewed.

We set Moonlit Mischief on the one night nobody is watching the cats, the Mid-Autumn full moon. The lanterns are lit, the mooncakes are on the table, and everyone is looking up at the sky. Some cats climb into the lion dance heads. Some ride off on the carp lanterns. A few grab the moon itself and won’t let go.

Caught in the act

By the time anyone looks back into the house, it’s already done. A paper box has grown a tail. The yarn is no longer a ball. One cat has climbed into a lion dance head and decided it lives there now, another has taken the carp lantern out for a ride, and the bravest of them is hugging the moon as if it might float away. Nobody heard a thing.

We caught them the only way you can catch a cat, by keeping very still. Ten of them fit on a 1u keycap. The rest needed more room and spread out along the longer keys, until the last few ran out of space and curled up together on the spacebar. Which one is yours, you’ll know the moment you see it.

Handcrafted production

Every keycap is sculpted, cast and colored by hand. A cat in a box is only funny if you believe the box, so Paw Escape, Carton Sneak, Crate Trouble and Bag Peek are cast in resin mixed with paper pulp. Crate Trouble also stacks opaque color, paper resin and clear resin in several layers.

Crystal Trap was the hardest. Why not pour it all clear and let the cat float inside? Because then it’s one block of plastic and the trap is gone. The cat is cast first, in a color that fades from one shade to the next. The keycap is a separate clear cover, polished on both sides. Polish only the outside and the inside stays frosted, and the cat turns into a blur.

Moon Hug, Midnight Catch, Fish Rider and Golden Moon hold holographic paper inside a lightly frosted resin. Over a switch LED they glow like a lantern.

Last, every tiny detail gets its own touch of gloss, the eyes, the noses, the pink of a paw. It gives the faces their depth, and no two cats come out quite the same.