🦉Dice Making 101

It has been a busy week, adventurer!

At least for me, like every week before I leave for an event with all my magical gear.

The days leading up to the event are always hectic, and I haven't stopped working to finish DM screens, print illustrations, customize the booth, and polish some dice.

And it's about dice that I want to talk to you about this week: how to start making dice and not die (or go broke) in the attempt.

I'm going to recommend a bunch of things that I've been paid to advertise, but they're products that I genuinely believe are good.

And hey, as a friend of mine says, if you think they're going to pay me for it, please give them my contact information.

Without further ado, let's get started!

Safety first!

Look, I'm not going to lie to you. Getting started in this hobby is complicated because there are so many things to learn all at once.

In this email, I want to go over all the necessary equipment and materials, which is sometimes the most confusing part.

First and foremost, non-negotiable.

Safety.

You're going to be working with toxic materials, so a lab coat and nitrile gloves are very important.

And most importantly, a mask for organic gases and a well-ventilated area.

FPP2 masks are not suitable; it has to be one of these.

You won't die if you don't use it, but the resin is carcinogenic in its liquid state, and although I know a mask is expensive, if you plan to spend time on this, it's very important that you use one.

Speaking about toxic relations…

Okay, here comes the tricky part. Good molds are your best friends and your worst nightmare. Trust me, this week I had to replace mine.

It wasn't fun.

There are two types of molds: cap molds and sprue molds. For beginners, the latter are your best option, as the resin reservoir at the top helps prevent bubbles in the die. I recommend this tutorial by Rybonator (and his channel in general) for more information.

You can make or buy the molds.

If you buy them, there are cheap options on Temu and Aliexpress, but be careful. Most of the designs are stolen from dice artisans, and I wouldn't recommend using them for ethical and quality reasons (they'll only last you four sets of dice, and that's it).

I made this mistake out of ignorance and started with one of those.

As an alternative, look on Etsy. Many artisans in Europe also sell molds, and although they are more expensive, they will last considerably longer.

If you decide to make the mold yourself, you will need a set of dice to make the replica (avoid curved edges) and platinum (or tin) silicone.

Platinum silicone captures a lot of detail, but it's easy for the curing process to be inhibited. In other words, the process by which the silicone goes from a sticky liquid from hell to a soft, solid block goes wrong.

Maybe there was a temperature change, dust fell on it, the silicone sensed that your aura was pink that day, who knows... but something went wrong and you're left with a kind of disgusting viscous block that has ruined your dice.

I prefer to use tin silicone, which is more stable and gives me similar results.

My trusted supplier, Feroca, for both types of silicone.

What do I put in my mold?

Well, you have your mold, and now you want to fill it with resin. But what kind of resin?

I'll try to be brief.

Epoxy resin is strong and doesn't yellow over time.

You have to check the viscosity to prevent bubbles from forming; 14,000 CPS is fine. These types of resin are usually labeled as suitable for jewelry, so there's another indicator.

I use Crystal Clear from Resin Pro.

What next? Well, the sky's the limit.

Your world will become a succession of intrusive thoughts of “can I put that in a die?”

Before you know it, your dad will be mailing you mouse bones he found in pellets to see what you can do with them.

Now seriously, this is the fun part. You can dye your dice with alcohol-based inks, add moss, reflective paper, glitter, flowers, miniatures... a thousand things.

Before I forget.

Materials that are useful for avoiding those dreaded bubbles: heat guns for surface bubbles.

Avoid lighters, they burn the resin and maybe your eyebrows.

I've been writing for a while now, and I think this is the longest newsletter I've ever sent you. So I'll leave it there for now.

I hope my talk has helped spark your curiosity about dice making, and if you have any questions, you know I'm here.

(In fact, I appreciate it because I'm not quite sure if this topic interests you.)

Part two will arrive in two weeks. We'll talk about actually making a set of dice.

May your quests be propitious and your rolls be better!

🦉Irene the Wizard

🦃Saul the Bard