RPG dice and resin casting

For a while I've had a little secondary hobby in epoxy resin casting, which I liked because I never had to do any careful fitting or worry about it looking good on my person. We all need creatively low-risk pursuits to break up the big projects every once in a while.

Thus, my handmade dice! (Rest assured this is not the entire collection. In fact, the ones above are the first attempts and rejects). I have too many for someone who hasn't gotten the opportunity to play any TTRPGs but that's what happens when the longest part of the process is waiting the 24 hour cure time. You just end up casting more and then you have a pile of 70 (per set) individual faces to polish and ink. (Ideally it shouldn't even be 70 if your molds leave a smooth and glossy finish, but my cheap silicone Aliexpress molds left what looked like water rings on several faces, but y'know, resin, and they couldn't be washed off).

Actually I lied, I generally avoid making complete 7-piece sets because you don't need more than a single 20-sided die and it's even rarer to make use of the percentage die. So I committed to making a looot of damage dice. I still got a sore arm from sanding and polishing, even if I deliberately cut 30 faces out of the process.

I have 3 full sets: green glitter, transparent rainbow, and black with gold numbers. 

I colored the black with some charcoal powder I made from accidentally charred-to-hell pizza dough. It's a cool conversation starter but I wouldn't recommend it as it sands and polishes poorly. I think that it's because the charcoal dissolves in water, which resin plastic does not, so when I wet sand (preventing resin dust from entering my lungs) the water permeates the die through the charcoal and makes it all gummy and weird. Don't do it! Please stick to oil-based pigments.

A set I gave to a friend and the last time I will commit to using the Accursed Auric Substance.

Also, as pretty as it is, don't use gold leaf paint. It doesn't wipe away with rubbing alcohol and for cleanup I had to scrape off the excess with my nail. And this stuff is not something you want to touch your bare skin. (Hello CA Prop 65 warning!)

My half-sets include forbidden candy, holographic, and metallic collections. I made the latter two by dusting my molds with nail polish pigment powder.

I'm still figuring out how to perfect these holographic ones. The process is a little different because you want to avoid sanding as much as possible, lest you strip away the powdered surface, but sometimes you just have to because of uneven surfaces, seamlines, or ridges. My current method is to leave sand-able sides un-powdered, sand and polish them, then spray them down with acrylic spray and THEN put the powder on the sticky surface. Results are only half-satisfactory because the finish can potentially be smooth, but it's never consistent.

Before all this, I used have fun pouring clear resin colored with glitter into pendant mold and throwing them away eventually, because I never needed them for anything. A waste of planet-killing plastic, I'll admit, but it was quick gratification with no extra work for my sanding hand. I actually don't like sanding and polishing at all, but I concede that they're necessary if I want to keep the things I cast long-term. It's also probably why I don't cast more often anymore, knowing that I'm going to have to sand stuff and dreading it. My break hobby turned into something else! Now I expect myself to try somewhat harder >:^(

Finally, back to sewing with my dice bag. It fits my 50-odd handmade and purchased dice with room to spare. It's a little vintage, a little faux-historical in the way a renaissance faire is. I planned to use a heavyweight upholstery velvet but couldn't find a suitable one, so I found a stretch velveteen and stabilized it to an interfacing with some hand embroidery/quilting. I'm really happy with the result! If I were to do it again I would avoid using all three fabric + interfacing + lining because it's a little too thick; the material gets caught in the closure's hinges and it's difficult to close and cap. It makes it hard to justify the closure because it's not more practical than a standard drawstring, but sometimes aesthetic wins out.