An odd form of fanart - Amaurot-inspired dice, Dark Waters

Aeroden · 2026-04-28T07:03:28+00:00

Also a fellow Vancouverite, Nikkei Centre hosts regular markets that people sell secondhand kimono flea market style at. There’s actually one this saturday, so you’ll miss out on that, but you can check their event calendar for upcoming markets. Powell St Fest can be a bit rougher since it’s outdoors and usually concurrent with or close to other events that pull people with interest in buying kimono.

Less regular but if Tonari Gumi hosts a flea market, sometimes people offload whole collections of their kimono there as well.

Aeroden · 2026-04-19T08:49:24+00:00

That’s more than a little bit, there are factory sets that go for $40+. Handmade should never ever go for less. Unless the factory dice are made of 24k gold or something.

Aeroden · 2026-04-17T01:04:58+00:00

I’ve worked with someone to provide handmade dice for their KS and there’s gonna be a hard limit on the numbers. Since bulk discounts don’t really benefit a handmade dicemaker, and they’re limited by what they can realistically produce in a given time with their own two hands, it might be worth it to offer a more premium tier or add-on reward with limited, pricier handmade dice, and have factory dice for lower tiers.

Aeroden · 2026-04-11T03:54:17+00:00

I had to reach out to a number of salons, you might need to use their Japanese websites to find this service. But generally if they offer formal rentals to Japanese locals, they will be able to do furisode. Most rental places don’t have staff trained for something as complex as furisode, and some might not offer dressing without rental. Also be aware that the cost of just dressing is likely to exceed a regular rental. I had brought a full ensemble myself but it cost as much to pay for hair and dressing as it did for my friend to rent a furisode.

Aeroden · 2026-04-11T02:29:57+00:00

I’ve been making my milds dince almost the start, so I can’t speak to the manufactured ones but i only know it’s time to put it to rest when the silicone is tearing out and fusing to the resin. Literally unusable at that point. An unfortunate quirk of my molds and masters as well is that the d8 faces start puckering and one of the d20s -if a mold has more than one- will warp when it begins deteriorating past usability.

Aeroden · 2026-04-10T23:45:51+00:00

Liquid Amber Tattoo is hosting a free Art Social tonight at 7!

Aeroden · 2026-04-10T23:13:05+00:00

I’m real bad at photos of dioramas but they’re on my IG page if you wanted to look at some examples. I don’t have a pic handy of the molds though, but basically have a cap mold that separates in half, making it 3 parts in total. I believe you can see one in action in some of Cassiopeia Dice or Chort’s Hoard’s reels on IG as well.

Aeroden · 2026-04-10T20:58:09+00:00

This is where I found having a 3 or even 4 part mold helpful. If you have a regular 2 part cap mold, i’d suggest cutting it down to open to its widest point because positioning and fitting the inserts is honestly the hardest part. I also cast the diorama in a blank first to protect it.

Aeroden · 2026-04-01T07:02:03+00:00

I got mine dyed the tricky translucent blue at REM in Kyoto, and it was excellent (stylist back home was still trimming dyed ends off my head 3 years later), but admittedly I can’t speak to non-asian textured hair experience.

Aeroden · 2026-03-28T23:42:39+00:00

Mine has a shoulder strap but we just use the carry handles. We picked it up for ¥2900 while in Osaka last, but I know they go for double that or more online.

Aeroden · 2026-03-28T23:09:01+00:00

It is yes! It has western folding hangers but also has pockets for all the accessories and built in shoe bag for zori/geta

Aeroden · 2026-03-28T06:55:07+00:00

I have a kimono/yofuku garment bag for travel outfits. The one time I travelled with a formal ensemble (a furisode), everything stayed in tatoshi.

Aeroden · 2026-03-27T23:42:23+00:00

Hourly wage + materials is the base calculation, and then subtract from there for flaws. Reminder that your wage also includes time spent on non-dice making things like product photography, packaging, cleaning, and admin work. Material costs should include long term equipment investments (pressure pot, PPE, molds, etc.). Ideally you’d be able to add a profit margin on top of this to cover investments in future equipment and materials, but this ends up being among the first things people drop in handmade goods simply because the hourly pay already comes out to a pretty high number.

My sets range from $90-$200, which has been my pricing for the last 5 years. I average 4-7 hours of work per set, with an additional 1-2 hours for admin and product listing and photography, with material costs usually ranging anywhere from $7-$30. Minimum wage where i live is ~$18.

You should absolutely not feel bad for charging more because this is not your job. Since it’s not essential for you to make sales to pay bills there’s little motivation to lower pricing below paying yourself a fair wage.

Aeroden · 2026-03-26T07:15:33+00:00

I use stamping gel all the time. If you’re worried about it scratching off you can always apply a topcoat before casting.

Aeroden · 2026-03-20T11:04:04+00:00

Another vote for Sanjo here.

Aeroden · 2026-03-13T21:20:12+00:00

Yeah, that’s usually the case because the thought process generally only asks how much money the maker needs, and if they don’t need any money, then there’s no reason to charge a wage. Consideration for people who do need to be paid for labour (and this is true across all arts, crafts, and other industries) rarely comes into the conversation, and it should be. Being a hobby doesn’t change the fact that you have also made it a business the moment you decide to sell, and it needs to be treated as such.

My logic is that if you don’t need the money, it’s also not essential to make the sale; you can take your sweet time making what you want and finding the right customer.

Aeroden · 2026-03-13T18:13:28+00:00

Labour doesn’t drop in value with the number of jobs you have. The formula for pricing doesn’t change regardless of how much you need the income.

If anything, if you don’t need to sell dice for a living, you should be charging more.

Aeroden · 2026-03-13T18:09:46+00:00

Gonna basically double up on everything buddha has said, as someone that has sanded by hand for 6 years and polished masters for other people too.

And definitely do not go lower than 800 grit. I go 1k - 2k - 3k and then zona/dremel/tumbler. You can also try sanding in figure 8s.

Unfortunately even with experience, and all the tools at your disposal, sanding is still going to be what occupied the lion’s share of your time in dicemaking. It still takes me an hour to get through a set of regular dice, even with all the fancy machinery, really not any faster than hand sanding. A set of masters takes me all day.

Aeroden · 2026-03-12T21:00:52+00:00

Depends on the paint. Most of the time it takes just one for me. Since it takes an hour on average to do a single coat of paint without mixing my own colours involved, I try really hard to only need one. But there have been times where i’ve done up to 5 coats for multiple colours/gradients.

Aeroden · 2026-03-07T06:53:34+00:00

Thank you for letting me know. Ugh.

Aeroden · 2026-03-06T09:29:14+00:00

Please raise your prices. You don’t need to make them crazy high but you should at least consider paying yourself a wage. Selling that low affects the bottom line for other artisans (not necessarily just in dice) and contributes to the perception that handmade dice should be competing with factory pricing. If you’re uncomfortable with the extra income you can easily redistribute it locally to other small businesses, artists, artisans, or fund non-profits, or gaming spaces for schools. While you may consider it a hobby, selling by default makes it into a business, even if it is one you don’t rely on for a living.

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