FAQs | Hazy Monk Dice

🧘🏼‍♂️ WHAT ARE YOUR DICE MADE FROM? 🧘🏼‍♂️

I use premium epoxy casting resin and a pressure pot for a bubble-free finish. All dice are 100% handmade by me (only me, I work a full-time job and dicemaking is my expensive hobby. I would love to dedicate more time to it).

I make my own 'slab' moulds using platinum cure silicone and a vacuum chamber.

My masters are from ArcanaCast (on hiatus). If you are thinking about getting into resin crafting their Discord server is a great resource for tips and techniques from other makers.

⛅️ ARE YOUR DICE PERFECT? ⛅️

No. Whilst I hold myself to a high standard and try my absolute best with finishing, my dice are handcrafted items meaning that flaws and imperfections are to be expected - including (not limited to) mould marks, microscratches, imperfect finish, rough edges around '1' faces, shallow numbers on '1' faces, internal bubbles and surface bubbles. I will try to highlight any significant or noticeable defects within each listing and the corresponding item(s) will be priced accordingly.

🌅 "BUT ARE THEY BALANCED...?" 🌅

Factory or mass-churned-out dice tend to be less evenly balanced than handcrafted dice. The materials within my dice - inks, dyes, mica powder and flakes, glitters, foil, iridescent cellophane and so on - are lightweight, usually with equivalent density to the resin itself and do not affect the weight distribution of the finished product. They are more than fine for casual gameplay. If you're after casino-level precision, I politely suggest you look elsewhere.

🧘🏼‍♂️ HOW SHOULD I LOOK AFTER MY DICE? 🧘🏼‍♂️

Care for the dice by storing them in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight, children and pets.

Do not throw or drop them on a hard surface. For the love of all that is Good and True do not stand on the stabby, caltrop D4.

Dice can be cleaned or shine restored with soapy water and a microfibre cloth. Do not allow the number recesses to stay wet or you will lose paint (acrylic paint and inks are water-soluble).

Do not bring the dice into contact with alcohol or acetone or similar products as this will turn the resin soft or sticky or distort the appearance.

⛅️ YOU'RE SELLING RAW DICE - HOW DO I GO ABOUT FINISHING THEM? ⛅️

There are finishing packs available for separate (add-on) purchase in the Odds 'n' Sods section of my Shop.

Each pack includes one (1) sheet of each of the six (6) grades of Zona polishing paper. Lay each sheet on a flat, even surface such as a pane of glass or a mirror. Start with the green Zona, moving the rough faces of each die in slow, careful circles and applying gentle, even pressure. Progress through grey ➡️ blue ➡️ pink ➡️ mint/teal ➡️ white. You will receive a small amount of (plastic/headlight) polish for the final step before inking. You will need your own acrylic paint and a small brush to ink the numbers. Fill the recesses, wipe away the excess with your finger or on kitchen paper, leave to dry and then clean up with degreaser spray or window cleaner or similar.

Never overlook the IMPORTANCE OF PPE - wear nitrile gloves while sanding and polishing, especially on lower-grit papers which remove noticeably more material than the higher-grade papers. Keep the papers wet to trap the resin dust and prevent it from going into the breathable air. Ideally wear a mask or respirator as well. Thoroughly wash and wipe down the dice and your working area as you progress from one grade of Zona to the next to avoid micro-scratches - including the nooks and crannies of the number recesses (Fairy liquid / dish soap and flat brush under a running tap, for example, or an ultrasonic cleaner if you have one). Change your water and wash out whatever receptacle you are using.

If you don't fancy being hands-on with your finishing - I may offer a finishing upgrade from time to time, again to be found in the Odds 'n' Sods section of my Shop.

Having said all that - if you do not mind a slight edge or ridge around the ‘1‘ or lowest faces, you might decide that the raw dice are fine to use without sanding and polishing. In which case - ink the numbers with acrylic paint and you’re good to go!

🌅 WHAT DO I GET IN A SET? 🌅

My full sets usually include one or more additional items such as a crystal D4 and/or standard D6. Why? Because these particular dice are dear to my heart - years of gameplay involving dagger-stabbing mage, sling-firing cleric, Magic Missiles, homebrew multi-directional Amber Shards and area-effect Blasty Magic - it's no bad thing to have doubles.

Some sets will have an additional D20 - handy for Advantage rolling.

Hopefully nobody views the above as quantity winning out over quality. I do my best and additional dice means more time-consuming finishing for me.

I may eventually phase out the regular D12 for the rhombic version. Same with the standard (caltrop, stabby, underside-of-foot-piercing) D4 in favour of the crystal D4.

🧘🏼‍♂️ WHY DID YOU START MAKING DICE? 🧘🏼‍♂️

I was looking for a creative outlet, one to let the light in💡(I work a desk job which is dreary, demanding and draining).

I have fond memories of Dungeons & Dragons (BECMI system and Mystara setting) and other RPG and tabletop games from a young age and developed a predilection for polyhedral dice (our early games of Fighting Fantasy involved what we called ‘dotty dice’ nowadays known as ‘pips’). I would scour game stores and the Web in search of perfect amber 🍯 dice in particular. Years later I was captivated by the first Kickstarter campaign from Dispel Dice - while waiting for my sets to arrive, a chum encouraged me to take the plunge and make my own. Down the rabbithole I went, finding and devouring Rybonator's video tutorials to learn the fundamentals of making moulds and dice before progressing to Dice and Decadence's live pours and IGTV content for a masterful steer on how to make the best moulds and the most aesthetically pleasing dice. That said, it has been years and I remain a novice - much still to learn and a great deal more experimenting to do. Every day’s a school day.

⛅️ HOW REGULARLY DO YOU RESTOCK? ⛅️

Little and often(-ish). I will add single sets and/or chonks to this website as and when they become available, as opposed to bulk restocks.

🌅 ARE YOU TAKING COMMISSIONS? 🌅

Updated Saturday 1 March 2025: I am more inclined to accept a commission for (1) Angelina fibre dice, and (2) dragonscale dice than other designs. These are time-consuming but less likely to go horribly wrong than other designs. If you are interested - email [email protected] or message me on IG to let me know what you have in mind.

Otherwise - never say never ✨but✨ thinking about it brings anxiety - time pressures, failure to meet a buyer's specific expectations, creative attempts going awry and leading to one round of wasted materials after another. The Chaos of dicemaking is real - resin is a fickle and unpredictable medium, things rarely go as planned. Recreating a previous or familiar design is never guaranteed to turn out well. Not to mention the gaps in my knowhow and abilities as a dicemaker. That said, drop me a line if you have something in mind and we'll see - for a full set an upfront deposit (£50 GBP) would be required and the total price would be upward of £75 GBP depending on complexity and materials.

🧘🏼‍♂️ WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR LOGO / MASCOT / THE LIL FLOATY DUDE? 🧘🏼‍♂️

Radbourne Design on IG. Billy 👏 Hooked 👏 Me 👏 Up with the lovely branding package which you see throughout this website.

⛅️ ARE YOU PART OF A CENTURIES-OLD, HIGHLY ESOTERIC MOVEMENT SEEKING TO CHAMPION THE CAUSE OF YELLOW DICE? ⛅️

*glances around furtively* ... yes. 💛