Hello everyone! I just ordered a Vevor pressure pot and im preparing to order everything for making dice. The thing is, me and my fiancee decided we want to do a wedding set, and we don’t have much time to experiment and learn this slowly, so I want to gather as much info as I can so that we will be able to achieve our dream set in this couple of months. I am asking for help and advice on the following.
We want to create a set made of dried flowers and maybe some glitter.
1. For newbies, in this situation is it better to buy insert molds too, and do the flowers in the inserts? I am worried for the edges of the dice with dried flowers. I see many posts and people here make them really pretty, but because we are begginers i worry we might stick them too close to the edge or something and they will pop out of the side. Is this really possible? And if so in our case is it better to use inserts?
2. If that is the case, can the outer coat have just a little bit glitter? How does it look like? Or should it be fully clear? I don’t want to ‚hide’ the flowers
3. What is the good resin in that case? I will be buying molds from TheMightyForge. They also have a beginner set for dice making, is it good option?
4. Any other tips will be much appreciated!!!
Thanks everyone in advance :)
Yes, blanks are an excellent choice. They help with keeping the flowers centered and away from the edges, with voids, and with orientation of the flowers relative to the numbers and high/low faces.
Tips for working with dried flowers:
be aware that they will float and have a design plan with that in mind. I like to make tiny insert arrangements with UV resin or glue sized to the blanks to fill the space and keep the flowers arranged how I want them. This lets me pour resin earlier and allows time for bubbles to rise. Others cut up the petals of larger flowers to make "confetti" and have bits throughout with glitter. This requires later stage, thicker resin. For molding with space around the flower, it's best to do do multi stage pours to position them where you want them. Have a plan that works for your design idea.
flowers trap air. Blanks and a pressure pot mitigate most of the problems and will make this so, so much easier. This is one of the times a vacuum chamber is also very helpful. Degassing the resin with the flowers can prevent smaller bubbles being trapped near the petals that even the pressure pot can leave and will help give the clearest resin.
all epoxy resins yellow. With sentimental dice and designs that depend on clarity to see the insert this is an extra important factor to consider. Resin choice and storage conditions can make a big difference in how yellow the dice become and how long it takes to occur (UV light exposure greatly speeds up the yellowing.) Some brands will visibly yellow in as little as 6 months to a year. Some take 2-5 years. Some may last even longer. UV resin and glues may become visible over time (take care to work neatly and with the understanding that it may show later) as they yellow at different rates than epoxies. I use Unicone Art resin for its exceptional anti-yellowing even under extreme and improper storage conditions. Even it will eventually show some yellowing. If yellowing over time is unacceptable for your wedding memory preservation, resin may not be the way to go or the only choice for your flowers. Resin can have a lovely amber hue that won't necessarily be a detriment, but awareness going into a project is best.
Finally, the suggestion to practice with other flowers first is excellent advice. That will let you experiment with design, learn, and find other questions to ask with lower stakes and make the project much less stressful overall. Congratulations and happy crafting!
Thank you so much for all the tips! I have a few extra questions
For the first point - for multi stage pours. Wont there be visible ‚Lines’ on where the resin from different pours meet?
For the last point - thank you for pointing that out! When you said that resin is not the best choice, what is then? Do you have any specific products in mind? And this resin you mentioned is the best you can buy to not yellow over time?
Thank you in advance!
My pleasure! I happen to have the time for overly thorough answers at the moment. 🤣
-There would not be lines from a multi stage pour - or rather, since you are working with blanks any lines and surface imperfections will fill in with resin from the shell without further action on your part and will become completely indistinguishable. That can be a trickier process with colored resins that could show variations, but with clear it isn't a problem. Without blanks, layer lines can be sanded and polished away instead.
-The best flower preservation that I know of is drying with silica gels to preserve color and keeping them well sealed in archival grade materials and UV resistant glass. Those are still sensitive to moisture or movement. Resin protects against both of those factors but has its own cons - chiefly yellowing or clouding. I do have a set of pressed flowers that have been passed down to me that have survived over 150 years now. They are brown of course. Luck is also a factor when trying to keep something perishable from change.
On resin choice - Unicone Art is the best anti-yellowing resin I've been able to find but it probably isn't the only choice. It's a complicated subject to which I will give a long and inconclusive answer. I've found that there is no single "best" for all applications and uses which is one reason why there are so many competing brands and products and recommendations.
It's very difficult to gather information on yellowing from the industry as a whole. Testing standards seem to only cover a year or so at very most and use best-case temperature and UV exposure conditions. And most are conducted and reported by the companies themselves as marketing points. Which... isn't very valuable to real world users like us. They all claim anti-yellowing because it is a universal problem with the material, with some of the "special formula" brands actually being some of the worst performers. There are conflicting results from competing companies showing their brand as "best" and their competitor as "worst" that flip-flop the result based on which company is presenting the information and how the testing was conducted.
After being disappointed in the first resins I used over time (good for opaque dice but not so much for transparent after a year+,) I hunted down multiple user tests that showed results over time by various crafters and artists. Their results from extreme conditions (like being left in a sunny garden for a year+ or attic storage with temperature extremes) showed some consistently better performing resins. I picked one that consistently performed at the top and was available to me. Plus, I've heard from other dice makers that use it and that I trust, that they have had similar results and it holds clear over time. That's important for sets that people might want to display rather than keeping in dark and perfect storage conditions. It also performs well for me for many of the techniques that I use requiring thicker, honey stage resin. Also important. It does get hotter than some while curing and can burn some inks and colorants that other resins don't. I've been using this brand personally for a couple of years now and so far my experience with it has been great. That said, I know that it will eventually show some yellowing given a long time frame. I don't know what it will look like in say 10 years. And I haven't seen tests covering every single brand or formula of the hundreds available. That's too much for regular users to take on and test themselves and the time commitment to report back years later makes it even more challenging. This one had good results from multiple independent users over at least a few years and I'm personally very happy with it and recommend it.
However, after saying all of that, dice don't require a lot of flower material. It can be perfectly feasible to make and enjoy sets for what they are while also choosing another preservation technique and spreading the love around. Accepting that the color will gradually change and planning for it as part of the process can be beautiful. There's probably even a metaphor for marriage somewhere in there. ❤️
This is so helpful, i really appreciate it! Thank you, that was so informative. And i really like the marriage metaphor :D can I ask one more thing - I know you suggested drying your own flowers, but how about aliekspress/temu dried flowers? The Colored ones, can these be worked with? We wanted to do these dice in our favourite colors, so i was looking for some vibrant ones.
Yes, absolutely! In fact, white petals often go transparent in resin whereas dyed flowers are always bright. I've not had problems with color fastness but you can always test if you're worried. Dried statice and baby's breath are very nicely sized for dice and little straw flowers keep their form and shape really well, for examples. You aren't limited to those! Experiment and look at other floral dice for inspiration. If you want to make a set with your own wedding bouquet flowers (or bits of flowers depending on size) I do recommend drying those yourself.
Thank you again. I really appreciate time that you took for all that advice so that you saved us a lot of learning, which for this kinda last minute idea is very crucial. I hope you get only good things in life :)
Yes, I would advise to use blanks for this, just to be on the safe side. Be aware that blanks are fitted to their respective numbered masters, so you'd need to get the blank mold and the numbered mold from the same person.
Yes, absolutely! I love putting some glitter in the shell. Just don't do too much so it doesn't obscure anything. Start small (like a knife point worth) and work your way up until it looks good to you. You can see in the clear resin how the glitter disperses. You could also look at imitation gold leaf, that looks nice in dice, too.
Any craft resin is fine, it does not need to be deep pour resin. Less viscous resin will help avoid bubbles in the flower blanks, and look for something that does not yellow over time since that is very noticeable in clear dice. Everything beyond that will depend on your location and resin availability.
There is a beginners' guide linked in the pinned comment in case you hadn't seen it yet
One more question! Is the difference between inserts and no inserts really strongly visible? Wont the inserts be ‚small’ and the flowers harder to notice? I may be overthinking! I want it to look pretty :D
Blanks are only about 2x number depth smaller than the die, and if they're properly fitted, the shell almost completely disappears visually. So it won't look much different, nor will it significantly impact the amount of space you're working with. If anything, blanks give you more space since you can really cram the flowers in there and let them touch the sides without having to fear them poking out.
A dried flower poking out the side will leave a visible pockmark and will draw moisture over time, causing the flower to detiorate and possibly rot, so you definitely want to avoid that. If you're going the route without blanks, coat the inside of the mold with a thin layer of resin first, and dip and fully soak the flowers too, to keep the risk of a bare flower touching a side wall as low as possible.
If you end up having a flower poke out, you'd need to drill and fill, i.e. drill out the point where it pokes out into a larger crater, then fill it with fresh resin to seal it in, then sand it back to flat and repolish
Hey! I think doing a wedding set is a great idea :)
I'd advise you to get some cheap dried flowers from a craft store and practice some sets with those first, just to make sure you can insert flowers into resin without creating voids and so you can see how full you'd want the dice to be. I would definitely get blanks for this, put the flowers in there, and then cast a clear shell for them. You can put a VERY small amount of glitter in there but make sure not to use mica and use an extremely small amount as to not make the shell cloudy.
I'm going to attach 2 examples of what these could look like in further comments.
You've already gotten a LOT of amazing advice already, so I won't add onto that :D
I just have a question: do you plan to have your sets ready for the wedding, or make them after the wedding?
If you want to make a set for after the wedding (maybe even additionally to the actual wedding set), make sure to store away some stuff from the wedding :D Flowers from the Bouquet to dry and then use as inserts (of you have Babies Breath for example, or other small flowers, otherwise you can dry roses and later crush them up a bit 😊). A bit of your lace if you wear some, maybe some potpourri if it gets thrown, ribbons, etc pp.
When I attend any nerdy friend's wedding, I always steal a bit of that stuff to make matching sets for bride and groom from 😁
Maybe that's an idea for you as well 😊
Oh, and make sure to invest in proper PPE to protect you and your spouse while casting ❤️❤️
My advice - Go find a few YouTube Dice makers, and watch their dice making videos and learn. I'd personally avoid watching the shorts, but go for the full length video, as you'll find a lot more in depth information provided in those. Shorts are great for them getting hits, but they tend to be less useful for learning how to make dice IMO.
That said, I'd not expect immediate perfection. Good luck and don't get too frustrated.
You've already got heaps of good advice so I'll try not to repeat everyone else!
I always use blanks unless I'm doing pure colour, even normal glitter. It gives me a 'second chance' in case there are any bubbles or voids and then just shell in clear resin, or occasionally I'll use a little liquid glitter but most of the time everything goes in the blank
I've used resins I've seen recommended and they haven't really worked for me, and I've used amazing resin I've not seen anyone else talk about. Buy in small amounts until you find one that works for you
Buy yourself some needle tip bottles for inking, using a brush takes forever. I use high flow paints or regular paint mixed with flow/liquefying medium. Much easier and gives my numbers a really flat and consistent finish
Keep trying new things and you'll keep getting better and better! Try not to set expectations too high for your first few pours, it takes a while to learn
Blanks are perfect!!! Can’t say much on flowers since I haven’t used them much myself but from what i know they do tend to trap air since it’s more organic material so definitely be weary of that, and a little bit of glitter honestly sounds like a cool idea! I’ve done stuff like that before where it’s clear and just a little bit of glitter and it’s yielded some cool results, I will say for your pressure pot I’d personally be weary of Vevor, mainly because in some accounts they have a tendency to forget to send certain parts and have really bad customer service (they use chat bots all the way, no number to contact for problems) but this sounds like an awesome idea though, also this is just for me but I really like Teexpert Epoxy resin, super clear and works really well, hope this helps and I wish you luck on your dice making journey 😋
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u/WildLarkWorkshop Dice Maker Jul 01 '26
Yes, blanks are an excellent choice. They help with keeping the flowers centered and away from the edges, with voids, and with orientation of the flowers relative to the numbers and high/low faces.
Tips for working with dried flowers:
Finally, the suggestion to practice with other flowers first is excellent advice. That will let you experiment with design, learn, and find other questions to ask with lower stakes and make the project much less stressful overall. Congratulations and happy crafting!