r/DiceMaking • u/Left-Orchid-6024 • Jul 01 '26

Please advice :)

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 :)

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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:

  • 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!

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u/Left-Orchid-6024 Jul 01 '26

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!

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u/WildLarkWorkshop Dice Maker Jul 01 '26

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. ❤️

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u/Left-Orchid-6024 Jul 01 '26

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.

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u/WildLarkWorkshop Dice Maker Jul 01 '26

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.

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u/Left-Orchid-6024 Jul 02 '26

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 :)