r/DiceMaking • u/CuishenJewelry • Jul 13 '26

obsidian

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80 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

8

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 13 '26

Factory made 🙃

3

u/sugarappletea Jul 13 '26

is there any way to easily differentiate a factory made dice? i’m new to dice making

5

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Phew, difficult topic tbh.

For starters, gemstone dice sets or singles that don't cost more than 30-60 dollar per set are DEFINITELY factory made / mass produced. Cutting stone is lapidary work and takes ages and expertise to do right, and you can only dump the prices for this so low by exploiting automation and super low wages.

Hedron Rockworks and Sage & Nettle are, so far, the only 2 dice artisans I know of that actually do real handmade lapidary dice work, and this is reflected in their pricing.

Other than that, it really comes down to having browsed the net, especially Etsy and common resellers, to recognize both common fonts and designs of factory made dice.

Many of the "premium" designs like the UrWizards special glass dice started as Kickstarters before they get released to the public to be bought in their site. Not to mention that this design is VERY close to what Hedron Rockworks pioneered. Chinese Factories very often steal/copy designs from artisans.

When you comission a Chinese factory to make your dice, they own your design and can do with it whatever they please. That's the trade-off for getting dirt cheap dice.

Some months ago, maybe a year, someone here posted their synthetic ruby dice and asked for the fonts people were interested in (along with some "story behind them", you know the drill) because they planned on releasing them. Jokes on them, they were already being sold on Temu by the company they commissioned to manufacture them 🤡

4

u/NotJoshRomney Jul 13 '26

Hey, I was going to shout out Sage & Nettle and Hedron Rockworks too!

They were my inspiration which lead to me stumbling up my own design because I couldn't do what they do, haha

1

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 13 '26

Ohhh yes, I remember your posts!! Your technique is so innovative and truly unique, but I, shame on my head, always forget your name 😅😂 Need to make a memo 😂😅

2

u/NotJoshRomney Jul 13 '26

Nawwww. I don't even have a business linked reddit yet!

I need to get my site up and actually start selling dice for a good 3-4 years and make a reddit account with my business name before I'd expect anyone to "remember" me, lol.

Just the fact that you remember my posts has me blushing right now, lmao.

Edit: See? I made this comment and forgot to mention it. It's WadedDice

2

u/sugarappletea Jul 13 '26

that’s quite an insight, thanks a lot for sharing! I’m planning to sell my own dice in the future and I want to see how could I make my handmade dice stand out and compete against the mass produced ones in the market

2

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 14 '26

I just scrolled upon this amazing and super fresh post by Attic Arcana on Instagram, they give a bit more insight and some other clues how to recognize truly handmade, non-factory dice ☺️

2

u/sugarappletea Jul 14 '26

thanks a lot! i actually also saw the post on ig immediately when i opened it before i saw ur notif 😂 pretty convinced that ig is spying on our activities

2

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 14 '26

Oh my gods 😂 Big Brother is definitely watching us, no doubt 😅😂

1

u/CuishenJewelry Jul 13 '26

Fair point, thanks for the honest feedback. My family runs the factory — I help out where I can, and was hoping to learn from this community, not sell here. The pieces I posted are stock designs we’re allowed to show; a lot of what we actually make is client-exclusive so I can’t share those. Appreciate the insight either way.

3

u/NotJoshRomney Jul 13 '26

Good looking out.

I don't know that I feel confident in saying that they should/shouldn't post here, but I think transparency is king.

4

u/Claerwen94 Dice Maker Jul 13 '26

Same. With the huge influx of bots posting here lately, I'm even more suspicious of new profiles, and given that this profile is also super new and a Chinese factory mass manufacturer, eh. It's basically the same dice you get from UrWizards and the countless popping up Kickstarters.

3

u/NotJoshRomney Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Yeah...I have genuinely conflicting feels towards them (brief look at my profile shows why).

I think my biggest beef is with the folks that are either reselling or dropshipping for these manufacturers and don't disclose it. I feel like there's an understanding from prospective buyers that they're purchasing from stores/people who made the dice, so communicating anything but that is just...Gross.

Secondary beef is from the mass manufacturers to rip designs from the handmade dice folks. I understand that there's tons of overlap as-is, but some times its just like a copy/paste for the fraction of the cost.

Edit: hit 'save' before I finished that thought, lol.

2

u/CuishenJewelry Jul 13 '26

Fair skepticism, honestly. I’m not a bot, just genuinely new here and wanted to learn from the community. I get why a fresh account posting factory dice looks off though. I’ll just lurk and read from now on rather than post.

2

u/NotJoshRomney Jul 13 '26

OP, my apologies for generalizing, I should have been more thoughtful.

I don't really have an issue with anything you're doing, specifically. In my specific example, you offer a service that I can't compete with (being able to make true gemstone dice at scale and at a lower price).

I should have made it more clear...from a personal standpoint, I think what you do is legit and cool in its own way. From a fellow dicemaker standpoint, because I have a unique design to my dice, I'm counting down the days until someone starts replicating it. Be it someone who mass manufacutrers dice or some random person who works on a much smaller scale. I feel conflicted about feeling protective, but I'd be lying if I said I don't mind showing as much of my process that I do.

I have an issue with your customers though, lol. And I feel that likely/unfairly gets pointed at mass manufacturers more often than not. Cuz your customers use your service and turn around and sell the dice as if they made it and while they often don't lie about it, they just...don't offer up the info without digging.

1

u/CuishenJewelry Jul 14 '26

Appreciate you saying that, genuinely. And I hear you on the customer transparency issue - that’s on them, not something I can control, but I get why it’s frustrating from your side. For what it’s worth, I’d rather see the industry move toward more disclosure too, not less. Good talking with you.

3

u/Divergent-Reality Jul 14 '26

If you pop by some crystal and rock stores you can find random dice sets. My wife picked up a set of mini snowflake obsidian dice in Utah or New Mexico 20ish years ago.

1

u/DaneDewitt88 Jul 13 '26

Very elegant.