"Daedalian" is an adjective that refers to something that is intricate, labyrinthine, or complex, often with a sense of craftiness or cleverness. The term is derived from the name Daedalus, a master craftsman and inventor in Greek mythology, best known for creating the labyrinth to house the Minotaur. As a result, "Daedalian" is used to describe things that are skillfully and cleverly designed, often with a sense of complexity or difficulty in their structure.
WHO WE ARE
We are Sabrina and Dan, a duo of dice makers based out of Minnesota. At our core, we are passionate about dice — not just as tools for gameplay, but as beautiful, handcrafted pieces of art. What started as a shared love for collecting dice has evolved into creating our own high-quality, luxury dice sets that bring both beauty and function to your tabletop adventures.
Each set we craft is a labor of love, meticulously designed and finished by hand, face by face, number by number. Every die is not only aesthetically striking but also perfectly balanced for standard play.
HOW OUR DICE ARE MADE
The whole process starts with designing a master set that serves as the foundation of our brand. Master dice are a pristine version of a set that are exclusively used to make molds from.
Our custom master dice are designed in a 3D software and printed using a UV resin printer. Once cured, we take the rough prints and meticulously sand and polish each face to a mirror finish.
Taking our perfected master dice, we create silicone molds of each design. Our specific style of mold involves a complex process of blocking off a single face and curing the silicone in a 2 step process. In total, making a single set of dice molds takes about 12 hours, start to finish.
Unfortunately the molds don't last forever. Average wear and tear make the molds stiff over time, and can leave a dull finish on the dice. We typically get about 15 sets out of a mold before needing to repeat the process.
The fun part! Like a mad scientist, we suit up in our protective gear and gather all our materials. Using quality colorants, glitters, shimmers, and mica powders, we mix various cups of resin and pour into the molds using techniques that give a desired effect.
Then, they go into the pressure pot for 24 hours! This helps rid the resin of trapped bubbles during the crucial first stage of curing.
At the end of those 24 hours, while the dice are cured enough to demold, the dice aren't fully hardened. They come out ever so slightly soft and can be easily damaged, so we set them aside for another 48 hours to ensure they are fully cured and handleable.
Once fully cured, we sand all rough faces with 600-2000 grit sandpaper in preparation for the their final polish. Using a jewelers polishing wheel, we bring the dice to a mirror finish. Any leftover polishing compound stuck inside the numbers is scrubbed out. This process takes anywhere from 1-2 hours per set, but it's one of our favorite parts. The dice look absolutely amazing at this stage and it gets us excited to finish them up.
Selecting the right color to ink a dice set can sometimes be a challenge. It typically involves us painting a single number and asking "what about this one?" about 5 times before agreeing on a color we like together.
We meticulously hand-paint each number and clean off any excess paint as we go. Once fully numbered and dry, we do a final cleaning before the dice are photographed and ready for sale!