#polydice

SO.

air dry clay.

i basically just made a vague disc, not really trying to get it level or to get it super smooth or round, because i knew i wouldn't get it exactly right, having Zero tools besides my hands. so i went for that artisanal look 😎. then i just pressed the dice into it and that was it basically

i sculpted on monday, the clay promises to dry in 24h. after around 26, it Definitely Was Not, i texted some friends, complaining, one of them is studying to be an engineer and he told me that "probably below 17 degrees celcius" isn't good for the drying speed of my little dice stand

so i went to sit in that room and turned the heating on, after about 2 hours there was a noticeable improvement, and it was bedtime, so i turned the heating back off and went to sleep.

this morning, i turned the heating on again, after about 2 hours i started googling "how to tell if clay is dry", and "can i paint almost dry air dry clay"

eventually discovered that pressing with fingernail in dry airdry clay will still leave a mark and my clay was probably dry. so then the painting began!

i used 3 different paints from the Amsterdam line of acrylic paints from Talens, the prussian blue, the zinc white (i think, the more translucent of their two whites, because it's fine for mixing in, and i accidentally bought it instead of the good-coverage white, and now i have both), and the graphite special paint

the graphite paint is basically the colour of pencil, and looks like brilliant silver if the light hits it right, but can also look like rather dark grey, i love it

So there's a gemcutter dicemaker on YouTube, Hedron Rockworks, who as a signature design element, cuts star-shaped facets at the corners of his d20s. And because he's cutting actual gemstones, his dice sell for quite a lot when he does sell them.