D20 Chonks from Scratch

42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in two shades of blue swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic copper, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in pink and brown swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic gold, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in pink and brown swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic gold, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in pink and brown swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic gold, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in pink and brown swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic gold, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in a rainbow of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic silver, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in a rainbow of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic silver, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in a rainbow of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic silver, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in a rainbow of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, swirled together, the numbers painted in with metallic silver, sitting on a purpleheart stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in peach and bright green swirled together, the numbers painted in with white, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in peach and bright green swirled together, the numbers painted in with white, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in peach and bright green swirled together, the numbers painted in with white, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite chonk in peach and bright green swirled together, the numbers painted in with white, sitting on an oak stand.
42mm Jesmonite 20-sided die glowing in the dark with an organic stripey pattern of dark green and glowing orange.
42mm Jesmonite 20-sided die glowing in the dark with an organic stripey pattern of dark green and glowing orange.
Top view of a green and orange 42mm Jesmonite 20-sided die with the numbers painted in yellow on a walnut stand.
Top view of a green and orange 42mm Jesmonite 20-sided die with the numbers painted in yellow on a walnut stand.
Two 42mm Jesmonite chonks. One is lavender and white with the numbers painted metallic gold. The other is mostly a dark purple with a little bit of red swirled in, also with metallic gold numbers.
Two 42mm Jesmonite chonks. One is lavender and white with the numbers painted metallic gold. The other is mostly a dark purple with a little bit of red swirled in, also with metallic gold numbers.

I kept thinking I wanted to get a little more experience with mold making and casting. I have nieces, nephews, and friends who are all playing various tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons regularly. Dice would make great gifts for all of those people. I have also been enjoying the work of some of the resin artists I have found making dice. I didn’t really want to do a bunch of resin casting in my home studio, but had become aware of some less-toxic stone-based “eco resin” casting materials like Jesmonite.

Back in March, I started working on making a big 42mm 20-sided die (a D20, in TTRPG parlance). I modeled it in Blender with a font I like (and have properly licensed), and set about 3D printing one from which to make molds. Although I have been knocking out all sorts of perfect models on my resin printer, there were some issues with getting my Anycubic machine to produce a flawless D20. At first, it was mechanical. It took me a bit to realize the plate had worked itself loose in a way apparently isn’t expected, then a bit to get it fixed correctly. Minor issues after that were eventually resolved by choosing the right resin.

From that print and a printed mold form, I made silicone molds, eventually coming up with a slightly-modified cap mold style that seems to work pretty well.

Triangular plate that attaches to one side of the 20-sided die to elevate it for the modified cap mold.
Triangular plate that attaches to one side of the 20-sided die to elevate it for the modified cap mold.
Modified cap mold for a 20-sided die.
Modified cap mold for a 20-sided die.

I cast a bunch of dice in Jesmonite, playing with various mixing and pouring techniques, different pigments, and various approaches to keeping bubbles and voids from ruining the casts. I mostly settled on using an old dental vibration table, some tapping and stretching of the filled molds, and a pressure pot for the later.

I have been painting in the numbers with acrylic paint, and finishing by polishing with bees’ wax.

There are a lot more finished dice than I am showing in this post.  I haven’t managed to photograph all of them yet.  I may add more in the future.

Once I had some big dice, I decided I needed to make some cool gift boxes for them. That’s for another post, though.

I made a video walking through the journey of getting some finished Jemonite chonks:

You can also watch some of them spin in the demo short: