Dice, Fashion and a Touch of Theatre with Enchanted Serpent Dice
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Episode Summary
On today’s episode we’re chatting to Yolandie from Enchanted Serpant Dice. Dice maker, personal stylist, theatre performer and regular star on the actual play / audio drama what’s in the rift.
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[00:00:15] Speaker A: G'day everyone, and welcome to the Talking Dice podcast. Whether you're a dice maker, collector, or just a tabletop rpg lover, we've got you covered. I'm Aaron, the host of the show and author of the Crick Maker Guide to Dice Craft, now available on Amazon.
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Well, its been a little while since the last recording, but talking dice is still powering ahead. We got some great episodes lined up. If you want more information on the podcast or you're interested in chatting about the episodes, feel free to join our community discord. The links are on our website, and on today's episode, we're chatting to Yolandi from Enchanted Serpent, dice dice maker, personal stylist, theatre performer, and regular star on the actual play audio drama what's in the rift. And speaking of that, yolandi, I started listening to the first episode, and what a heck of a hook at the beginning.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it only gets better.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I started listening to the first episode, and about two minutes in, I turned to my wife Zoe and said, you have to listen to this. This is amazing.
Like, that is a hell of a hook.
Talk about pulling a party in and then pulling the listeners in as well. Like, that's absolutely incredible. How did you get involved in something like that?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: So about a year and a half ago. Oh, gosh, maybe it's longer. Maybe it's almost two years now.
My husband was gaming with, like, a regular group of friends, and one of them got the bright idea. It was like, we should record this and turn it into a podcast. It'd be super easy and fun. And I was like, y'all know if you do that, you're gonna get a second job. Like, each one of you is gonna have responsibilities. Everyone's gonna have to pull their own weight. Like, it turns into a second job and not a hobby at that point. And I don't know that that's something you all want. And coming from, like, running my own business at that time, and I had my degree is in marketing, fashion marketing. And so, like, I understood, like, you guys are in for it if this is something you think is going to be easy. And so they started playing. They started recording. The guy who was supposed to do the editing was dragging his feet. Turns out he didn't really want to do it. He was afraid of, like, gaining any notoriety and people, like, learning who he was in the real world, and we were like, well, that's a shame. So they quit that one. We started a new one at this point. I joined in and was like, all right, I'll play, too. I recruited a friend, and that friend dropped out. So we were like, okay, well, this is never going to happen. I was like, but, hey, I have another friend we could try again with and replace them with this other person. And I also am very active in the local theater community, so they're all, like, actors, and, like, role playing is very easy for them. So I pull in another friend, we start playing, and we find out that this person is just, like, absolutely heinous. Like, they said they had no Twitter, and then randomly followed our podcast account on Twitter, and we were like, oh, they made a Twitter just to follow us. How nice of them. And then we went to the account and saw, like, the most, like, hateful and racist post. Yeah. And I was like, we cannot have this associated with us. Like, I cannot associate with this, like, as a person. I'm not this person's friend. I don't know who you are.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: So we dropped that person, and we were like, all right, we're just gonna continue with, like, the four of us that we have, and we'll make it work.
Or maybe there was five of us, and, like, a week and a half later, we found out that another player in this group was abusing a second player in the group. We were like, what is going on?
At that point, we shut it down, like, called it quits, and we're just.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Like, some kind of shakespearean curse, isn't it?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: It was. It was like, you know, the name of the play that nobody can say. Like, we were like, okay, well, this is done. This was nice while it lasted.
And then my husband was like, hey, we should try one more time. He's like, I met this guy. He does this podcast, wireland ranch, and it's really, like, psychedelic, and it sounds cool. It'd be awesome if he did, like, our sound stuff. And I was like, okay, great. And so he jumped in.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Background check first.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: You know, we didn't. And it's worked out all right so far. So, like, cross your fingers that nothing comes up later. But we roped him in. We roped in my sister and her boyfriend, and then there's me and one of the players from the previous group, and it just all, like, clicked. It all just worked and kept working, and nobody turned out to be a giant a hole. And here we are. It just kept going.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: It's in the second season now, right? Is it?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: We are about to start recording the second season. Yeah.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. It's super hard because, as I said, I kind of want to talk about it, but I don't want to because I don't think anyone, you know, should go in knowing anything about it. I had the distinct pleasure of, when the first matrix movie came out, I had not seen a preview, read anything. I knew nothing about it. But my friend said, oh, you've got to. You got to. Yeah, let's go and see this movie together. And that was the best way to watch it because I had no expectation or understanding of what was going to happen and, you know, what a wild ride that was. And I think had I seen all of that, it might have, you know, gone a little differently for me.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: But, you know, I couldn't agree more.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: I would, you know, I'll definitely say to everyone, please, please check out what's in the rift. It's. It's absolutely amazing. I've already recommended it to a whole bunch of my friends. And, you know, the sound, the sound editing, the voice acting, the, you know, the general plot and everything is just awesome. So you're really excited about that, but the geek in me wants to know a little bit about the, the role playing system, Cortex prime, behind it. What's that like playing with, oh, man.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: I love Cortex prime. Okay. Because it's so modular that I am not one to read a handbook. I will fully admit I have never picked up the handbook for this. I've never read it. I don't know what's in there. I only know the parts that my husband, as the game master, has pulled out and said, we're going to use these modules in our game. I was like, great. Tell me how they work. Tell me what I need to know. I'll roll the dice and do the thing. And the more that I've learned about it, I did. I'll admit I did crack the book once. It's digital, so I didn't have to, like, actually crack the book. But, you know, I opened the PDF and I read some of the parts, and there's so much in there that you can build, like, literally any world that you want, and you can do it in a way that keeps the focus on the narrative and the story that you're telling. And rather than, like, I need this many dice to fight this ogre in this corner of this dungeon. And, like, if that's your thing, that's totally cool. But I don't know, maybe it's my acting background. Like, I love a good story.
And to keep it focused on that aspect was, like, really important to all of us to make sure that we were telling a good story and not just like, we're a bunch of nerds rolling. Dyson, we sound cool, too.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: So I've got to say, and anyone who's a massive d and d fan, you know, aka me, just, you know, cover your ears for a second. But, you know, d and d does have some inherent flaws, I found the longer I play it, and that is the. The attribute system, I find doesn't really add a lot to the gameplay. It's like, you know, we'll add your, you know, add your. Your spell modifier or whatever, and so. But inherently, what you still end up doing is going into combat saying, okay, I roll dice. What happens? Right, you hit. Right. Cool. And one thing I really got excited about when I was reading about Cortex prime, and I know, and nothing a lot of other role playing systems do, it is the context around what you do is just as important as, you know, what you roll. So, you know, it's not just I attack, it's, well, you know, as. As a fighter of the. The school of whatever, you know, I'm going to use this attack to do such and such. And. And I think that just adds so much, you know, a lot, a lot deeper role playing to even combat, which can be a bit formulaic.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Right, right. And there, I mean, the longer you listen, you'll hear there's very little, like. Actually, there is no, like, actual combat, really. Right. Is there? Now? I gotta think it's been a while since we finished recording.
There may be, like, some actual combat. I'm not far enough through it, but.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: It's.
Every time we're rolling, it's not about, like, fighting someone or like, some monster. It's generally fighting, like, a situation.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: And I love that about it.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I was chatting to Brandon from Ravens Ridge in the last week's episode, and he's a massive nerd for all kinds of role playing systems apart from D and D. So he'll play anything. He'll play anything but D and D. And he's a bit of a connoisseur of, you know, all these other different systems, but I think he'd probably, probably have a good opinion on this one as well. But, yeah, I just found that super interesting. Did you have any experience with other role playing games before getting into this?
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I did do D and D years ago, but it was one of those things where you couldn't keep schedules coordinated, and so we'd play two or three sessions, and then that group would disband and another group would pop up, and maybe some of it was the previous group and maybe nothing. So there were some very, very wild scenarios happening in some of those games that I remember very clearly.
But that was. It was very limited because it was so sporadic that I didn't really, like, get to retain a lot of knowledge on how the system works. And I think people find that ironic when I tell them, like, oh, yeah, I've really hardly ever played D and D. And they're like, but you make dice for D and D. And I'm like, there's other systems, okay. It's not just D and D. It's not the only one.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Shock horror. There's one out there called Pathfinder, which is also pretty big.
And as Brandon and Jesse would say, there's hundreds of other role playing systems, and most of them require dice.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think next season we're going to explore a different system.
He told me what it's called, and I do not remember.
I apologize.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure it's going to be awesome.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: It'll be fantastic. And actually, for this first season, once you get a little farther in, we did actually sit down and do an interview with the creator of the system, Cam banks.
He's over in New Zealand there. Not far from you.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Not far, yep.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: And it was really interesting to hear his perspective on the system. And a lot of our beliefs in keeping it narrative focused were the same. And so that was pretty cool. And my only complaint about the system is that direwolf that owns it now doesn't really promote it, like, at all. And it makes me sad because it's a great system, and I feel like they're just passing up on so much that they could do with it.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I had to. Well, I mean, apart from the main website, I did have to do a bit of digging to find out more information about it. So I think it's definitely something they could definitely be doing better. But one thing I'm curious about is what came first, the drama or the role playing? Did they feed into each other? I know some people get into drama. Drama from role playing. Some people are just role playing becomes a natural extension of doing drama.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: I think I was doing role. I was role playing first.
I was role playing in college, out of high school with a guy that I dated. He introduced me to D and D. His family was huge into it. They had a huge family game that they would sit down and play, and I had my bag of minis and I don't know whatever happened to those, actually, now that I think about it.
But, yeah, I did get some role playing in there, and then we broke up and that kind of disappeared. And then years later, I got into the acting, and one of the people that was in this first show that I did was like, oh, he was backstage, actually, with his binder, and he was filling out sheets for an upcoming campaign. And I was like, what are you doing? And he was explaining it, and I was like, oh, so it's d and d. I was like, I did that, like, years ago. And he's like, oh, it'd be cool to do a game with a bunch of us from the theater here because we're all really good at staying in character. And he's like, that would be fun. He's like, cause my current players are not so great at it. And I was like, oh, man, yeah, that'd be fun. And so then we spun up this game, and that lasted for two or three sessions before, you know, that group fell apart because schedules, scheduling, and that was where the scheduling cycle started. We'd have two or three, and then it would fall apart, and then another two or three and it would fall apart. But, yeah, it was the role playing first.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, but, I mean, it's always such a shame when that happens. I've been quite fortunate with the group I'm with. You know, we've played pretty much every week for, like, it's gotta be two years now, you know, and probably missed, missed, like, three sessions or something like that. So, you know, that's, that's been really good. And I kind of miss out on a whole lot of the, you know, the classic D and d meme of the group never being able to get together.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Okay, so this group that you've got, that's the kind of group you record a podcast with?
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we have chatted about that. Yeah, I'm definitely thinking of bringing them on at some point and we'll, you know, we'll see how our adventure goes. But, Tim, if you're listening, our DM is amazing.
He's absolutely incredible. So, yeah, I've been talking about trying to get him in, you know, maybe with a group of dice makers internationally as well, to, you know, to try and start something fun occasionally like that.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: That would be a lot of fun. Yeah, count me in.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Yeah, awesome. Yeah. I would just really love to get a group from like everywhere in the world, you know, just to get all the different perspectives and accents and everything. I think it would be amazing.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: I can say that will be difficult to schedule just because our current cast of the first season. So just, we're all in the states.
There's three of us in the eastern time zone, one of us in central, one of us in mountainous, and another.
Nope. Two of us in mountain, and one of us in Pacific time. So we are in all the time zones all the way across the states. And every time we say a time, it's like, which time zone time are you?
Eastern. It's always eastern. We'll start there.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: That really does my head in, to be honest, because, like in Australia, we have two time zones and they're about an hour apart, so you're very lucky.
And I guess I was kind of introduced to this when I started the podcast because, you know, I'm now chatting to people and, you know, I've had guests in the UK, I think I've had all three of the time zones that I've come across in the US so far. And, you know, it's only going to get worse from here, but.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: You mean better? It's only going to get better.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Well, better for you, worse for me. I've got to get up at 03:00 in the morning or something to do a podcast.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, okay, maybe worse.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: No, to be honest, I enjoy most times, 06:00 a.m. can be a little hard. But I also find if I wake up with the right energy, it can.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: Be good with a print that's got all 13 dice on it.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I was chatting to Yolandi about this before that. I woke up this morning, and it's the first time ever that I put on seven dice and seven blanks on my resin printer, and I woke up and I had 14 complete prints. It's never happened to me, ever. Ever.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Which, if you're listening and you've never printed dice before, that is like finding the Holy Grail.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: I'd almost given up. You know, this is so off topic, but this is what we do here.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: I mean, it's printing dice. It's not, you know, entirely off topic, but I mean, yeah, I always expect at least one failure.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: One. I've been lucky to get one success for a while, to be honest.
My poor old printer, I finally wore it out and it was on its last legs. And, you know, it's like I've so desperately needed new dice masters for months now, and I just haven't been able to, I haven't been, you know, I've been, you know, I almost feel it's like it's cheating. I've been looking for other people to, you know, to print dice for me, and I'm like, I should, I can do this.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: You can just do that.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: This is, this is my thing, you know?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Like, that was how I, when I started, I didn't realize how difficult it was to print dice. And so, you know, I, when I started making dice, period, I had just had my baby like six or so months ago, and so I couldn't work at the time. I had a personal styling business, and, like, meeting with clients face to FacE was just too difficult with a Baby. And so I was like, I'll put that on hold. And my husband was like, you should try making Dice like it looks cool and you like Dice, so, like, maybe that's a thing you could do. And I was like, wait a minute. You can make Dice? Hold on a minute. How do I not know about this? And so then, of course, you know, I binge RibiNAtor and I start looking at all the other ReSin channels and, like, all the Dice things. And I was like, okay, I can give it a shot. And then, you know, I fell into Reddit and start reading about, like, you need your own masters if you're going to print, you know, if you're going to make your dice and eventually want to sell them. And I was like, well, eventually I'm going to have to. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do with thousands of Dice. I can only roll so many at a time. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to need masters. I was like, I can just print those. That simple enough? Like, I watched the video. Ribinator did it. I can do it. So I get my printer and I get my resin and I print the dice. And if you scroll back far enough on my instagram, there's my very first set of printed masters that are challenge accepted.
They are literally like a millimeter. Yeah, they're so tiny because I didn't understand the scaling. And so they all fit in the palm of my hand. Like, I could probably put them on a us quarter and they would all fit. It was hilarious.
And so I was like, okay, well, I just gotta rescale them. And, you know, I figured that out and it's still like, it took it took me over a year to get good printed dice that I was happy with, and even then, I was still like, you start to nitpick once you get to a certain point where the, like, oh, these are really good dice. You're like, but I could, you know, like, reposition that zero just, like, a hair to the left. And, you know, if I cleaned this out a little more, it would be a little more crisp, and it's just a never ending quest for proper masters.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: What is the right depth? Is a whole other one of the numbers, you know?
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I just changed my depth on my ten and my percent because I made them way more shallow so the blanks would fit better, and now I keep sanding them off, and so I'm like, well, got to go back to deeper.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a challenge I found. And, hey, hey, this is funny, talking about actual dice making. This doesn't happen very often on our show.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Wait, what?
[00:20:50] Speaker A: But I see some people out there have the most beautiful, you know, blank insert dice, and they're so shallow, and they look perfect. But, you know, along with that comes, you know, you have to be really dedicated to your sanding to not destroy the numbers. And all you end up with what a lot of people have, which is, you know, like. Like a one mil, 1.2 mil depth. And then, you know, you can. The blank is. Is far too small for the shell, so, yeah, that's the other thing, too.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: You know, you get it too small. Like, and most of the dice that I'm still making, because when I made my first set of blanks, I made them all too small. And so I made a bunch of blanks in these molds because the molds were good, you know, and I was like, I got extra resin. I'll just make some blanks. And so I ended up with, like, a ziploc bag full of blank dice that I was like, well, I got to do something with these. I guess I'll put them in dice. And so I still have a bunch. Like, some that, like, I'm just now finishing making with these blanks that are way too small for my dice. I'm like, well, I can't waste them, can I? So, like, you know, you get there eventually, is what we're getting at. If you're listening and you've never done that, you do.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: And, I mean, who would have thought that there's actual mathematics involved as well, you know, and getting the right.
The right sized inserts and all of that sort of stuff? But, yeah, look, printing masters is just a constant headache. But I've got to say, my new printer, you know, elegoo, if you want to sponsor me, please do. But the new Saturn for ultra printer has just been amazing.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: What was your previous printer?
[00:22:27] Speaker A: It was the anycubic d two dlp printer, which is. Which is a really good printer. Really great detail, all of that sort of stuff. But I found it started off great, and it just kept progressively getting worse. And I don't know what caused that, and I don't know what happened.
You know, many, many conversations with anycubic. And then I'm like, I just went like, I just need the masters.
And Elegu, you know, had, you know, we're just launching this new printer. It came out last month or something like that, and it's got all this new technology, and every print I've had so far has been perfect.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: And I talked me into it.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: I feel like I should, you know, tap on some wood or something, or do something superstitious at this point.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: But, yeah, I've got the Mars three pro, and it's been great to me. So far.
I haven't had any major issues. I'm just waiting for, like, dead pixels to start showing up. And when that happens, then I'll buy a new one, I guess. But for now, it seems to work. But there's also. Have you replaced your, um, your film at the bottom of the train?
[00:23:36] Speaker A: The fit? Yeah, yeah. Many, many times. It often goes downhill.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Okay, so I learned this about two and a half months ago, that there's the FeP, there's non FeP, and then there's something above that, and that is better than both of the other two. And I was like, okay, why wasn't this common knowledge? Why? Who was gatekeeping this from? Me.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Because I didn't know. I'm still out here with FeP. And I was like, I could be doing better.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: It's an interesting side of dice making because, you know, there's the mixing resin and all of that, and we can talk about all of that soon, but.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: The actual. The actual making. Like, if you want to be a purist with. With dice making, which, you know, in my book, I say the same thing, you know, like, yeah, go and experiment with all of this stuff. But I think the best way to get into it is start from the beginning, if you can either, you know, if you're going to print your own masters, well, that's a whole other thing you need to learn. The, you know, resin printing on its own is is ridiculously complicated. You know, it looks easy. You know, like, you watch the videos, they press a button, and suddenly there's a dragon there. No, no, it's. It's. It's not that easy.
Expect, expect many, many, many failed prints and hundreds of dollars of resin and all of that sort of stuff, you know? And then there's the, then there's the next frustration, which is molding, you know, creating your molds, which.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Oh, my God, that was another thing that, you know, I started, like I said, I binged ribinator videos and everybody, and I watched all these different videos on how to make molds, and I was like, oh, it's simple. You get container. You cover container with something sticky, put the dice in it, pour the silicone, and you're done. Flip it over, do a lid. Piece of cake. It is not a piece of cake. Okay?
If it is a piece of cake, it's that checkered cake that they make for tea time in the UK that requires, like, four precisely cut squares of cake to be put together to make one. Cake.
No.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: And let's not talk about cure inhibition. You know, when, when your fancy new printer using the fancy resin that you heard about that works 100% of the time on Reddit, and you put it in your mold, and suddenly you have a sticky mess of silicon.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Yeah, or the tape, or the tape you've got holding the dice in there causes inhibition.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Or the gloves you're wearing, or the.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Gloves, or you didn't clean it well enough, and you've got alcohol residue, and that did it in. Like, it's, it's such a delicate chemical balance.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Definitely not trying to put anyone off making dice here, but, you know, go and go and do your homework first.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: I think that is the number one thing you have to be or have to trait you have to have to be a good dice maker is a sense of adventure and an ability to do research, because if you don't have a sense of adventure and an ability to do research, you'll never be able to get what you're after. And what you're after are the shiny clickety clacks. And it's so much more difficult than you think.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: The shiny clickety clacks are the end result of a thousand failed experiments, unless you're naturally talented. And, you know, I haven't spoken to one of those people yet.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: No. Yeah, I thought I was. If you had asked me about a year and a half ago, when I started, about three months in, I was like, man, I'm making great dice. Over here. Like, these are pretty good, and they weren't bad, but they weren't great. Yeah, they were not great.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: You know, and it's. It's. Yeah, it's always until then, you see, you know, you see another maker's dice, and you're like, oh, why don't mine look like that?
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't. That you can do that. I didn't know you could do that. Okay.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: You know, it's always humbling when I, you know, I check out a maker, like I mentioned before, Yanir, who's, you know, definitely one of the originals, you know, in the dice community. And her dice are just always spectacular. They're always spectacular. They're always expensive, and they go hand in hand. And, you know, whenever I feel like I'm doing really well, I like to pull up her page and kind of look at her dice and go, yeah, I'm not there yet. Definitely not there yet.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: I just pull up literally anybody that I'm following on Instagram, and I'm like, yep, yep, we can do better. We can do better. One of my favorites is fate seeker out of. I think Germany is where fate seekers at.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: But, yeah, I'm a huge fan of fate seeker, and anytime I'm feeling too good about myself, that's my go to. I'm like, well, all right, back to the drawing board.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: The problem with Instagram is we are getting an unfair view. Right? We're not seeing the thousands of failures and the.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: That's, like, my. One of my favorite. You know, it's no secret one of my favorite dice makers on Instagram is chicken wizard dice. And George, yeah, I interviewed him in, I think, the second episode of Talking Dice, and, you know, George has some of the most incredible, detailed dice I've ever seen.
I'm like, George, are they all like this? And he's like, no, there's, like, a thousand dice before I. I show one of these. And he was proudly telling me how, you know, he made this dice, you know, just last night that turned out looking like a little piece of poop.
And he's like, see, everyone. Everyone has the poop dice, you know, eventually.
But it's also good to. It's also good to chat to those makers, which. Which I like doing here. And, you know, it's. It's not all smiles and sunshine. There's a lot of. It's not tearfully checking the printer and screaming, opening a pressure pot, and, oh, God, so speak.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Speaking of opening the pressure pot, I'm in the process. I have been recording this video for about a month and a half because I've just gotten busy and haven't gone back to it. So I made molds.
And I don't know how close you pay attention on Reddit, but there was a big hullabaloo one day about recycling silicone. And I was like, oh, yeah, you just cut the hole out and pour more silicone in. And people are like, what? And I was like, so I'm going to record, like, a full video. Like, I'll do it properly so they can see what I do because I, like, quick whipped something out just so they could see what I meant. And I was like, well, I'll record the full thing. Like, I need new molds anyway. These are, like, disintegrating before my eyes. I'll make new molds. And I put the new molds in the pot, and I did not pressurize it.
And I walked downstairs and I went to depressurize it and went, oh, no.
Oh, no. And so I pulled it out, and I was like, oh, God, it's so bad. And I, I just carved out my little hole again. I was like, well, this is recycling, recycling video. We'll just recycle this, too. And I put it back in and went upstairs, and an hour and a half later remembered, oh, no, I didn't pressurize it again.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: I'm not sure who I was speaking to, but they were talking about using a sausage grinder to grind up their old molds to turn them into, like, pellets or something like that.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I heard of somebody using a coffee grinder for their bad dice to do the same thing.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Or that's like, one of those. Will it blend?
Right? Yeah. Will it blend? Yeah. They, they were like, yeah, you just put it in an old coffee grinder, it'll turn it into dust, and then you can mix it in to new dice, like powder. And I was like, interesting.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: I'd have to give up. I'd have to give up a coffee grinder for that.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: But I know I haven't been able to give mine up. So I was like, maybe someday I'll find one at a thrift store and.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: But, yeah, let's, let's chat a little bit about your, your business. So, enchanted serpent dice, how did you come across the name?
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Um, it wasn't taken.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: That's always a start, isn't it?
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I had, what was it? My original idea. Oh, snake eyes.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: I was like, because I, like, I don't like, snakes per se, like the animal. But I do like the symbolism of snakes and, like, changing and shedding your skin and becoming something new. And so I thought that was an appropriate usage of the snake as, you know, like, I'm always creating something new, and I don't remember how I got the exact wording of the name, but that was where we ended up. I was hooked on the snake and the symbolism of change and creation, and so we ended up with enchanted serpent dice.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Which my husband insists is a mouthful, and I should shorten it to something else, but he's wrong.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: It works.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: It works. I was like, it's long. It works. I'm happy you like the dice. Go away.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: So it's the joy these days. Like, you know, we don't exactly do radio or television advertising or anything like that, so you can call the company whatever you want. But it's often a struggle when people, you know, come on the show and they're like, you know, my name's underscore. Underscore three.
What's that again?
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: But no enchanted serpent dice. It sounds good. And how long have you been selling the dice for?
[00:33:03] Speaker B: I did not wait to start selling because I started accumulating so many, and I was like, this is more than I can give away. I have to do something with them. And so I set up a little shop, and it's been actually, what is this? This is August.
It's almost a year, I think I officially launched my shop for at the end of September last year.
And some of those dice are still around, and they are interesting to look at, to say the least.
And they're still listed for sale on my website. They have my imperfect prints where I couldn't figure out how to get the 20 and the 80 very clean, so they're scraped out.
You can absolutely tell what I did. I was like, somebody will love these for $30.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Someone will. Yeah. At some point, yeah.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: So they just. They just hang around. Sometimes I just throw them in as mystery dice or give them away as a bonus set, and I'm like, these kind of have the vibe of what you bought. You might like them, too. And if you don't, you can let your kids play with them. I don't know, do whatever you want.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: I'm just looking at the scrolling banner on your site. Shipping costs suck. Yeah, I agree.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:21] Speaker A: Try shipping things from Australia. That's always fun.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: You know, I haven't done international shipping yet because it's so expensive, and I'm still finding, like, a way to bring that down. And once I do, I will ship internationally at no cost to the consumer. But until I can figure it out.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: I don't buy Amazon.
Yeah, I'll chat about this just because I've been going down a rabbit hole with my new website. And generally speaking, customers want free shipping. Like, there's this thing saying like 80 something percent of consumers prefer free shipping. Like, yeah, great. I also like free McDonald's, you know?
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: I want dice for free and I want it to rain money and all of that sort of stuff.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: All of it.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: And so then it was, then it was kind of like how much a customer's willing to pay for shipping. And that was interesting too, because, like, in Australia, shipping is expensive, you know, and you're either paying for it at the end or you're paying for it in the product. You're never not paying for it. It's always, it's always there.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: And, you know, kind of what it was saying in this article, you know, sometimes the best thing to do is just to like, halve the shipping cost and say, okay, well, so, I mean, I know to stand to send any kind of parcel to the US is $25 for me. Right. Straight up. Okay, but people from the US will be like, I'm not spending $20 shipping the product, you know, like, I'm not paying that. But, but ten's okay. Yeah, five or whatever. Right. And, you know, yeah, it's just, it's an interesting rabbit hole I've been going down because, you know, there is a lot of, you know, I definitely lose sales in that regard on my book, which is why I make so many sales on Amazon, because, you know, it's free. Well, it's not free on Amazon because you pay your prime and.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's exactly what I've done. Like, it's free, but I've just rolled the cost of shipping into the product. And if you're a little farther and it costs a little more, like it's anywhere for me inside the 48 contiguous states to ship, it's like around $5. Sometimes it's a little more. Like if they get more than one set and it's a little heavier, it's like a dollar more. And sometimes it's a little less. So. But I'm like $5. I just add $5 to the top of every price and call it a day. And so they get it all rolled in. They don't have to think about it. However, on my Etsy, I do have my some dice listed on Etsy. As well. Those you will pay shipping. So I'm doing my best to encourage them to come to the website and not buy through Etsy because Etsy is kind of evil.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Etsy is really evil.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Okay, they are evil. Good. I wasn't sure which side you stood on. Etsy is evil.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Don't hedge your bets there. I mean, I think, like a lot of makers out there, my frustration with Etsy is there. I mean, I've had stores on Etsy as well. And one, the fees are ridiculous. Two, their stance on AI is not cool. Like, I don't agree.
I think they've lost sight of how they started, which is handmade makers.
I was reading their policy just a couple of days ago, and it's, again, they're trying to hedge their bets on that.
It basically says, we don't support AI unless you personally came up with the prompts and therefore you created the art.
I don't think that's how it works.
I can use chat GPT just like anyone else, and say, hey, please write a script for my podcast.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: But that doesn't make me a, you know.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: That'S interesting.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: So, yeah, their official policy is you have to have created the, you know, like, basically created the prompts yourself.
And somewhere mentioned that you used AI to do it. And, you know, what we're seeing is a lot of artists just running away from Etsy in droves, because a lot of artists are like, no, you know, we don't want Aih.
We want AI to take away our frustration and our manual workload. I want AI to help me write emails. I want AI to help me write website content. I don't want it to do my art for me.
And look, they're increasing fees and stuff like that has just been a headache for everyone as well.
I think you'd be hard pressed finding a maker on Etsy who goes, I love Etsy. Etsy's great, you know, yeah, I have.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Yet to meet that person.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: But now, you were saying before also that you've got a bit of a background in fashion. Do you want to?
[00:39:11] Speaker B: I do. I do have a bit of a background in fashion. I, when I was 18.
Fun story. This was at the height of Project Runway, and I think they were about two seasons in, and I thought, I'm gonna be the youngest contestant on Project Runway and I'm gonna win. And I was like, I was making dance costumes at the time, so, like, I was sewing full time. I was still in college, though, and I thought, oh, I'm gonna be a fashion designer, that's my thing. And then decided that I was far too sensitive to have my creations, like, torn apart in a public space like that. And then Christian Siriano went on the competition, and he, I think he won that season that he was on. So not only was he the youngest contestant at the time, but he was also the youngest to win. And I was like, well, there goes that goal, so I'm not going to do that now.
And I pursued fashion for, like, as a designer for a couple more years and then just fell into a comfortable retail job and spent a long time there. Yeah, a whole decade plus and just.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: A small amount of time.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Just a small amount of time. But it was a really excellent experience in that I got to deal with people all day long and examine the way that they think. And anywhere that you work, that's like, a national chain has a lot of processes and procedures, and that has been so valuable in setting up my own businesses. To think back, like, okay, if I were still in the corporate world, if I were still in the fashion world, like, what would I be doing? How would I do this?
And so that's, that's that background. I don't know how far you want me to go talking about that, but I will keep going.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: No, no, no. I think when we chatted, in our initial conversation, I said I also had a background in fashion. And it's funny when, when I say that to people, like, oh, you were in, you were a designer?
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Like, no, like, there's a lot more than that.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: You know, I worked at a, as a software engineer for Australias biggest online fashion retailer, and I was just exposed to so many areas of that. And one thing I found fascinating was the buying process. And I just was like a knowledge sponge while I was there. Like, yes, I was programming, but I eventually went on to take different management positions and things like that. But I was just fascinated by seeing how large scale e commerce works and how the business runs and how collections are made and things like that, which I just found absolutely fascinating.
One story I remember, we had a chat with one of the primary buyers, and he was kind of giving us a bit of a rundown of how a collection works and all of that sort of stuff. And I just found it super interesting because I had no concept of it in fashion was the fact that, like, when they're buying and they're buying across hundreds of brands, what's in fashion next season is pretty much the same for all companies. It's like if, if it's white t shirts, with red stripes, then you're going to have white t shirts with red stripes from 50% of your brands. And the problem is people still want black t shirts and they still want red t shirts, and no one will sell them to you. So that's where you end up having to import them and white label them.
And so you have to make up the shortfall in the overall fashion buying process to come up with a collection.
It was just fascinating. And I know it makes such logical sense, but I've also found that so often, particularly in any kind of niche business as well, is what the industry offers. And what is out there is only part of what people want. And then you have to. You have to make up all the pieces. I mean, I could probably relate this to having a store, a stall at a convention. You know, it's like, I have dice. Yeah, but what else, what else have you got? What else do you need to know from your retail experience to sell those dice? Like, have you got cheap things on the table? Have you got colorful things? Have you got accessories?
[00:43:36] Speaker B: What are they going to put them in?
[00:43:39] Speaker A: Have you got some little upsells? You know, what's your, what's your overall merchandising look like? And I find it fascinating, and it's something I talk about a lot, is, you know, the cross pollination of ideas. I love that concept so much that all of your experience and your hobbies and your passions and all of that sort of stuff, they can all feed on each other, you know, or feed off each other. And eventually, you know, you're gonna fall into something or it's going to help you in a way that you absolutely didn't expect. And all of these years in fashion, which I, to a degree, resent same.
[00:44:17] Speaker B: Same, but also at the same time, like, it was so valuable.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. You know, I mean, the stuff I'm doing now is really a culmination of all of that. And it's funny, like, I've chatted to so many dice makers who've kind of, they've fallen into it from so many different areas and angles, and then go, I can bring my own approach to this because of.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Exactly. And speaking with the collections, which I think we had talked about this in our initial chat earlier this year, started structuring things in collections, and initially, the goal was each month there was a new themed collection that I could bring together different ideas from, came directly from working in retail with these fashions and these collections, that every month there was a new. I worked with h and M for a while.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[00:45:11] Speaker B: And so every month, there was a new floor set where things would change, and it would be, you know, this collection is all about animal print and zebra and, you know, black and tan. And then the next month, which, by the way, that's about to happen, it's always this. This fall season is always zebra month at h and M. So if you walk in during September or so, you should see your zebra prints and your cheetah prints. But, yes, I digress. So having those monthly inspirations as to, like, what is this girl wearing? What does this girl do? There was a full profile on this person every single month. And, like, who is this person? Why are they thinking this way? Why are they looking for these pieces?
[00:45:57] Speaker A: Persona mapping. Yeah.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: Yep. Exactly. And so, like, taking that piece and putting that onto dice and, like, okay, what's going on during this month? The last one that I'm still finishing, because life has been insane, is carnival themed. And around here, where I live, the month of June and July is, like, carnival central. There is a new carnival or festival or, like, something circus y happening every single weekend. And so I was like, I'm gonna take my experience with that and put it on dice. Like, how do I do that? And that's been so focusing and liberating at the same time that it's not just like, I go downstairs to. In my workshop to make some dice, and I'm like, okay, what am I gonna do?
What two colors do I try to put together today and see what happens? It gave me something like a challenge to complete, and, you know, as gamer, we can't not have a challenge. Absolutely.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Achievement unlocked.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Exactly. Yes. Collection achievement unlocked. That's. That's been the goal each month, is to give myself something to focus on. And it's been so liberating in a. In a constrictive way. It's very. Fashion's too smart for its own good sometimes.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: I was gonna say, are you doing any commissions or anything like that, or you just sticking to your own collections right now? I see it says commissions closed on your website.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: I did. I just closed them because I just finished one I did for the character Evan Turing from Honkai Star Rail HSR, if you're into that sort of thing. And it seems like every time I take on a commission, it's not a simple, like, oh, I need these colors in dice. Like, it's a whole, like, I have to 3d print the masters and, like, get it all right. And this one I really made difficult on myself because I don't know how familiar you are with this character. But, yeah, it's like a space train game from what I understand. Like, they're traveling through space on a train and there's battling, and he's got this twelve sided die that is part of his character. And it has all these playing card shapes on it, but they're slightly reimagined playing card shapes. So it's not a standard club. It's like they did cool things to it. And I put all of these symbols on the point of the dice and I made the die that he has that's twelve sided with all the symbols on it. And then I took other pieces from this one and, like, I'll have to send you a picture because.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: Yeah, please do.
[00:48:33] Speaker B: It was pretty magnificent, if I must say so myself.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And, well, that's the best.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. I was like, man, this was tough. And like. And because the symbols, like, when you're looking at it on your computer screen and you're modeling it up, you're like, this is perfectly reasonable. And then it prints and it's so tiny, and you're like, what was I thinking? Yeah, yeah. So I spent so long on that commission that I was like, I need to just, like, catch up on what's going on here on my work table before I can take on anything else. Because the commission before that one, a guy wanted eyeball dice. He wanted them to rotate. And so I had to figure out how to manufacture eyeballs that would always look up at you, which I figured it out, but it's still like, I just can't seem to take on anything that is simple. So if you have a simple commission out there and you're listening, I will take you.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: Please do.
[00:49:26] Speaker B: Yeah, please call me.
Give me a break.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Is your husband involved in the dice making as well, or just you, or does he.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: No, it's all me.
I talk his ear off about processes and, like, you know, it's important, you know, if you're gonna do that, because you need the honey stage and you have to. And he's like, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. Yeah. It was really funny when I first started because I got all these wild ideas. I was like, I'm gonna make magic eight ball dice. Like, I'm gonna put all the dice inside a giant D 20, and you can shake it and see the whole set. And he was like, and how are you gonna do that? And I was like, I don't know, but I'm gonna do it. And then he would start, like, deconstructing it and, like, trying to figure out how to do it. And I was like, no, you can't do that because XYZ. And he's like, oh, okay, well, what if you. And I'm like, no, but you can't do that either. And he's like, well, clearly I don't know what I'm talking about. I was like, I know you don't know what you're talking about, but your enthusiasm is helpful. Keep going.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: All right, cool. Well, look, you know, we're pretty much at time now.
I've had a lot of fun chatting to you. We could chat for another hour.
But I am also conscious that I've then got to go and edit it all and. And turn it into a 40 minutes episode and all of that sort of stuff. If people want to reach out to you, they want to chat about commissions. They want to see your dice. What's the best place to track you down?
[00:50:51] Speaker B: Instagram is the place to find mechanted serpent dice. That's me. I'm also on Twitter, and I log in about once or twice a year, whatever it is, on Twitter.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: Twitter x. Twitter is everyone.
[00:51:08] Speaker B: Twitter x, formerly known as Twitter.
Don't tick tock. Don't tick tock. I actively resist TikTok, and I don't know why.
[00:51:22] Speaker A: I need to start finding some dice makers who do TikTok. I know there's a lot of them on there, but I think all the dice makers I've spoken to so far have been from Instagram.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: They're all like, it's the same. I'm also on YouTube. I've got a channel there with long form videos, and I'm terrible about putting a, anything short form on YouTube. So Instagram is my short form platform, and YouTube is the long form. Also, at enchanted Serpent dice, it may have shortened it, actually, now that I think say that out loud, because sometimes YouTube does that.
But, yeah, I'm also over there.
And Reddit, of course, you can find me on Reddit.
I'm like, hs personal stylist because, you know, that's. That was what I used to do. So if you see the personal stylist commenting about dice.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's. It's. It's good to know that there's some dice makers behind the Personas there. I always kind of wonder with Reddit if it's just, you know, a lot of people going, yeah, I know about dice. No, it's. It's not because a lot of people are posting photos and stuff.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: So I know about dice. I know how to roll them.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: And have you got any conventions coming up or anything that you're doing?
[00:52:34] Speaker B: No.
Not planned. Anyway.
I know there are some smaller ones happening that I have meant to look into, and I just have not. So, you know, maybe we'll get lucky. Keep your eye on the socials, and if any of that turns up, you'll be the first to know. Right there.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for chatting today. I've had a lot of fun.
[00:52:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been great.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: And that's all we've got time for today. So thank you so much for listening to talking Dark.
And if you're hearing this message, you've listened to the entire episode of Talking Dice and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please give us a big thumbs up and leave a review. And don't forget to check out patreon.com talkingdice if you'd love to help us in the best way possible. And we'll catch you in the next episode of talking Ducks. Goodbye.
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