Table Top RPG Creators Corner — Dice Artisan Evewynn

Welcome to the table.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Evewynn Of Evenwood (Of is her middle name) also known in the more mundane lands as Aron Jean, to talk about crafting, dice, and inspiration.

Anton Kromoff: Hello Evewynn and thank you so much for taking some time to talk to me about your craft. Your website Evewynn’s Workshop showcases some truly dazzling dice in all shapes and colors. Can you tell us a little bit about the person behind the product?

Everwynn: Hi! Many may know me best as a dice designer and maker, but I’m also an artist and designer! I live in the Los Angeles area, and I love playing games like D&D and Pathfinder!  I also sometimes cosplay as my D&D character as well as Taako from The Adventure Zone.

Anton: Are you a full-time artist or do you also engage in other pursuits?

Evewynn: Outside of dice casting, I’m a designer full-time for a publisher, and that job entails a lot of different things lately, I review art usage by licensees, though I do a variety of things as needed— I’ve done some character design, coloring, and worked on a number of cool projects for print. I’ve also previously done some work in animation; I painted the title cards and assisted with backgrounds for the Cartoon Network animated series Mighty Magiswords. Outside (of) work, I create digital & traditional art, paper-craft and such.

Anton: Across social platforms and on your website, your polyhedron work really stands out as some of the finest inserted dice we have seen. The cheeseburger, the spell pages, 112-year-old sheet music (you read that correctly friends) I have been an avid Storyteller and dice collector for over 20 years and I have to say I am spellbound by the way a lot of these D20s turn out. What sparks your creative fire to create these small wonders?

Evewynn: Thank you kindly! Sometimes an idea hits me at the oddest moment, like the Big Mac D20. I love that burger and wanted to cast something ridiculously funny. An earlier idea was to cast a 7-piece set where each piece was themed for one of the ingredients in a Big Mac.

Evewynn: Another time I cast a jumbo D20 for a friend where I put a tiny brass spittoon in it because of something that happened in our campaign. I tried to weight it so it would roll more 1’s as a joke, but the darn thing still rolled pretty evenly. Still, it was a very funny piece and they loved it.

Early on, I cast a set with fake teeth in it, and it was so ridiculous— people either loved or absolutely hated it! I think that’s really fun and why I try out silly things— to see what kind of reaction they get.

Other times I develop a design over time through trial and error, like the Kosmos-style galaxy dice or the scrolls. I love to test new materials out and sometimes I stumble across cool things and they evolve from there. I had good luck with old book paper but when I used the very old sheet music, I learned the resin really makes that paper more translucent and the print offset makes it look kinda ghostly when you can see both sides of the paper at once.

Anton: You hand-cast dice, making each one an individual art piece. Can you take us through what that process looks like from conception to completion?

Evewynn: I don’t usually plan anything too deeply concerning conception as I kick ideas around, but as I noodle with an idea, I try out combinations of things and I move towards a look I love. If it takes a few tries to get it right, that’s cool. Nowadays, I cast with a resin that cures a little faster for me; Crit Cast Resin from Level Up Dice has been great, and I’ve been able to de-mold in 6-8 hours or better usually (depending on the weather) so I can try more things out without waiting too long to see if it worked.

Once I have a cast I like, I clean it up. I try to patch or fix any surface flaws I can, but at the end of the day, they’re handmade pieces. None are truly perfect and none are truly flawless. That’s the charm in handmade, and I think that’s what makes them a little more special. Inks are fun too, and I’ve discovered how much the color of the number inks can influence the color or mood of a piece. It’s pretty cool stuff. After it’s all done I photograph it and share!

Evewynn: I usually post on my social media when I’m taking commissions, but sometimes others have recommended me to people, and I try to take commissions as my time permits. I’m big into doing art trades and trades for my collection too, so that’s another way someone might be able to get a custom cast from me.

Anton: When creating dice for a client do you prefer being given a lot of direction or more vague ideas and then being allowed to create as you go?

Evewynn: It’s gone both ways! Sometimes someone likes something I’ve done, and requests a recreation or a variation of that. Sometimes they are broad in what they like, wanting a specific color or something, but open to my interpretation of that. Other times, they tell me what they would like with far more specifics.

I’ve had very specific details given to me and done a number of casts exploring the request and developed a design based off that exploration where I narrowed a specific look down. Sometimes while I’m trying to figure out one thing, I accidentally discover something that may work well for other stuff so I’ll try to remember that for the future. I am cool with more specifics, and I’m cool with less specifics— either way it’s fun to cast.

I try to give them something they love, and I try to hit the mark as close as I can if it’s possible for me with what I have for materials and tools.

Evewynn: Thank you for chatting with me! I’m always posting on my Twitter and Instagram, and I also usually post important links at linktr.ee/Evewynn and Evewynn.com.

Until next time, as Evewynn would say “The spell ‘Light’ is a Cantrip— cast it wherever you may go!”