A Dicey Endeavor

So this past weekend was PAX!  PAX, for those who don’t know, is the Penny Arcade Expo; a convention for all things nerdy produced by the creators of a webcomic empire.  This year, we decided to take Julius along for the ride.  This was a bold decision, and one that we are overall pretty happy with.  We had a hotel room in the hotel that is connected to the convention center, which was extremely necessary.  On one hand the convention is so loud, and Julius is so distracted while eating, that I had to go back to the peace and quiet of the hotel room to let him eat.  On the other hand, the white noise was perfect for napping, so Julius napped in the stroller more than he has ever done during the course of a normal day.  This meant, as long as we didn’t mind occasionally waiting 20 minutes between turns, we could play anything we wanted.  Plus, after Julius went to bed, we could play anything we wanted.

Julius is ready for PAX.
(You may recognize the pink yoshi hoodie)

Julius and Will looking at a giant display I think.

Player 3 has entered the game (and he looks exhausted)

On the second day, we made a big mistake.  We checked out of the hotel.  This caused two problems: firstly we had nowhere quiet for Julius to eat and secondly, we couldn’t do anything after his 7pm bedtime.  That, combined with the fact that we didn’t want to subject our friends to the “occasionally waiting 20 minutes between turns” rule meant I did very little gaming.  I DID manage to buy some really sweet dice though, more on that later.  We both agreed that, PAX with a 5 month old baby is totally do-able and even enjoyable, but also agreed that if we were to do it all over again, we’d keep the hotel room one extra night.

So many dice!

So more on those dice!  For a while now, I’ve wanted to make dice jewelry.  I have some sweet mini-d20 earrings, but I wanted more!  So I went to the chessex booth and searched through their seconds bin (.30 cents a piece!!) until I found some cute d4s to make into earrings.  Then I found some cool d20s, and some %ds and d6s and then I accidentally had a full cup of dice.  It was like looking for seashells or rocks at the beach.  You spend what seems like a few minutes, and actually turns into an hour, looking at one little patch of sand, to find you’ve a small mountain of discarded crustacean houses that would look great as jewelry, but in actuality you’ll never use.  Or is that just me?  I suspect it’s not just me because there were two other women and one man digging through the Chessex bin with me, but for an even longer period of time.  Bottomline?  Expect some upcoming posts on ideas for dice jewelry.  Additional bottomline?  If you pick out an entire cup full of dice, your dice only cost 20 cents a piece!  (Though if you randomly scooped a cupful they were only 13 cents a piece…)

D4 Earrings

What you’ll need:

• 2 Plastic or wooden D4s
• 2 2″ head pins
• 2 ear wires
• jewelry pliers
• vice & drill press or hand held drill

1. Put on safety goggles.  I don’t say this enough, but after a scary incident with paint thinner I ALWAYS wear safety goggles when doing anything crafty.  Drilling is one of those things where even before the paint thinner incident I would have worn safety glasses.
2. First you’ll need to drill a hole straight through your D4.  It is highly recommended that you use a drill press for this.  Insert 1/16″ drill bit in drill.  If you have a drill press, clamp D4 so desired number is facing up.  Position drill bit over vertex of pyramid and lower drill press until you’ve cut clean through the die.  If you don’t have a drill press, clamp D4 upside down in your vice, so desired number is facing down, and flat plane is facing up.  Position your hand held drill over the center of the die face and carefully drill through the die, readjusting to guarantee you’ll drill through the tip of the die on the bottom.
   

   Drill straight through face of die.  I used a rubber jar opener to cushion my die in the vice.

3. Sand any sharp edges caused by drilling.
   

   Sand any rough spots caused by drilling

4. Insert head pin up through the bottom of the D4 so the flat side of the die rests on the head of the pin.
   

   Insert head pin through bottom of die

5. Using your pliers, shape the excess wire into a 3mm ring.
   

   Shape excess wire into a loop.

6. Insert ear wire into ring.
   

   Insert loop onto ear wire.

7. Wear with pride!
   

   Wear with pride!