But that would take more money: CNC machines start at $6,000 on the low end, to make any of those.Ī worker at Artisan Dice gets to work on the company’s CNC machines. Brumfield would need a CNC (computer numerical control) machine for those. Milling a standard six-sided die is a relatively simple task compared to what it takes to make a twenty-sided one - or a “d20” as it’s commonly called in the gaming community.
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“I was like, ‘I have no clue how to make those,'” Brumfield says with a laugh. While all dice are technically “polyhedral,” this term refers to the multi-sided dice used in many table-top games like Dungeons & Dragons. The early interest, turns out, wasn’t an aberration. Word of artisanal dice spread fast in the table-top gaming community and, soon, people started asking about ordering sets of polyhedral dice. In time, that first Kickstarter would prove wildly successful, too, raising more than $91,000 for his efforts. That was more than enough for Brumfield to start producing six-sided dice made from exotic woods like wenge wood from The Congo, and even his naturally colored and visually stunning Purple Heart designs. Orders were so plentiful, actually, that Brumfield had to hire a few extra hands to help fulfill them and build the dice from the makeshift workshop he’d set up in his garage just outside of Dallas in Mesquite, Texas. “So, overnight, I was like ‘OK, I guess I’m going to learn how to make dice for a living.'” “The first day, we had about $1,700 dollars in orders,” Brumfield says. But the next morning, Brumfield woke up and checked the early returns on his efforts and couldn’t believe what he saw. These Artisan Dice creations are made of old Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrels. He launched a Kickstarter campaign that same day, too. So, inspired by his friends’ enthusiasm, he spent a day building a website for this new business idea, which he called Artisan Dice. With a pregnant wife and bills to pay, he figured he didn’t have much to lose. At the time, he was working practically for free, helping his family keep their sporting goods store afloat. Would people really be into buying dice at the price he would need to ask for them in order to make the effort worthwhile? He doubted it, but he decided to take the chance anyway.
The dice were such a hit, in fact, that Brumfield’s friends were convinced that their pal had found his new calling. “I thought I made some really crappy, sort of cube-shaped dice,” Brumfield says. So he set out to the local woodworking shop, purchased a handful of blanks made from different exotic woods and went to work with a handsaw and a drill press.Įven with his handyman experience from working on cars, the first set of dice took him “hours and hours” to make - mostly, he says, because he didn’t have the right tools. He didn’t love the craftsmanship on those first sets, but the dice were functional enough.
After checking out seemingly every gaming shop in town to no avail, Brumfield thought to himself that it couldn’t be too hard to try his hand at making a few sets himself.
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This particular game required a set of “fudge dice” that only features plus and minus signs on its sides. That transition happened out of necessity, really. Brumfield and his table-top gaming group had just started a new game of The Dresden Files RPG, but were having a hard time finding the special dice needed to play the game. A few weeks later, he would find himself the nation’s leading distributor in high-end table-top gaming dice. Then, one night a few years back, a roll of the dice literally changed his life.
He spent his time working on cars, eating good barbecue and playing table-top games - Dungeons & Dragons, specifically - with his friends. From A Garage Workshop In Mesquite, This Company Produces Some Of The Most Gorgeous - And Expensive - Dice In The World.Īll photos by Travis Baugh (unless otherwise marked).Ĭharlie Brumfield used to consider himself a pretty average guy.
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