How I Built Dice Art With Double-Sided Tape Instead of Glue

It's difficult to find any information online about how to create a dice art piece. Here's how I made mine: no pane of glass, no epoxy, just dice you can actually feel.

The build at a glance

• Time: 30-40 hours over about 2 weeks, at a minimum of 5 rows per day
• Board: Masonite, cut by a local framing company
• Dice: 8 mm black and white dice from Temu, around $225 CAD
• Adhesive: 4" commercial-grade double-sided tape

The pattern

I found Diceify through Google while researching dice art resources. I especially liked how it allowed customizing the contrast, brightness, sharpness, and the makeup and direction of the dice.

No glass, no epoxy

I wanted to make sure that people could actually feel the dice art, and not have it covered in a pane of glass or an epoxy. Glue felt like the best solution, but that sounded messy if I applied too much.

The board

I contacted a local framing company and asked them to cut a piece of Masonite board for me. This is a simple material that was perfect for the dice art.

I simply multiplied the 8 mm dice by the dimensions of the art piece. I had the number of dice for the height (from Diceify), and did simple math to find the width. Each die was technically less than 8 mm, so I had a bit of a gap overhang. The framing company ended up trimming this excess when I brought the dice back.

The dice

I sourced the dice from Temu and purchased them using coupon codes. They come in black and white: the dice I bought.

I ended up spending around $225 CAD for 12 × 601 pcs (white) and 8 × 601 pcs (black). I think the dice price has increased since then.

The adhesive: double-sided tape

I previously thought glue or epoxy, but these sounded messy or didn't allow people to physically touch the art and feel the dice. I ended up using a commercial-grade double-sided tape, also found on Temu: the tape I used.

I bought the 4" wide one and I have a ton left over. It was super easy to align onto the board (compared to using a regular double-sided tape). There is also a 6" one, but it was too expensive for my purposes.

The adhesion was really good (I inadvertently waxed some arm hair in the process).

Technique

I exposed the double-sided tape in small increments as I worked up each row.

Every few rows, I would lightly hammer the top and run a hammer along the row to keep it level. I've seen some dice art videos where the rows start to become uneven, which I didn't want. A small misaligned die early on has a ripple effect as you continue.

How long it took

I worked on it for probably 30-40 hours, and it took me about 2 weeks to complete. I had a goal to complete a minimum of 5 rows per day, which made things easy with Diceify.