How to Glue Dice Art: Adhesives, Boards and Two Build Methods

The short version

Use a stiff board (plywood or MDF) cut to the finished size. Pick one adhesive and test it on a scrap first. Build from one corner, one row at a time, following the pattern. Let each row set before the next. That is the whole method; the rest of this page is the detail behind each choice. If you are still choosing a photo or a grid, the step-by-step dice art guide covers the steps before this one.

Adhesives compared

All of these hold a plastic die to a wooden board. They differ in how long you have to adjust a die (open time), how long before the piece can be moved (cure), whether squeeze-out shows, and what happens when something goes wrong. The table is qualitative: read the label on the tube you buy.

Wood glue is the easy start: cheap, no fumes, water cleanup, dries clear. Its weak point is the glossy plastic face of a die, so roughen the board, use enough glue, and do not plan to carry the finished piece down three flights of stairs face down.

E6000-type glue and epoxy grip plastic properly and dry clear. Both need ventilation. Epoxy has a working-time clock from the moment you mix it, so mix a little at a time and keep going.

Construction adhesive is what Jeremy used for his nieces' portraits. It is strong, forgiving and cheap per tube, and because it sits under the die, "dries beige" does not matter. Lay a thin bead, not a fat one, or the dice ride up on it and the row goes wavy.

Choosing the board

The board has one job: stay flat under a few thousand dice for years. Plywood and MDF both do it. Canvas, foam board and cardboard do not; they bow, and a bowed board cracks glue lines along the bend.

• Size: cut it to the finished grid size from the size calculator, or a little larger if you want a border inside the frame. Measure a real row of your dice before cutting; batches differ.
• Thickness: the bigger the piece, the stiffer the board must be. Small pieces are fine on thin board. Large ones want thicker plywood, or thinner board with bracing behind it (see below).
• Surface: sand off any gloss so glue can bite. Consider painting the board the colour of the dice that dominate the piece, so a hairline gap reads as shadow rather than bare wood.

Dry-lay vs glue-as-you-go

Glue as you go. Spread adhesive on a strip of the board, place a row of dice from the pattern, square them against a straight edge, move to the next row. Slower, but each row is checked and locked before the next, and a mistake costs one die, not a hundred. This is the method for a first build.

Dry-lay first. Lay the whole picture out loose on a table, step back, fix what looks wrong, then fix the dice to the board. Jeremy did this: he laid every die out dry, then transferred them row by row to his plywood with construction adhesive. You get to judge the whole image before it is permanent. The cost is handling every die twice, and a bumped table can undo an evening.

A third way, lay dry and then pour a clear coat over the top, is faster still. It is also the one we would not repeat, for the reason below.

The resin flood coat, and how it went wrong for us

The idea is tempting. Arrange all the dice on the board, then flood the surface with clear resin or glue so everything locks at once. No bead per die, no waiting per row.

It went wrong on one of our own builds. If the top layer is not transparent enough, or if it forms bubbles, it damages the whole piece at once rather than one die. There is no undo: the coat is on every die. If you still want a top coat, test it on a spare board of dice first and give it the full cure time before judging. Better yet, glue the dice down and leave the surface bare; the texture of real dice is most of the charm.

Keep the board flat: bracing

A sheet of plywood wide enough for a portrait will warp on its own over a season, and glue lines do not like that. Jeremy backed his plywood base with 2×4s to prevent warping before he glued a single die. A frame of battens around the back edge, or two across the middle, does the job; it also gives you something solid to screw hanging hardware into. Add the bracing before you glue a single die, while the board is still light enough to flip.

Materials list

• Black and white dice with pips, one batch per colour, counts from the generator plus spares. See which dice to buy.
• A plywood or MDF board cut to size, sanded, braced if large.
• One adhesive from the table, plus a scrap board to test it.
• A straight edge or a strip of wood screwed along one edge of the board as a fence.
• A damp cloth or the right solvent for the adhesive, before it sets.
• The pattern on a screen beside you: the builder tracks your position.

Gluing row by row

Start in a corner. The pattern's row 1 is the bottom row, so most people build from the bottom up and from one side, so every new die has two neighbours to sit against. Lay adhesive for one row. Place the dice in order, face up, with the pips rotated the way the pattern shows. Push the row against the fence with the straight edge. Wipe any squeeze-out. Then let it grab for a minute before you start the next row, or the whole line creeps.

Keep a rhythm: the builder in Diceify highlights the die you are on and tells you how many identical dice come next, so you can place a run of six "black 6" dice without looking back at the screen for each one. Put the dice for the current row in a tray sorted by colour. Stop when you lose focus, not when the row ends; progress is saved where you left it. When you are ready, start building from row 1.