Grayson: hello, and welcome to gays making. I am Grayson hay, and we are here to talk to LGBTQIA creators about their art. And today I have Noël, ah, Frodelius-Fujimoto. I had to like process it for a second. She is an digital illustrator graphic designer, and has recently been making dice. And so I am super excited to have her here to talk.

Noël: Awesome. Glad to be here. Thank you.

Grayson: So how are you doing first of all?

Noël: Good, good. Yeah, usual Tuesday, you know, in general, things are pretty good right now. I'm with work, which is great. That's it's nice upswing.

Grayson: That's good. Yeah, I know that you've had some. We'll just leave it at that in the past. So it's good to hear that you're like, you know, that you're having good time at work. But we're not here to talk about work. We're here to talk about work and specifically your art. So I'd love to hear just a little bit about like what you make and where your inspirations come from.

Noël: Sure. Yeah. So like you said I recently got into dice making. So that's the handmade dice making community. And that started back in March of last year. So I've really only been doing it for about a full year now. But I'm not new to resin art. So I'd actually started my first business back in 2012 which was a resin jewelry making business. Kind of cut my teeth on that, learned what to do, what not to do. It was a very good learning experience. And then I kind of got away from that for a while when I got back into digital art, doing graphic design. And that is had, that has been my primary source of income for the past three years or so once I started in graphic art, which is my graphic design business but really missed working with my hands and doing something. Physical like a physical craft. And I discovered a critical role and D&D in 2019. And kind of like from there as like, Oh, dice looks lucrative. It's cool. It's, you know, very creative and it's in a field or community I'm already interested in. So it was a perfect fit. Yeah. And I've just kind of, wheedled my way into that. And now it's what I'm doing. Full-time basically is graphic design for that community. So I'm doing business logos and custom dice logos for people. And yeah, I've, that's just becoming my whole thing, which is great.

Grayson: Nice. So You're so you're working entirely for yourself at this point.

Noël: Yes. Yeah. Speaking of the difficulties. Yeah. I ended up leaving my job last December due to some unfortunate opinions about me, you know, being an LGBTQ person, actually, it does relate to that, but yeah, I quit and then I went full-time self-employed for the first time, which is exciting and terrifying at the same time, but it's been going really well.

Grayson: Yeah. That's, that's awesome to hear that that it's going well and that I know that it can be scary. I know I've never made that jump to be entirely self employed because it does, it scares me. And yeah, so I guess one of the things that, one of the things that I want to know is Other than obviously quitting your job in December. What, what played into the decision to go full-time and really dive into making dice and doing graphic design on your own.

Noël: So it's kind of, and the slow process I originally went to school for museum studies and arts administration, and had kind of seen myself as someone being in the arts, but as a supporter role in a corporate art world. And I was in that world for a very long time. And then just kind of found that it was burning me out. It really wasn't. As creative as I wanted it to be. And that was right around the time that I shifted gears and went into graphic design full-time I founded my own business on the side, but obviously, you know, going full-time freelances, it's a shaky risk to take. So until recently I had been doing like a full-time job and then stuff on the weekends or on the side. But. Yeah, I think it's, it's just been like a slow realization of the past few years that this is really what I want to do. It's much more fulfilling. You know, I can definitely operate in the nine to five corporate world, but it just is not fulfilling. And as an artist, I'm sure many other artists can relate to the, like, I'm not a morning person. I stay up till 2:00 AM. And I reached my like creative peak at 10:00 PM. And you can't do that when you work in the corporate office. So this is much more feasible for me and feeds into my creativity much better too.

Grayson: Nice. Yeah, I think that I think that's great. Like, it's, it's good to hear that you're thinking about you've, you've dove in and, and that it's, it's working for you. So I, one of the things like you, you said that you were, you know, you worked at a museum for awhile or. Within museum. One of the things that I do whenever I need to refresh my creative pool just kind of like creative energy is I go to museums to just take in other people's art and just kind of experience and be in that environment because it very much is like refreshing right. Or reenergizing. Do you have any rituals that are kind of associated with like refreshing your creative pool? Whenever you're feeling. Like it's, you know, reaching it's its low points.

Noël: Yeah, I, I try to find inspiration really wherever I can for the dice making specifically I've been very inspired by characters and like, I am a writer as well as a visual artist, but I haven't really published anything. It's more, I do it for myself. But you know, I'm also a D&D player. I've been role-playing and LARPing since I was like in middle school. So that has been my recent. Inspiration is just hearing about other people's worlds and characters and kind of using that as my inspiration. I'll also go on walks. I have a great park across the street from where I live. I'm just looking at different color combinations in nature. I'll like I'll spend hours on Pinterest, just looking at aesthetic photos or whatever. I try to pull from everywhere. But yeah, the The character stuff has probably been the most inspirational recently for the dice stuff.

Grayson: Oh, nice. So do you Do you do commissions for people for their character or do you base it or yeah. Or do you base it off of just like characters that you like from things like critical role?

Noël: So it's been a combination. I actually have not made any dice inspired by critical role yet. But I know many people that do it has been half and half, so I haven't officially opened up for commissions yet, but it's something that I want to do soon. I have done a couple giveaway sets for people that have been based on characters. And the nice thing about. Those is that there's kind of this like collaboration between me and the player. And obviously anyone who has a character is like super invested in them and has like, you know, it's hard to get someone to stop talking about their character. So I just get fed all this great stuff and then, you know, they'll tell me Anything from like, you know, their favorite color to a secret about their characters past, and I can pull from anything and work with them to find something that, you know, it says a lot about that, that character As far as other inspirations outside of that I've pulled a few from books that I like. But actually it's mostly been just like that kind of collaborative thing. And yeah, I'm hoping to open up for commissions maybe in the next month or two.

Grayson: Nice. Nice. Yeah. So that's, that's awesome. At, at the end of the show, we'll have you like give all of your details about like where you can, where people can find you and this is going to release first week of June, I think. So Yeah. So we'll make sure we, we, we let you plug at the end. But yeah. So let's just talk about what's your favorite dice that you've created and what was it based off of? Hey,

Noël: that is a really hard question. I mean, really dicey it's like asking what was your favorite child? Yeah, I, the one that comes to mind the most actually is one that I've been trying to perfect. That so. There's like two, two different reasons why I really love this set that I created. And I called it autumn fog. Basically it is little pieces of preserved maple leaves with gold leaf that I've suspended in a semi like a Milky resin. So it does look like leaves falling in, in fog. That means a lot to me. Because a the, the leaves were part of a floral arrangement that a friend sent me on a really, really bad day. And it was a complete surprise. Like they had, they were going to send it anyway. They didn't know I was having a bad day. It just worked out that way. So that, I think of that every time I use them and then also it, I actually did pull from my own D and D character for that set. There's I play an Aladdin, so it's an L phrase that's based on the seasons very heavily. And autumn plays into his backstory quite a bit and has a lot of meaning. So, and it's also my favorite season. So I think that's the favorite one, I guess, for the moment.

Grayson: I mean, I definitely agree with you that autumn is the best season. Especially, especially here. Yeah. Cause you're, you're also based in the Seattle area, correct?

Noël: Yes. Yeah. I'm from upstate New York though. Isn't that? The season in upstate New York is great.

Grayson: I hear that. I have never, I haven't actually been to the East coast during autumn. But yeah, it's, it's on my bucket list of places to go when we can travel again and luckily we'll be able to travel probably in autumn and I have a ton of airline miles saved up. Um, so I've planned to travel quite a bit. Yeah. So if we can get into something that's maybe a little bit more of a sensitive topic just because you, you did mention that your last job you quit because it's, you know there were issues with the, you know, with being part of the LGBTQ community. And so one of the things that I kind of a two-part question How does being queer being part of the LGBTQ community influence your work? Both the graphic design as well as the, the dice making. And then like, what do you do to keep creating when the world is so hostile?

Noël: Two good questions. How it relates, like how being queer works into my art is probably less visible on a surface level. But I can tell you the handmade dice making community there is it's, it's huge. There's like queer people everywhere. It's great. And I think my art kind of, I. My queerness comes out in the community more than in the actual art itself. For sure. But in some ways it also does appear in the art because you can create things that kind of. down boundaries of like what somebody should be or et cetera. Like the nice thing is that D&D in general that community tends to be very open to LGBTQIA. Um, Because you know, you're already believing in magic and orcs and whatever, like someone being gay or whatever is not a terrible stretch of the imagination at that point. And it's generally very open I found at least. So yeah, I think for me, the queerness is it's just an identity that I can connect with other makers on. And I have found that there's a really great support system within the community for, for us. The second question guess, I wouldn't say I kind of use art as a way to push back. And that's again, maybe not as visible, it's hard because dice is. Amorphous in some ways, like the way that I'm translating things into a single little object through the writing that I do. And again, that is more for myself, but I mean, I, I continuously play different sexualities or genders like my, my character currently is male. And. Is bisexual. And I have other characters who span everything from asexual to questioning and part of their story is coming out and it's for me, that's where it comes out more often. It's kind of like me playing with my own identity, as I learned about it through these characters, which just cool.

Grayson: Nice. Nice. Yeah, I think that that's, that's really inspirational. Just to be able to, to explore things with your art even if it's either indirect or through things like your writing or the characters that you create. So I actually, I'd like to, to hear more about your D&D character,

Noël: Sure absolutely.

Grayson: yeah. So your, your is the, the one that you were just describing who's Male bisexual. And, and I think you said an elf, type of elf , I'm actually not familiar with that, with that race inside of D&D could you just maybe say a little bit more about that?

Noël: Sure. Yeah. So Eladrin is a sub race of elves within the D&D world. And I think that they came out as they currently are in Canon in 5e so very with the most recent edition. And they had been like a monster creature that you could fight in previous additions, but now you can play them, which is cool. The basic premise is that elves in Canon or fairly related to Fae or they all have fae ancestry and a bunch of them stayed within the Fey wild, you know, the realm of ferry and through whatever means eventually developed this strange connection to the seasons. So they're kind of like elves steroids in a way, like, as far as like, it's just, they're just so much extra. They're very extra was just like, I like playing them, but they have features that reflect each of those seasons. So there's like four different forms. They'll have leaves in their hair. Like their skin is bright, gold or blue. And I normally don't actually play a fairy creatures or any kind of creature, those that flamboyant. But I've had a lot of fun with this one because in our home game we actually have, home-brewed it a little different from than cannon. Where the seasons basically relate to the emotions of the character. And so one of my deepest, darkest wishes is, Oh my gosh, wouldn't it be great if I could change my body anytime I wanted, because some days I feel like one way and some days I feel another way and I can kind of play with that with this character. Because even though he's he's male and. Has a male body, his physical features will constantly change depending on his mood. And that's kind of, I guess me living vicariously through those character. But yeah.

Grayson: Nice. So as an, just to kind of give an, a give or have you give an example of like how his appearance shifts based on his mood, like, so if he's like angry, what, what would happen just out of curiosity?

Noël: Yeah, so actually that is his, his resting seat. He has anger management problems. But yeah, he is he's what they would call a summer Aladdin. And so what I have written for him it's a little tone down from the Canon stuff, because I thought it was a little too extra, but for him, basically his eyes are gold and will flare up and kind of glow like fire. If he's getting upset, he has got. Coles beneath his hair. So like, it almost looks like embers were sparks flying up through his hair. And then say he's like, Getting or, or something that is making him very happy. For instance, if he's having a really good experience or is in love or something that would shift into spring then and then for that, I have like little flowers popping up in his hair. It's a lot of stuff that happens in his hair apparently. But yeah, the eye size will change. Color a little bit to be a little softer like more femme, I suppose. Yeah, kinda shifts from there.

Grayson: Nice. Yeah, that, that sounds like a super cool character.

Noël: A lot of fun. It's it's never a dull moment for sure.

Grayson: Yeah, I am. I'm actually playing a changeling right now in my campaign. So but I, I failed to actually change form enough just because like in the world that we're living in the change things are very, very distrusted. So he's very, he's very careful, but he's part of a blood blood sex called, which is kind of awesome. Um,

Noël: I need to hear more about the smell. a set of dice based on this character.

Grayson: yeah, yeah. Actually the reason I asked about the the inspiration is cause I'm probably gonna hit you up for some dissectable probably my entire like game group is going to be vaccinated soon within the next month or two. Um, so maybe I'll be your first commission once you open up.

Noël: That'd be great.

Grayson: Um, Just I guess a couple of other questions like I know for me I am definitely one of the kind of artists where I listened to inspiration and I only work when I have inspiration or that drive mostly cause I'm ADHD. But

Noël: Same.

Grayson: so yeah, you know, there's, there's obviously two sides of that. There's the people who work when inspiration hits and the people who work. Every day, they just put in the time you know they knock out the resistance by Steven Pressfield says, or they have developed a creative habit, like Twila, Thorpe. What would you say you are?

Noël: Hmm, that's good. A good question. Also. Being ADHD or at least most probably I'm still getting that looked into. I do find myself more on the scale of I work when the inspiration hits. The nice thing is that there's just so much inspiration that I don't have too many lulls. If I do, it's, it's usually more just like a burnout thing because I'm too busy doing other stuff and I'm not devoting enough time to my art. In which case, then I have to just reevaluate and shift gears. But as as both like dice creation, dice, creator, and a graphic designer. If I am losing inspiration, one of them, I can always shift to the other, which is nice. And that does, that does happen. So I'm pretty much always creating. It just shifts from what type of creating I'm doing.

Grayson: That makes sense. So with with the resin work of the dice is there a lot of downtime, like waiting for the dice to cure and how do you, how do you handle that? Do you just have like a ton of them going on at any given time or. Like what's that like

Noël: yeah. So anything with resident takes a long time. So as I'm pouring a set kind of. Designing, what it will look like in the cup as a mixing takes up to an hour. And then it takes about 24 hours in a pressure pot which is basically just pushing all the bubbles out of it. From there, it can take anywhere from one to three weeks for the dice to completely off gas and fully cure. Then you have the sanding and polishing process and then the inking process, and then they're done. So it takes about a month to make a full set of dice if I'm working quickly. And as far as like how many I'm creating for me lately, the dice has kind of taken a little bit of a backseat just because I'm doing a lot of graphic work for a dice Kickstarter at the moment. So I've been. Focused on that, but normally I've got at least one thing in the pot a day. And that could be Dyess. It can also be something else. I do dice trays. I do other trinkets. Yeah. There's nothing in there right now, unfortunately, but yeah, usually, usually I try to get at least one thing in there a day. Just so that I'm, I'm producing even if it's just like, Hey, I have nothing better to do than just like, I don't know, pick a random color and throw it in there. At least I'm making something. And oftentimes some of the best pieces I've made have come out of those, just like, I don't know what I'm doing, moments and just throwing random stuff in. And then sometimes if I'm planning a set it won't come out at all. Like what I thought. So it's interesting. Medium to work in

Grayson: What's been the biggest challenge of switching like from, you know, the resin jewelry making to dice.

Noël: It's just the nature of the, the end product, I think because dice or a precise instrument, they're more of a tool than an art piece, but they can be both obviously. And obviously when you're using something like dice, you want them to be kind of balanced. You know, it's, it's a perfect Polyhedral and so by that nature, trying to keep them perfectly symmetrical on all sides as you're doing this as difficult because your mold can warp and then when you're sanding them, you might just stand a little too far and then something, something goes off. The Kickstarter I'm currently working on is. Helping with that, like it's, it's for a dice mold Kickstarter. But yeah, that's probably the biggest challenge. And then also trying to fit everything you want into a tiny little piece of resin is also hard. Not everything I want to put in dice fits and dice. That's that's a bigger problem. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think that's probably the biggest challenges. One, one thing I will say I'm grateful for the first time with jewelry is I, I. Got all of my like, Oh, I'm just going to buy everything. I can possibly get my hands on the mistake out of the gate early. And so I have not made that mistake this time. And I actually came into dice making already knowing what resin I was gonna use, what inclusions I wanted, what I did not need. So that's been a blessing in disguise. Those mistakes early led to better choices now.

Grayson: That's good. Yeah. I think we learn a lot from our mistakes. What's the what's the most impractical thing you tried to fit into a dice.

Noël: Oh, gosh most impractical or weirdest. I don't know. Most impractical either. Most impractical is probably, I have these little resin 3d printed skulls that are basically like, Really cool, but way too big to fit in. And I ended up cramming one into a mold once a night, ruined the mold because it just, it was just not going to fit. But I've also put some other things that like I have snakeskin shed that I have put into a set for someone's Naga character, excuse the snake person flowers. I do a lot of floral stuff. And that can be impractical because with florals, you have to really make sure that they're perfectly dry before they go in or they rot in the resin. So it's just, it's more difficult. I have dead bees sitting around in spiders that I can put in dice and just have not done it yet.

Grayson: All right. I think that, I think the rotting flowers could be an interesting take on like necromancy set or something, uh, where you purposefully let the flowers, rot.

Noël: that would be

Grayson: don't know.

Noël: Huh? I might have to try that. I actually have a set where the mouse is getting kind of weird. So I might play with that. Thank you.

Grayson: Of course, I'm always here to, to give inspiration or, or random ideas. Let's put it that way.

Noël: I love it.

Grayson: cause it's just where my brain goes. I'm like, Ooh, dead rotting flowers. That sounds like it would be crazy on the inside of a di Because I also liked the idea that changing over time, like anyway yeah, so I think we're at a good stopping point. And so I would like you to well, I two questions before we, before we head out so one, where can people find you online? And then two, what is one last thing that you want to tell the audience?

Noël: Oh, gosh. Well you can find me online. I finally have my own website. It's arcanumdice.com. And it's, arcanum a R C a and U M ARKanum dice. And that is the username for all of the social as well. So I am primarily active on Instagram though I do have a Facebook and Twitter account. I just kind of push there. So if anyone's interested in interacting with me or really seeing what I'm doing day to day, I will show stories of like, know in-progress works and things on Instagram, primarily. Yeah. And as far as what I would like to tell the audience for people who are listening, who are makers or aspiring makers I can tell you to don't, don't give up on something. Even if you don't have a ton of experience or a degree in said thing I took one graphic design course in college period, and now it is my full-time job. Like I just taught myself everything through hard work and yeah, you can do it too. I have a lot of, I know a lot of people in the arts communities who give up early or get the imposter syndrome thing and. I am here to say you can do it by inspirational speech for today. Yeah.

Grayson: that's definitely a good way to end in the episode I will put all of the links and in the, in the show notes. So you can find all the information about this episode at gaysmaking.com/102. And yeah Thank you so much, Noël. This was a pleasure. And it's good to see you again, cause it's been awhile cause I have not been going to taco class.

Noël: Have I

Grayson: okay. Well then I won't feel so bad.

Noël: kind of dreamed. It's so weird. Yeah.

Grayson: yeah.

Noël: we're not being social, but Yeah, I get that. I'm kind of. Same way.

Grayson: But yeah. Thank you so much. And yeah gays making, you can find us online. at gaysmaking.com. The on Instagram and Twitter, we are gaysmakingpod. We don't do Facebook, so until next time thank you so much and we will see you later. Bye.