Today we’d like to introduce you to Hayley Sonnier

Hayley, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

I got started in this craft back in 2019 or so, but it wasn’t until 2020 that it really became something more. When the pandemic really hit us, my husband and I ended up without jobs and very briefly without a home. We were living on the generosity of some friends before packing up our entire life into a moving truck and driving from Oregon to Louisiana with two cats.

When I was faced with the choice of dedicating more of my time to this hobby or going back to the “real” workforce, I decided it was time to take the risk. There was no better time that when we had nothing else to lose, you know?

I wouldn’t be here without the support of my husband and countless friends and customers who have shown up over the years to support what I do. We started a Patreon in 2021 and it has been an endless source of inspiration and encouragement from our customers who love what we do. It’s helped us grow and add to our creative repertoire over the years.

We fell in love with the world of tabletop role playing games and the role that dice have in those stories. From there it blossomed into a love for an art that helps create the tools that players all over the world could use to tell their own stories.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

Oh my god it’s been so hard. I think this year we’ve really felt it, with a shift in social media towards content creation, and away from a genuine love for art and sharing art with each other. People don’t have as much money to spare to buy art, which is tough, but I don’t think there’s any less of a need for people to be making art.

It’s really hard to make a living off your art these days, and I think people that don’t see behind the curtain don’t always get it. It’s a full-time job of being not only the creative vision but also marketing and social media and shipping and literally everything else.

This past year I took on a part time job on top of continuing to run our creative business as we saw our sales steadily dropping, and while that has eaten into my time, it has offered me a lot of inspiration in other ways, and a bit of the financial security to go back to taking risks and trying different things with my art. It’s hard not to get stuck in a rut of just creating what you think people are going to buy rather than what really excites you.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I fell into the very niche hobby of making resin dice for tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. We get to create tiny, tactile works of art that can be used and treasured and incorporated into other people’s games.

What really inspired me were the stories that we were telling at our tables with our friends, tales of adventure and joy and hardship, and of heroes and villains, where we could make a difference in this imaginary world. That’s become my specialty and what I think really makes our pieces unique, is the story and feeling that each design evokes for people. I love coming up with a design that pulls straight from a story that we told with our friends and then hearing how it inspires the people who buy those dice to go on their own adventures.

One of my favorite things to do though is to create something for someone based on their stories or characters. I love being sent pictures and inspiration and getting to play a part in crafting something that captures that same moment and feeling for another person.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?

Oh man. If it weren’t for us being at what felt like our lowest, we never would have taken the risk that led us to doing any of this. We won a few sponsorships that year that help jumpstart our production and skills, and put us out to an audience that we never would have reached before.

I think luck both good and bad pushed us, even when we didn’t want to be pushed, and encouraged us to just try things and take risks and trust in the creative process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Soulforgedice.com
• Instagram: @soulforge.dice
• Other: @soulforgedice.bsky.social