Passion Fire is about discovering what you love, then designing your life around it. We may have coined the term, but we didn’t come up with the idea.
People have been letting their passions guide them for centuries, living their dream lives doing what they love.
Today, we’re sharing a real story of someone doing just that. Meet Cody, owner of The Alchemist Circle, the best place for hand-crafted gaming gear made by someone who clearly loves what he does.
Cody from The Alchemist Circle Shares His Story
My story didn’t start with a business plan.
It started with a question: Could I make something beautiful enough to be worth keeping?
When I discovered that people were handcrafting resin dice, it wasn’t the money that caught my attention; it was the artistry: the colors, the polish, the small perfections that only come from patience.
My family comes from a background in cultured marble manufacturing, so working with resin felt second nature; it’s basically been part of our lineage for decades.
Dabbling in a Hobby
I started small, experimenting with molds, sanding, and polishing. I joined online maker communities and learned from others who were just as obsessed.
I loved it, but soon realized that once you’ve poured your heart into creating a beautiful set of dice, you can’t just toss them into a bag. They deserve a worthy home.
That’s how the next obsession began.
Where Wood Meets Wonder
My father taught me woodworking. He’s a builder, rough cuts, quick results, and a belief that a measurement within an eighth of an inch is “good enough.” In carpentry, it usually is.
I took a different path. I’ve always been drawn to precision, to the slow, deliberate kind of making where every curve, edge, and joint has to feel just right.
Wood became my favorite medium. Every species had its own personality: the shimmer of walnut, the fire of padauk, the quiet grace of maple. After years of building whatever caught my imagination,
I poured that experience into a hexagonal dice box, because, of course, hexagons are the bestagons.
The Start of Something Magical
When I held that first finished piece, it clicked—the years of sawdust and sketches had finally culminated into something worth sharing.
This wasn’t just a hobby anymore. It was the start of something lasting.
I truly hope everyone at some point in their lives gets to experience that feeling at least once. To hold something you’ve made in your hands and think, “this…this could be big”.
So I did the only logical thing a craftsman with no free time could do: I started a business.
What to Call it?
Naming my new passion project took months. I wanted something that captured the mystery and transformation I felt in the workshop, where raw materials become art through patience and precision.
I landed on The Alchemist Circle, a name that could mean a gathering of artisans *or* the literal circle where an alchemist practices his craft.
If the former doesn’t happen, at least the latter is true.
The alchemical symbol for day and night became my logo, representing my daily devotion to the process and to the people who trust me with their orders.
Day and night, it’s all I think about.
Building the Foundations
With the name set, I got to work. One idea led to another: a storage for miniatures, a collapsible dice jail, even a compact dice tower that could travel anywhere.
Each design refined the last, like small experiments inching closer to perfection.
That evolution led to my first Kickstarter, The Crusader Kit and Backpack Essentials, a modular system for dice trays and accessories. When it was funded, it wasn’t just a milestone in production; it was proof that others understood what I was trying to do. Complete strangers saw the care in every detail and wanted to be part of it.
With that success came better tools, safer practices, and a deeper respect for the time each piece deserves. As I remind myself often:
“If it feels rushed, it’s not ready.“
The Joy of Crafting Joy
As the business grew, I found myself juggling new skills: photography, marketing, social media, etc.
It’s not easy being both craftsman and storyteller, but that’s part of being a modern maker!
One of my favorite surprises was a collaboration with Snake Discovery, a YouTube channel with millions of followers. They asked me to make sliding tile puzzles for their children’s area, something kids could play with for years. Knowing that something I built by hand will bring happiness long after I’m gone, that’s the kind of legacy I live for.
That, to me, is heirloom-quality joy.
The Convention Circuit
Friends told me, “You should sell your stuff at local game stores.”
Maybe one day. But I wanted to test my work on a bigger stage.
My first booth at the Cleveland Gaming Classic convention was humble: a folding table, a linen cloth, and a bit of glittery fabric I thought looked magical. I broke even, but gained experience that couldn’t be bought.
The next year, I went all in. Bigger space, corner booth, and a collapsible flat-pack display I designed myself to fit into a Chevy Equinox.
No truck. No trailer. Just ingenuity and stubbornness.
That year, I doubled my sales and won Best Booth of Show.
In 2025, I returned again, this time with a focus on Magic: The Gathering deck boxes. I…didn’t finish the product line in time, so I made do with what I had and showed the prototypes. At the end of the day, the conversations, networking, and returning customers made it my best year yet.
What Conventions are Really About
Conventions, I’ve learned, are about more than sales. They’re about community.
They’re about meeting people who value handmade things in an age of mass production, about hearing someone say, “Wait… you made this?” and watching their face light up.
There are big names out there making similar things, and I respect that, but what drives me isn’t scale or prestige. It’s the satisfaction of knowing the piece in your hand came from one pair of hands, start to finish.
It carries a fingerprint, not just a logo.
Was it Worth It?
People often ask if it’s worth it.
I guess that depends on what they mean.
Financially? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
But money has never been the reason. It’s the pursuit itself, the act of creating, refining, and pushing an idea to be closer to perfect. That’s where the real satisfaction lives. When I’m buried in the process, sanding, shaping, trying something new, that’s when I feel most alive.
The truth is, finishing something almost feels disappointing. Once it’s done, the challenge disappears, and I’m left searching for the next problem to solve. The next idea to chase. The next mountain to climb.
I’ve learned that happiness isn’t waiting at the finish line. It’s found somewhere in the middle. It’s in the noise of the tools, in the rhythm of the work, and in those quiet moments where something just clicks. That’s the part I never want to lose, that’s what makes it worth it.
A Maker’s Bloodline
I make things because I have to. It’s in my blood — resin, wood, metal, and the quiet pursuit of precision. I don’t make products; I make because… I can’t not.
If you leave me in a room by myself for too long, you’ll come back to something created — whether it’s a doodle or a sculpture made from office supplies. It’s a drive I can’t switch off.
Even in grade school, every day I used to carve intricate sculptures out of Styrofoam cups just to pass the time after eating lunch. My teachers would ask me what I used to carve them (concerned it was a knife). To their surprise, I also made the tools during lunch!
That drive never went away. It just found new materials.
Following Your Passion is Better than Money
The Alchemist Circle isn’t about chasing profit. It’s about craftsmanship, curiosity, and care.
It’s about the pursuit of mastery, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing that handmade things still matter.
There are companies with teams, investors, and marketing departments. Then there’s me, one guy with sawdust piling on his shoes, seeping between his socks and in between toes, with too many sketches taped to the wall.
I’d choose my path every time.
From resin dice to heirloom boxes, from a folding table to an award-winning booth, this journey has always been about turning small sparks of curiosity into something lasting, something beautiful enough to be worth keeping.