Bio
Lauren Schipper is from St Louis Missouri. Attended MGH IHP in Boston for DPT and worked with preschoolers with special needs. Lauren Schipper is currently a handmade dicemaker.
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Q&A with Lauren Schipper
What is your story behind the first sense of awareness that things weren’t quite right with your rehab career?
I was feeling unfulfilled at work and spent most of my time thinking about dice making. I was working in outpatient and, I had at least two, if not three patients at a time. So I was overworked, underpaid, and a little bored.
What was the first sign(s) of traction (and the emotion behind it) with your new career?
I had a dice set go viral on Twitter and got a bunch of orders in August of 2019. I was very newly pregnant with my daughter, and I got a ton of orders and realized that people were willing to pay for this. Even then it was 60 bucks. I think for that set. my poor buyers had to wait 12 weeks if not longer for those dice and everyone was super happy to just wait. But everyone was super nice about waiting and excited about the next thing that I was gonna make. My custom commission slots were filling up and then I realized that I could do this, but at the time I was also working a full time job. I got home at 4:30 and then would immediately start making dice until 11.
What are the practical (non-obvious) skills that make you a great fit for your work now?
I’ve been thinking about this. cause there’s not a ton of overlap between the two. I have to ask my customers a lot of questions to find out what they really want, what their vision for their dice is. It’s a lot of putting things together. I get giddy thinking of new techniques or combos of established techniques, that I can try out. This helps to expand the designs I can offer to my buyers
Also, being a PT has helped me as a content creator, because, I have to make videos that people want to watch, to then want to buy my stuff, which means that I have to do voiceover. And I have to think of something to say for two videos every day. As a PT I needed to learn how to talk to people, how to do small talk and sound cheery no matter what’s going on. I use that a lot.
What made you decide to go down this, new career path of creating dice professionally?
I had been making dice as a hobby starting in April 2019. And I really liked it because I found it fulfilling. I had gained myself a little following on Instagram and was selling my dice on Etsy. During that time, we saw that things weren’t going great at work, and I remember sitting in my office and thinking: “Okay, how many dice do I have to make per week to be equivalent to what I make at this job? How long does it take me to make dice? Could I do that?” It was still just a hobby but my husband was very supportive.
Once everything shut down in New York City, it became very clear that the school that I wanted to switch to was all remote and it was not a fulfilling way to do PT. Once my daughter was born and I finished maternity leave, I left and we moved to St. Louis, Missouri. And they don’t have preschools that are just all for kiddos with special needs, which is what I enjoyed doing. Then, around mid 2021, is when I fully followed this little dream of dice making. And now here we are.
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