Former project designer-turned-dice maker Bob Spircoff took home $10,000, the largest of three “Project Pitch It” prizes, for his locally designed and made tabletop game dice.
Spircoff’s company Botch Dice produces a range of full-color graphic dice sets in southeast Wisconsin and is the only U.S.-based dice manufacturer. Each die is 10% to 30% larger than standard and features unique designs using the company’s InkFX system, a process which allows Botch to apply full-color, high-resolution graphics to each face of the dice.
Spircoff started Botch Dice to fill a gap in domestic dice production, as most dice made for tabletop gaming are made in China.
“Between being made in Wisconsin, having the graphics and being larger, (Botch Dice) is really set apart from anything else on the market,” he said.
Botch is the first company to make dice domestically in almost 20 years, Spircoff added. The company is the only company currently making dice in the U.S., and is awaiting a patent application.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, analog gaming gained popularity as a means of connecting people with people, a local tabletop game store owner told BizTimes in March. Much of the popularity has remained during the years after the pandemic ended, making tabletop gaming a $5 billion industry today.
Spherical Canister
Entrepreneurs Patrick Tetzlaff and Brian Leadingham took home a $4,500 prize for their product Spherical Canister, a patented surgical fluid receptacle made with half the plastic necessary to manufacture standard cylindrical canisters.
The spherical cannisters hold the same volume of liquid that standard cylindrical cannisters do, but cost less to produce and reduce medical plastic waste by tens of millions of pounds in the U.S. alone, Tetzlaff said. Disposal of surgical fluid suction canisters accounts for 25% of all regulated health care waste, Tetzlaff said.
Spherical Canister also ships and stores in a 35% smaller carton that standard canisters.
Tetzlaff and Leadingham work at Franklin-based Design Department, a product development firm specializing in new product design and early-stage conceptual development. The duo created Spherical Canister with Design Department resources.
Vadose Orchid and Milwaukee’s Future Creative Reuse Center
Entrepreneur and Milwaukee Public Schools art teacher Leah Cashaw took home a $1,000 prize for her Vadose Orchid and Milwaukee’s Future Creative Reuse Center initiative.
Cashaw plans to open a creative reuse center in Milwaukee to fuel both her recycled jewelry business Vadose Orchid and a thrift-style art supply store. The center would resell gently used, donated art supplies such as magazines, scrap materials, paintings, drawings and sculptures, and host art classes, workshops, art shows and other community events.
“Having (a creative reuse center) here in the heart of Milwaukee would be an amazing benefit to our large school district and surrounding area districts as well as our amazing artist community,” said Cashaw.
Two years ago, Cashaw began formulating the idea to open a creative reuse center while running her recycled jewelry business. She noticed a lack of creative reuse resources in the area, with only three creative reuse centers in Wisconsin, all of which are roughly an hour away from Milwaukee.
She plans to open a center in Milwaukee and provide the community with sustainable art supplies and space for creation.
“Next time you have something you’re not quite sure if you can recycle or donate, just think of Vadose Orchid and the Milwaukee Creative Resue Center and I’ll be glad to take it off your hands,” said Cashaw.
