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Why We Dye

Stories from the Disc Dyeing Community

Every disc tells a story, and behind every dyed disc is a dyer with a reason for creating. Some dye for the love of art, others for the thrill of customization, and many find peace and fulfillment in the process. No matter your reason, you’re not alone.

This space is dedicated to the stories of disc dyers like you—artists, hobbyists, entrepreneurs, and creatives who have found passion, purpose, or even healing through disc dyeing. Whether you’re here for self-expression, to challenge yourself, or to turn a hobby into a business, your story matters.

I live a very busy life, and disc dyeing has given me a space to do self care. It's therapeutic, and I can do it from home. It's never boring, bc you can switch it up so much.

Selling discs just supports the hobby, and also brings joy to a very cool group of people. Seeing other dyes brings inspiration. And I've met a lot of cool people along the way.

It basically allows me to escape the day to day stresses, and gives me time to digest my thoughts.
It’s a hobby. And if people like/buy it, it just feeds the hobby. Not a side hustle for me and don’t want it to be. No desire to burn out.

But I’m also envious of the elevated skill I see here. My work is very basic in nature. Sometimes I get down on myself for feeling like I’m not learning anything new. But sometimes I look at what I create and think, “Hey. This looks good to me and I’m ok with that.”
For me it's 2 things...1 is the process. I find it very centering. And pulling a disc and finally seeing the colors and patterns really gets me going. 2 is the reaction of a disc recipient. Love that. Would and do give discs away for free, so the money just makes it possible to spread dyed love all around.
I’ve always loved drawing and one day I saw a post from @cheimborg showing one of @jorys_fly_dyes discs dyes. From then on I started doing research on how to do it and never looked back.

The main reason I continue to dye discs is because of the awesome community of people involved in it. You guys have been so pivotal in making it 100 times more accessible than it was when I first started.

I know it’s a lot of hard work for you and Austin, but you are making the world a better place. Much love and appreciation 👏👏
Growing up, I love drawing. It was my escape, and hell, I was pretty good at it. As I grew older, I was distracted by other things as a teenager, and just left that passion behind. As I grew past the negativity in my life, I found other things to occupy my time. Still no hobby/passion.

This continued for nearly 12 years into adulthood, then I found disc golf! After falling in love with the sport, I started seeing dyed discs. Thinking there was no way I could do that, I thought nothing of it. Finally, I came across a disc that I wanted, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Since I knew nothing about commissions at the time, I though I'd just draw it on with a Sharpie. After completing that disc, I started looking up how to dye discs and came across @dyersguild.co. I bought a starter kit, watched some tutorials, and I was off.

So grateful to have found disc dyeing and for @dyersguild.co for making it so accessible. It's been a great therapeutic outlet and has brought me back to my creative roots.
I wanted my glow discs to be easier to find in day rounds, and less blinding at night (mvp 😉 as an artist who struggles with both perfectionism and imposter syndrome i have never been able to commit to any kind of art consistently.

I have never enjoyed my art or felt proud of anything I've made. As an adult I've started (recently) working on accepting that things won't be perfect. I can honestly say disc dyeing is the first art form that I'm truly proud of and I intend to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible!
I started dyeing in late 2011 as it combined both my disc golf hobby and my art background. I do consider myself an artist and I started as an art major in my undergrad program years ago before switching course to pursue my current career as a mental health therapist.

When I was in my art program and for years afterwards I continued to produce art. I gravitated towards water color, doing mosaics and ceramics. I find that to be incredibly interesting in that a lot of my dyes are mosaic-style and watercolor and dye have a lot of similarities in how they are applied and how they respond.

Making money is great and I use it to support my dyeing habit and for other “fun” things (like a new dishwasher 😂), but for me it’s all about the art. I just want to produce cool things. Every time I get a commission my thought is, “Yes! Here’s a new, unique challenge that I’m excited to take on.”
I’ve always dabbled in different arts but never fully committed to anything. I’ve done sculpting, charcoal drawing, mini-figure painting, and more, but I always struggled to find the time and mental commitment to the hobby long term.

With Disc Dye, selling was inherent to maintaining the hobby since the cost of discs is so high and they take up space in storage. I started dyeing as an exercise in art therapy, but pretty quickly gained a proficiency with it. Once I started selling, the goal became just to maintain money, rather than throw it into a pit like I do with most of my hobbies.

Over time that evolved into actually trying to profit. It is unlikely that dyeing alone will ever replace my day job, but having a hobby that doesn’t cost me anything, is fulfilling, and I can do it consistently has been a huge boon for my mental health.

Now disc dye is taking me different places around the country for tournaments and expos, which is so far beyond what I was expecting when I tried to dye a DX Valkyrie all those years ago
Early in my disc golf journey, I had some friends show me dyed discs and I had to know how to replicate it. I quickly found cell dyes and fell in love.

I've always enjoyed being creative and this scratches that itch I have that I cannot satisfy in my professional life. There is also no better feeling than creating an awesome disc that people like.
The group of guys that got me into disc golf were buying dyed discs. I couldn't justify spending that much on a plastic circle I would poorly throw and most likely end up in a pond.

Started dying myself, and once I learned that I could dye clear discs to look like stained glass windows I was hooked. Started off hand cutting stencils, now I got a machine for that, and I've spent way more money buying supplies to dye discs rather than if I had just bought some dyes from other people lol.

I mostly just dye discs to give them away to random people on the course, or as prizes at tournaments now. That way I don't have to feel bad about coming up with a price for them, as I am really bad at doing that.
I started dyeing discs because it looked like a fun thing to try adjacent to disc golf... I've been playing with metal for 25+ years, chainmaille, anodized titanium, whatever... plastic just looked like fun to explore as well.

Sticking to my "it's a hobby, not a jobby" mindset for all things art, I just give 'em away. Since I started a little over a year ago, probably three hundred new, unthrown discs have gone through my hands to local club members and such.

This group and many other artists in the community helped me quickstart and enjoy it more by eliminating many potential missteps, appreciate the free and easy access to info we all seem to share.
Stephen H.
Long before I ever found disc golf I was very much a creative personality. The main two outlets I channeled that creativity into was music and drawing. After high-school/college i think i drifted away from creative endeavors and I found disc golf in 2011.

I live in Michigan so the local legend is J bird and his dyes were all over the local area. I always thought dyeing a disc would be cool but I had no idea where to being and there weren't really any dyers in my local club.

In 2021 I took a trip with my local pro friend down to myrtle beach to play in the MBO tournament. While we were down there we linked up some local artists and one of the things they offered was to dye some discs for us, which morphed into them letting us use their materials and letting us do our own thing.

We started out with the glue bed/acetone method and dyed several discs using this method. I really enjoyed the process and thought to myself, wow this is actually a lot more straightforward than I thought! After we got back home my buddy and I ordered a bunch of PCAD and tried mixing up our own dyes with varying degrees of success, usually on the lower end of that spectrum.

Several months after that I decided to get more serious about it and looked into the floetrol method, which I continue to use to this day. After that my dyeing abilities greatly surpassed my buddies and he just gave me his spare materials and let me do the dyeing between us.

What I found out was dyeing is essentially meditation. You aren't thinking of tomorrow or what happened yesterday, you are just completely in the moment trying to flesh out a creative vision.

I found out I really missed that process and considered myself very fortunate to be able to combine two passions into a single hobby. I think now it's been roughly two years since I tried to step up my game and I have sold a couple of discs here and there, but nothing steady or substantial.

I have found The profit margins to be minimal, at least from a startup standpoint. I have the materials to take it to a more professional level but when I would try to donate discs for a raffle or an event, nothing usually ever came of it. I would like 2025 to be different.
I started dying discs because I saw a few in the wild a few years ago, but did not know anyone that dyed discs at the time. So I decided to research and try some to add color to my discs and make them different.

I fell in love with the learning and researching and learning new methods. Then I started doing the lotion, DA, Acetone painting and found that I really enjoyed the relaxing of doing the painting.

Although people tell me all the time how much they love my dyes, I do not feel that I am an artist in any way, I love coloring books and make most of my dyes like a coloring book.

Jory, you did a Smurf dye for me last year, that I love! I strive to make discs as vibrant and cool looking as the one you made for me. I am finding that when someone asks if I can do a certain dye for them, I love the challenge and the frustration of trying to make it perfect for them and pray they love it as much as I love the one you did for me.
Will R
I have ADHD and art has always been a way of keeping my mind occupied instead of wondering ( which can cause me anxiety) and disc dye was a new/fun form of art for me to explore, plus the challenge of hand painting with pigmented acetone and material which you can't erase make more of a challenge for my brain. 🔥😁
Art and creativity and the freedom you can find through them are some of the more important things in life.

Combining the key intresests of art and disc golf are the main reason for my disc dyes. Also I started dyeing when covid hit so it ended up helping me focus on something nice and beneficial in many ways when the world was going coocoo all around.

I believe everyone needs and should try to find a creative outlet in their lives and dyeing is definitely a valid option. ❤️✌️🌞

Share Your Story

We believe that sharing experiences can inspire others to pick up a bottle of dye and start creating. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just getting started, we’d love to hear why you dye.

  • What inspired you to start dyeing discs?
  • What does disc dyeing mean to you?
  • How has it impacted your life?


If you’d like to share your story and be featured here, submit your experience below. Let’s show the world the many reasons why disc dyeing is more than just a hobby—it’s a movement.

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