Bring your game to life. 

Like many things these days, Caedes Cruor began as a new project during the pandemic in 2020. But I guess I should start at the beginning, the real beginning. 

I was a scrawny 10-year-old Puerto Rican boy living in Miami. But I could draw.  My friend, “Big Juan” and I were enrolled in a visual arts program and got to ride the bus to a special art center every Friday - I was “Little Juan” in case that wasn’t clear enough already. We’d spend those Fridays drawing, painting,  print-making, and just experimenting with every kind of medium you can imagine letting 10-year-old boys get their hands on. The creativity flowed unbound. 

Back at our regular school, another friend asked me to draw a sketch for his Dungeons and Dragons character so he could have a real picture to play with. So I did. Then I drew another, and another, and another…you get the idea. 

It wasn’t long before we discovered we could buy the miniature models to put together and paint ourselves. Having a 3D figure was amazing, and our band of 4 friends got together every week (and all summer) to play D&D. Time passed, and several of us moved away. But we kept playing, and painting. 

Over the years, work and life got in the way, but when the pandemic locked us all in our homes in 2020, I dove headfirst back into my childhood passion. My little brother  introduced me to Hero Forge, where we could sculpt our own minis and have them 3D printed. I’ll admit, I might have become a little obsessed. But that was when I realized how badly I needed to buy a 3D printer. 

That first Elegoo Mars was a good little printer, but I knew I could do better. Within a year, I was ready for an upgrade. My wife resisted the added expense because I was filling the house with my creations and regularly running to the post office to mail minis out to my friends. So she challenged me, if I wanted a new printer, I had to open an Etsy shop. Even if I only sell stuff to my friends, at least they can pay for their own shipping, she said, and we can take a tax deduction on all the equipment. 

So that’s what I did. 

And wow, were we surprised. Not only did I start selling minis, I sold A LOT! I was making sales all over the globe. My wife laughed at me when I’d shout giddily about getting an order from a new state or even a foreign country. But this was so much fun. This was what I was born to do. 

Fast forward a couple years and we’ve pulled up stakes and moved to northwestern Spain where the pace of life is slower and I have more time for the Studio. It’s also great to be closer to Big Juan. We’ve got big plans for the next few years. I’m super excited to be able to dedicate all my attention to this project now and keep bringing my customers designs that bring their characters, and their games, to life.