Maker Spotlight – Get To Know The Face Behind The Brand.
Meet Spenser from the claydadē. Spenser lives in Sacramento, California and has been playing with polymer clay since August of 2020. After some encouragement and validation from friends and family he officially opened his shop in November 2020. “Pre-pandemmy”, he was an “full time” actor living and working in New York City. Since moving back to California and taking up working with clay again, he hasn’t made a lot of time for other hobbies…”I’m a Capricorn and I like to work, what can I say? Here’s to making more time for rest and other hobbies in 2022!”. ”I’ve recently rediscovered my love for all things Bravo, specifically Below Deck and Housewives. I don’t care what anyone says, it is the PERFECT background noise while I create! Sometimes if I really need to focus and get stuff done, I’ll throw on my headphones and jam out to some tunes while I work.”
the claydadē specializes in earrings made from polymer clay. His designs are a direct reflection of his personality, exuberant, bold and full of delight. Spenser gladly accepts custom orders and his website is located in his IG bio.
Here are some words from Spenser:
-What made you want to start creating?-
“TikTok made me do it. Seriously. I worked with clay in my high school ceramics class, but never had time to follow up once I started college. Fast forward almost 8 years, I began to see folks on TikTok working with clay, and making some amazing stuff! Since I now had the time to get back to it, I headed to JoAnn Fabrics and picked up the clay conditioning machine, some basic shape cutters, a few bars of Sculpey III (big yikes), and got to work!”
Would you like to share any family info? Pets?-
“I LOVE my family and I’m very close with them! Like I mentioned earlier, my mom helped me name my business, my Gramma provides excellent validation (even if she’s not crazy about some styles), my sister is almost always my “second opinion” and my niece LOVES to help Uncle make earrings!”
-What is your MOST FAVORITE item you have created?-
“My favorite earring I’ve created actually came at the beginning of my journey! It is definitely the Queen of Hearts inspired earring with the red heart base, checkerboard heart center and faux hammered brass dangles. It was the first item I sat down and sketched before sitting down to prototype with clay. As a whole though, my overall favorite collection is The Pride Collection.”
-What makes your shop unique? What is your specialty?-
“What sets me apart is my point of view and attention to detail. Coming from a theater/arts background, I like to mix the world of “camp” and “ready to wear”. A lot of my collections are themed, and although at one point I may have questioned why, I’ve learned that is where my perfect balance of “playful” and “everyday” lives! As for my attention to detail, it helps to be a perfectionist (sometimes)! hehe”
-What is the story behind your business name?-
“Funnily enough, my mom named my business! I knew that I wanted something that made it clear that a man was making these earrings, so I was searching for a “cool” or “aesthetic” way of doing that but wasn’t having much luck… One Sunday, we decided to check out Plant Daddy, a local plant shop in Sacramento. After a car ride full of brainstorming, we parked at the shop and my mom jokingly said, “Why don’t you just call yourself The Clay Daddy?” and *DING* THERE IT WAS! I knew right then and there that was the winner. And thus, the claydadē was born! I decided to spell ‘daddy’ phonetically just for extra “cool points”, ya feel?”
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