Very few of us leave our college careers with much of anything tangible that endures the wear and tear of time. Our theses, hole-punched and bound to perfection, sit collecting dust in closed dresser drawers. Our artworks, once bold and daring, are repurposed or recycled. Journals are tossed, books are returned; even friendships begin to fade as we each go our separate ways.
This, however, is not the case for Joe Price, Paige Li, and Olivia Schumack. Their collection of handcrafted and place-inspired earrings, Claymate, is the byproduct of professor Steve Spruth’s “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” course—each pair an aesthetically pleasing evidence of learning. Tasked with creating a product designed with the WAM Shop in mind, a graphic designer, psych major, and sustainable systems management student set out to use their personal strengths and interests to make meaning together.
“After we all connected and meshed well, as sort-of friends first, we had to choose a product to make. And because we love to accessorize,” Price laughs, “we chose earrings.”
“We wanted to make something that we would buy,” Schumack says. “That made it a lot easier to care about what we were making.”
The three met each Wednesday at Schumack’s kitchen table and munched on candy, while making mood boards and discussing designs. It was at that table that Claymate took form. Li suggested using polymer clay, a material popular among young people in her home country of Singapore, to craft the earrings; Price recalls the Weisman’s Frank Gehry-designed building as an early point of inspiration—the first round of packaging even contained an engraving of the museum’s distinctive architectural profile.
“The breakthrough moment for our product packaging was when Joe came up with the designs of the cards we are currently using—we all agreed that they fit so well with the branding of Claymate,” Li says.
