We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mae Page & Alex Stringham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mae Page &, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Alex: For me and my dice making adventure, pretty much every commission I’ve received has been a meaningful project. Finding those who love what I do so much, they want something specific and special to themselves. I think that’s amazing! I’ve received many commissions now to make dice using wedding flowers and even some using funeral flowers. The fact that I get to add to someone’s life by creating art that commemorates the love and lives of people is to me, absolutely incredible. And I get to make things I may have otherwise never thought about, and expand my skillset! At one point I made a custom set of six sided dice for someone that were Jurassic Park themed, so I went out to a park at night with a net, and caught myself some mosquitos! Then I dried and preserved them, and then put them in amber colored resin and tada! Looks just like cubes of amber with real mosquitos in them. And the uniqueness of that, means the world to me. For a cliche but true answer, every set and project is important to me, because seeing people’s eyes light up with happiness when they see what I make and knowing that every set I make is the perfect set for somebody out there, it’s just very fulfilling and gives me unbelievable motivation to keep creating!
Mae: I know this probably isn’t exactly the answer you’re looking for but honestly my most meaningful project has been creating our small business as a whole. In taking the leap of faith to start selling my art it has given Alex and I the opportunity to embrace the creative side of ourselves and create things that we love. And lucky for us other people love it too! I never would have grown as an artist as much as I have so quickly if it wasn’t for the small business and the encouragement from people who actually love what I make. Being able to sell dice was the deciding factor on if Alex was going to invest quite a bit of money into everything it takes to make quality handmade dice. The fact that our small, tiny business has given us the room to really enrich our lives with our love for art, and make others happy with it as well has changed our lives in such a huge way. Encouragement to continue what we do and validation that what we make is beautiful couldn’t be more important to me.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Spectral Seedlings is run by independent artists Mae Rose and Alexander. Mae makes cute and witchy art, revolving around the beauty of nature and the occasional ghost appearance. All of the prints and stickers are original digital artworks, all of the apparel is individually printed by Mae herself, as is every unique accessory handmade from polymer clay, resin, and other mediums. Her art, apparel, and accessories are crafted with the intent to bring a little magic and beauty into people’s lives. Alexander makes original, one-of-a-kind, handmade dice sets (full size or tiny ones!) and singles out of resin. Each dice set takes a minimum of 24 hours to make and sometimes up to 6 days to design, cast, trim, polish, and paint! Each set is unique and some have fun inclusions such as 3d printed, hand painted animal skulls and moss or even real bees! Alex also loves getting the chance to make custom commission dice – sets or singles – for people. He has made many sets as gifts, with wedding flowers, and different bugs. Mae and Alex’s business really started in June of 2022. Mae has had the desire to create art for people for many years, and finally took the steps to make it happen! They started their journey at in person events, which they prefer so they get the chance to interact with customers who enjoy their art.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Alex: Not a very original answer, but the feedback. Both from potential customers and fellow makers. Genuinely, I understand not everyone can justify buying a set of handmade dice. I never want anyone to feel like they have to get any dice. Just the feedback and appreciation itself means the world to me! It inspires me and makes me happy seeing the joy on people’s faces when looking at the art I make. Mae: There are several things. First is watching my art grow and evolve. I have learned so many things throughout being an artist – and the fact that I can even say I’m an artist is so cool! Second is that my art makes people happy. I love being able to bring something that makes people happy into their lives – even if it’s small. And having customers who come back to see us regularly is so wonderful, especially when they’re wearing something that I made – it fills me with so much joy to know that my art is appreciated.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Alex: I think there’s a few things here. And the biggest ones I can think of are unpredictability and time. With unpredictability, I mean you may not always be able to tell what people want. You could sell a lot of a given item one day, and think that item is a hot one that you should make more of, and then it doesn’t take off like you expected. There’s so many things that vary from day to day. With time, I think every aspect of it is hard for others to fully understand. The amount of time it takes to gain a following online. Think how long you think it would probably take to reach 500 followers on any given social media site, and add more to that. This won’t be the case for everyone, but for the majority. There’s also the time each individual item takes to make. There’s also the time to setup and photograph/film the item. The time it takes to make a post on social media for the item, including the description and all the tags. The time it takes to plan a project and get it ready. And then there’s even the time that amounts to very little, because a project idea failed in one way or another. Just lots and lots of things that usually aren’t accounted for. Mae: To add on to what Alex said, since our products are small I think people assume they should be cheap. Everything that we sell is handmade and take a lot of intricate work to create. For example: the skull earrings I make. The skulls have to be 3D printed, primed, painted, shaded, coated, and the hardware (the earring hook) has to be attached. It takes hours to complete approximately 10 pairs of earrings. Plus you have to account for the materials as well as the practice and skill it takes. I think people can look at a pair of earrings and not see all of the work that goes into them. But we create these products for people to enjoy and there are many people who appreciate and respect that our prices are not unreasonable for the amount of time and work and skill we put into them. 
Contact Info:
- Website: spectralseedlings.square.site
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/spectralseedlings?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spectralseedlings?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Spectralseedlings
- Spectralseedlings@gmail.com Spectraldicelings@gmail.com