Studio News | Her Daily Muse

Today I have a date with photoshop

Life of A Designer, studio news 2 Responses »

Jun 172012

An obvious part of launching a new line of jewelry is photographing each piece to put on the website, make line sheets and pitch to the press. I do all of my own product photography here in the studio, which I did Friday afternoon and evening. My product shots include photos of the jewelry flat on a white surface and on a mannequin. A couple of years ago I figured out my current way of shooting in the studio for the white backdrop shots, but I'm always tweaking the mannequin shots. I currently am dragging it outside from 6-7 pm when the sun has become more diffused.

Taking the photos is however only half the battle. I am by no means a fantastic photographer and have to compensate by spending a great deal of time in photoshop making it appear as though I am. That is my mission for today. Spinning photoshop madness. By no means should you envy my plans for the day. The up side is that once the edits are done, I am super close to being ready to launch the new line!!

Behind the scenes look at the Bridal Line

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Feb 032012

Here is my first attempt at a video from the Manic Trout studio! A peek at the progress on the upcoming Bridal Line. Please excuse the learning curve here as its the first try.

Hope you like it!

p.s. if you cannot see the video, click here to watch it on youtube.

Why guys shop for tools better than most gals…

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Jan 222012

*This post is republished from July 2009. I have been telling a few people about it recenlty and thought I'd share it again.

Before I even launch into why, please note that I said *most* gals. So last night I achieved studio perfection when I got to break in the new set up…the girls were all sprawled out on the couch and we all watched chick flicks while I worked (I am where the arrow is pointing in my jewelry area).

After the girls left I continued to work all hopped up on girl talk and cookie dough and proceeded to somehow break all of my hole making apparatuses at once…I have NO IDEA how this could happen, but I did not have time today to bring my power drill back to sears and the hand drill I broke is out of stock indefinitely…this brought on a mild panic attack at 2 am last night…but I survived.

This morning I dashed into my awesome local hardware store down the street and discussed the options. We decided that the best idea was to buy a new smaller power drill then my broken cordless one…and this is when I realized that I shop for tools like a girl…and I say this as a girl who grew up with a father who is an art carpenter and made sure I knew how to operate every single tool in his workshop by the time I was three and a mother who once brought home a table saw because she thought “of all the cool things she could do with it”. I know my way around a hardware store…and I still suck at shopping in one. I kept trying to grab at all of the pretty colored, multi functioning, fancy packaged drills…the patient man who often assists me and is therefore used to this told me those were overpriced useless toys and steered me over to this plain looking PLUG IN…wait, I want to be on the go!!!…he pointed out that I make jewelry in one spot and would get a much more powerful drill this way…but its so inexpensive…but, he pointed out, a really great drill….but it’s really ugly…he just looked at me with a look I get A LOT from men…but the packaging is really ugly too, and the direction changing button doesn’t have arrows printed on it…I got that look again…oh fine, I huffed.

So I carried my ugly drill home and put it aside…a bit later I decided it was time to test drive it…my intern J was watching me out of the corner of her eye with a look of mild amusement as I pointed out how unattractive the box was and that the drill was only inside a plastic bag…what kind of packaging is that???…I then plugged it in and locked in one of my favorite bits and almost drilled through the table while I shot the metal I was drilling across the room…her amused look turned quickly to fear…I quietly put down the drill and looked at J…"this may take a few minutes to get used to, but I promise to aim away from you"…I took a deep breath and picked the speed machine back up…I’ll admit it freaked me out, who knew such an ugly drill could have so much power??? It took a few tries, but within 15 minutes I was drilling through anything I could get my hands on…with an amazing amount of ease I have to point out…and then I realized that this is the most bad ass tool I have ever owned…and seriously the best $23 I have ever spent.

ps...if you enjoyed this post, consider checking out the blog She Says He Says, in which Adam and I discuss the differences between men and women every Monday!

Daily dose of inspiration: Black & White Jellyfish

daily muse, Dose of Inspiration, studio news 1 Response »

Jan 212012

I have been designing up a storm this week! I have also been devouring inspiration...want to see more than what I post here? Well, luckily, you can find oodles of images I have been collecting on my Pinterest boards. I have locked myself in my studio for the weekend finishing the samples of the first collection for the Bridal Line (which should be available in late February...you can see sneak picks on Facebook) Wish me luck!

A glimpse at how random inspiration can be

Dose of Inspiration, Life of A Designer, studio news 2 Responses »

Jan 182012

I am deep in the design process right now. If you've ever watched House and you know how he stops what he's doing because he has suddenly figured it all out...that's what I do when I"m in this process. The designs build up and swirl about in my head as I start to problem solve about the look, logistics and materials and then BAM! I figure it out and have to write it down immediately. I constantly sit straight up in bed at night, turn on the light and sketch or take notes in the notebook on my bedside table. I do the same with the moleskin in my bag. I have been a fiend for images both in magazine and online and I have materials spread out ALL OVER my studio right now. It's all happening, a new collection is coming together.

The first necklace of The Bridal Line has officially been born which means I am now starting to process what direction to go in and what has been my greatest inspiration. So far, light bulbs seem at the top of that list. Yes, light bulbs. From twinkle lights to huge globes and all that falls in between, I have become obsessed with light bulbs. I pulled together a Pinterest board today to gather all of the light bulbs images I keep grabbing online and thought it would be fun to share my favorites...

If you're digging this source of inspiration, you will find these and amazingly enough, many more light bulbs on my Pinterest page.

p.s. if you see any great light bulbs anywhere, send a link my way!

How Cyber Monday stole my hard drive

daily muse, Dose of Inspiration, Life of A Designer, studio news 2 Responses »

Nov 282011

Ah Cyber Monday. The kickoff for the holiday shopping season and the mark of when the real works starts for online stores. It is also the day that technology decided to try and test my ability to keep calm under extreme stress. This morning only about 5 minutes after the excitement of finding out that I am the featured Artist of the week at Artsy Home caused me to bop around in my chair, my hard drive crashed.

It was a rather surreal moment when I stared at the grey screen with a blinking folder containing a question mark where the 8 or so applications that I was working in at once were only moments ago. I very calmly took a deep breath, grabbed my iphone and started trouble shooting. Step 1, fail. Step 2, fail. Step 3...this is when I realized that my snow lepoard disk was at my friends house in NY. I (becoming less calm now) texted him to verify this unfortunate piece of info. He replied that I needed to call him asap as he knew what happened. Within 2 minutes my worst computer fear was confirmed. My hard drive crashed and I had to get a new one...and as this was day one of holiday, madness. My calm wavered, but I was soothed by his reassurance that it should all be ok by night fall.

I somehow held it together, made a Genius Bar appointment on my phone and headed over to the mall. As the issue was assessed, I cursed having a custom built macbook pro as the hard drive had to be ordered, and patted myself on the back for having bought the extended warranty (fyi it has paid for itself by now) as the new hard drive was covered. I left my computer in safe hands and tried to wrap my head around not having my computer for a minimum of 36 hours and up to 4 days...at the busiest time of year. I also breathed a HUGE sigh of relief that I back up weekly and therefore will lose nothing.

I came home and just stood there staring at my empty desk. Adam took me out to lnch to basically distract me. But lunch ended and I had to go home to an inability to work. I wrnt to target to pick up a few things, came home and worked out, showered and crumpled.

I thought to myslef, that even though this is 2011...there had to be some way of doing something productive without my computer. Ha! Yeah right. After I obsessively accessed as much as I could on my iphone, I decided to just take over Adams laptop and can kind of function with it. However, the new line which is launching tomorrow won't happen, as I had not uploaded the photographs yet and cannot get to them. *sigh* I did feel immensely better though when I realized what I could access between my iphone and Adams computer. I also found this lovely image in his iphoto that he must have taken via instagram when he came to visit me in NY. I think I'm driving on the Taconic, and its a Road to Nowhere! Oh those silver linings...

My favorite kind of day

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Oct 162011

Today is one of those rare days...ok well yesterday was one too...when I don't have to leave the house not even to run errands, meet up with anyone or see loved ones. I cherish these days. I spend almost the entire time in the studio. I take breaks to work out, walk Faye and eat...and that I do at my desk. It's awesome.

One of the things I have done this weekend is finalize and make the first of a new line of necklaces. Some of you may remember the Paris In The Springtime Necklaces. The were made of glass and vintage lucite beads, hand knotted on colorful Persian yearn with a vintage button clasp. Each one was one of a kind and bursting with color. Well, the new design are basically the older sister of the Paris in The Springtime Necklaces and I heart them. They will be available this week along with the Scarf Bracelets. Yay!!

Summer line progress…

jewelry, Sneak Peek, studio news 2 Responses »

Apr 202011

The Early Summer line will be out on May 1st (pause to absorb this awesome info...) however, it has been designed for ages now and I have been working on some summer inspired pieces to debut a few weeks later when Summer has hit. So here is the first sample...carved, lace like shells hanging from a vintage chiffon scarf.

I really wanted to modify the scarves for this line...make them a bit less polished for easier summer looks. I used larger pieces of scarf and left the ends open, to highlights the colorful rolled edges. Both ends of the scarf are tied, making the necklace adjustable to allow wearing at many lengths.

Any thoughts or comments on the design so far?

How insane design ideas are started…

Dose of Inspiration, studio news 4 Responses »

Apr 192011

A friend of mine dropped off a bag of collected shells this morning and I'm so excited to make crazy statement necklaces out of them! They will actually round out a collection I had started, so I was super excited to receive them. I included a penny so you could see how massive they are...my assistant looked at me like I was crazier then normal when I told her I wanted to use them for necklaces...but just you and see what I have planned!

A peek into the studio…Mermaid Parade Necklaces part 2

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Mar 282011

After I promised to show you the entire creative process of the summer line, I realized that I left you hanging with the Mermaid Parade Necklaces! We last left off with the materials and colors selected to start working on samples...

The next step is my least favorite, cutting up the scarves. Ugh, I hate this part, its better if the scarf is damaged, but really it's stressful no matter what, as once the scarf is cut, there is no undoing it. After much trial and error, I have found that a sharp rotary cutter works best on the scarves. This actually is true for most thin fabrics, you are guaranteed and even, smooth line.

Once the scarf is cut up into strips, I pin them in preparation to sew them inside out on a sewing machine. Perhaps a step that some could skip, but if I don't pin, then I end up with crooked pieces and sides that don't match up at the end.

The machine sewing is quick, the great thing about the tubes is that I only have to sew a straight line. Once I had the initial sample made and had figured out what works best through trial and error, it's easy to just follow the steps for each part.

As you can see, I work in batches...cutting up all of the scarves at once, then pinning them etc. Especially when using a method I rarely use to make jewelry, such as sewing, its better to have the work done so I can just grab the sewn scarf when a necklace needs to be made. If I made each scarf strip on its own, it would be too time consuming to make each one as I sold it.

After I stitch them on the machine I have to turn each one inside out and then finish off the ends.

It seems like more work then it actually is once you get going and its pretty rewarding to have a big pile of scarf strips all ready for necklaces when I'm done! Check back soon to see the next step of creating the Mermaid Parade Necklaces!

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