The design timeline vs the launch timeline of collections

 Life of A Designer  1 Response »
May 142013
 
King For a Day Necklace from Manic Trout

King For a Day Necklace

It took me a few years to figure out the pacing and release schedule of jewelry on Manic Trout. Until recently, I typically designed 2 large seasonal collections a year with 2 themed collections thrown in the mix. My launch dates were just in time for each season, but I was never making the much ahead of time press deadlines. When I went full time with MT almost 2 years ago, I still was working this way. A year later, when I signed with a new PR firm, I decided that it was time to buckle down and design towards the press cycles.

Disco Science Bracelet from Manic Trout

Disco Science Bracelet

It however took another few months to catch up as when I had that thought, I was starting 6 months behind schedule. I however have finally caught up and adjusted my design schedule to the timeline I want it to be on. (yay!) This means that I am designing waaaaaaay ahead of the launch dates (sometimes by 5 months) and am working a few seasons ahead of what I am releasing. Which is a struggle in itself when I have to promote and share the jewelry I designed months ago as my creative side has issues with this.

Zerrin Do You Know Me Necklace from Manic Trout

Zerrin Do You Know Me Necklace

I worry that this is confusing to you as I am all sorts of sharing about the design process of jewelry coming out at the end of 2013 right now and then, bam! I switch gears and want to show you jewelry that I was talking about 3 months ago again. However, this is much the reality of the life of a designer and technically, that is what this blog is all about. That is also why I'm sure many if you follow MT on FB and other social media sites...you get to see behind the curtain.

Vanoa Girls Like You Necklace from Manic Trout

Vanoa Girls Like You Necklace

So here I go, switching gears from sharing the design process to sharing the finished work. It however is exciting news, as the Summer '13 Collection from Manic Trout has arrived!

Sanda Fun For Me Earrings from Manic Trout

Sanda Fun For Me Earrings

May Giveaway

 Contests  28 Responses »
May 072013
 

The votes are in and the May Giveaway featuring jewelry of your choice has officially begun! Thank you to all of you who voted, I had to laugh as the end of voting was the night before the Kentucky Derby and out of no where, all of these votes for the horse necklace came in...was it a subconscious race to the finish line???

What ever the reason, I am excited to announce that one lucky winner will receive the Mustang Sally Necklace from the Summer '13 Collection before it is even available to buy online!!

Mustang Sally necklace from Manic Trout

Mustang Sally necklace from Manic Trout on bust

The Mustang Sally Necklace is 21.5" long, features large chunks of Lapis Howlite and a galloping brass horse. The necklace is part of the Summer '13 Collection from Manic Trout and is $80.

To enter to win this awesome necklace so you can flaunt you're amazing style all summer long follow the deets below...

1. Show some love by liking Manic Trout on Facebook, or following Manic Trout on Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram. If you already do all of this (you're awesome!) but please tweet or share about Manic Trout or jewelry from manictrout.com.

2. Comment below with what the one thing you hope to do this summer is and where you liked/followed/shared #1.  (this is your entry).

3. Cross your fingers and hope that you're the winner selected at random on Friday, May 10th!

The winner will be announced here on the blog, as well as on facebook and twitter and they will be emailed.  Contest closes at midnight on Thursday May 9th.  Only one entry per person please.

Good luck!

Edited to add that Vanessa is the lucky winner!!! Congrats Vanessa!!

Manic Trout in the June, 2013 Cosmopolitan Magazine!!

 Press  2 Responses »
May 062013
 

In a bit of an exhausted haze as I stepped off a plane last night at midnight from a 40 hour trip to NYC to celebrate the engagement of my sister Gillian with family. The exhaustion however has been lifted by the excitement of seeing my jewelry in Cosmo magazine!! Check out two of the Zsa Zsa Bling Rings below...

Manic Trout in the June, 2013 Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Manic Trout in the June, 2013 Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Thank you Cosmo!!

The ring on the left hand is the Her Royal Highness Zsa Zsa Bling Ring with Fuchsia setting and on the right is the Modest Zsa Zsa Bling Ring with Fuchsia setting.

What this week has looked like in 9 quick answers

 Sum It Up  No Responses »
May 032013
 
Manic Trout Earrings

Earrings from the Summer '13 Collection

WORKING ON: Producing the Summer '13 Collection coming out mid May and getting orders to customers and stores out the door as fast as I can!

THINKING ABOUT: What to do for next weeks vide0 from the studio. Having such a fun time making them!

ANTICIPATING: Flying to NYC tomorrow for my sister Gillians engagement party, which means I get to see all of my sisters!

LISTENING TO: Wild Belle and wishing there was more available.

EATING: I've been cooking up a storm! So much so that there is an instagram # called Manic Trout Lunchtime Adventures to document the lunches I make on the days my assistant is here over lunch.

THANKFUL FOR: The growth of Manic Trout this year.

PLANNING FOR: Designing the Fall Collection...getting there. Need to have it done by the end of the month, so I'm in good shape. Pretty excited with the direction its going!

READING: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, just started it last night, so far it's pretty engaging.

WATCHING: I saw Iron Man 3 last night...so amazing, although I think I'd say that if I watched Robert Downey Jr. sit on a bench for 2 hours.

How to: Styling Series – wearing Manic Trout vintage scarf necklaces

 Life of A Designer  No Responses »
May 022013
 

I am aiming to shoot a video a week in the studio...its been interesting thinking of ways I can bring you in to Manic Trout this way. We're still getting our sea legs on the filming and of course, I talk too much...but I would do that if you were in front of me too.

This week I showed you how to style the vintage scarf necklaces...something I have been wanting to do for awhile and glad I finally got around to it. If you have a Mermaid Parade or Fireworks After Midnight...this is for you. If you want one, it's your lucky day as they're all in the last chance sale or sample sale!

Oh also, I have decided to let you choose what the May Giveaway will be...to see the selections from the soon to be released Summer '13 Collection and cast your vote...go to the facebook page.

Finding inspiration

 Life of A Designer  No Responses »
Apr 262013
 

I am often asked where I find inspiration for my work. This is both a hard and a super easy question to answer. The short of it is everywhere, the long is that I am always on the lookout. I read hundreds of blogs daily, mostly design and travel related, read piles of books and magazines, keep my eyes open when I go anywhere...from walking the dog to traveling and basically never think something is too obscure to be inspiring. Yesterday, a bug on the bottom corner of a page in a magazine I was flipping through sent me off into an inspired frenzy immediately. My assistant Lauren saw all this go down and asked if I would go through the process of finding something that inspired me to designing a piece of jewelry on video...so she did. We used my phone and it was our first video, so no judgement....

 

 

What inspires you?

What is a Sample Sale and where can I shop it?

 Life of A Designer  No Responses »
Apr 232013
 

manic trout sample sale

Today is an exciting day at Manic Trout because it marks the first day of the annual Sample Sale at ManicTrout.com! I haven't done a Sample Sale this big since 2011. I was shocked to realize how many no longer needed samples had accumulated! Wondering what this sale is all about and why it's so amazing?

Basically, jewelry which has been worn on photo shoots, sent to magazines and are the exhibited pieces at large shows are samples. These samples are returned to the studio after they have fulfilled their destinies. However, they then serve no purpose other to take up studio real estate. I mentioned this to a friend a few years ago and  she suggested I have a sale and offer them up to my customers just like the fashion houses do. I realized the brilliance in this and that it's really a win-win for everyone!  Now, once a year, all sample jewelry in the studio is inspected and sold on ManicTrout.com at a greatly reduced price.

First dibs goes to the newsletter subscribers (if you are not one of those lucky people, you may sign up on the right) and man oh man, do they shop fast! After that, I announce the sale to social media followers...lesson learned here...being on the mailing list is worth it as orders started coming in with minutes of the newsletter hitting inboxes! After the sale, samples will not be available for another year.

Now what you know what the fun is all about...hurry on over...there is only only one of each sample and they go fast!!

 

Deep thoughts from the past week

 Deep Thoughts  No Responses »
Apr 222013
 

beets

1. When you dread having to think of a restaurant to eat dinner at, it's time to head to the kitchen and cook it yourself.

2. Which brings me to: cooking for 2 sucks. However, I love leftovers so at least I'm not wasting food.

3. Allergies are the devil.

4. Forgetting to check your PO box for a month will yield unexpected surprises...and thanks to paperless billing, nothing bad.

5. As a person who subscribed to an average of 20 fashion mags for most of their lives, it's shocking that I now only subscribe to 3 mags...Inc, Entrepreneur and Fast Company. Hopefully thats indicative of where I came from and where I'm headed? But really I think its that blogs and pinterest show the fashion editorials before they even hit the newsstands.

6. My life was divided into 2 camps this week..work on Manic Trout and cook good food. I feel for my instagram follower.

7. Why I waited so long to hire an assistant when I moved to Austin is beyond any reason. It was stupid to wait this long, and now I remember very clearly why I had an assistant and an intern in NY.

8. Great ideas come from brainstorming.

9. The problem with admitting to your spouse that you are capable of creating multiple delicious and healthy meals in a week is that they will expect it regularly. I have a sneaky suspicion that I should not have let that cat out of the bag.

10. Mad Men is the only show that makes me yell out loud at the tv. I am not doing live twitter feeds this season, as it was a bit confusing to my Manic Trout fans last year, but if I were, last night would have been all: "Pete, have you looked in a mirror? wtf is up with your side burns?" and "Wow, Don Draper, I didn't think it possible for you to have even more issues." Man oh man, I LOVE that show!

Poof! Another week gone by…

 Life of A Designer  No Responses »
Apr 052013
 
An Alphabet of Animals Carved from Crayons and Other Miniature Pencil Works by Diem Chau

An Alphabet of Animals Carved from Crayons and Other Miniature Pencil Works by Diem Chau

The days are whooshing by at a rate a bit too fast for my comfort level recently. I am still not sure what happened to Tuesday this week. The really good news is that I have a new studio assistant (yay!) which I had been putting off as I was too busy to train someone. I however reached a point where I was going to loose me mind if I did not have help. At that same moment I was looking over contracts to sign with a showroom in L.A. who will also rep Manic Trout in parts of the country. This is a big step and would not be possible to take on without studio help. Luckily and thanks to Instagram, the incredibly organized Lauren, who kept commenting that she should work for me, now does (yay!).

For the first time in months I have not walked into my studio in the morning dreading how I was going to get everything done. I am able to focus on designing and making jewelry and Lauren keeps tabs on everything from invoicing wholesale accounts, packing website orders, managing inventory, updating spreadsheets (we both really like spreadsheets) labeling and packaging jewelry to whatever else needs to be done. But seriously, she got here just in time, right before I drowned in a sea of un-filed paperwork.

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