Why Thursdays rule in the land of Manic Trout

Thursday nights are my night to design jewelry and work late into the night catching up on studio stuff. The best part however is that I run down the block to Stewarts and stock up on candy to make me all spastic and productive for the night. On the menu this evening I am indulging in Sour Gummi Worms, Nerds rainbow of flavor and Jelly Belly Beans, woo hoo!



I am trying really hard to be good and keep the candy consumption to only Thursdays...so i pretty much live for this once a week ritual...and its so fun to get all hopped up on sugar and dye...hmmm, maybe this is why my jewelry looks like candy...

The perils of wishing your life away

Tomorrow is already the last day of January, how did this happen? I had so many things I wanted to get done this month and now its already over. I wish I could slow down time sometimes...one of my favorite teachers when I was in grade school used to always tell me to stop wishing away my life (I have never been patient) and I always glared at her when she told me that and continued to wish it would be my birthday already! Well now I think I am close to her age when she old me that and Ms. Sharkey you were right...man I have wished away a lot of time...can I have it back now?

New freak Like Me Necklaces!

Well, they are coming soon anyway...but at least I have them made and photographed!



I have been working like a mad woman this week trying to get caught up on stuff around my studio and on my desk. I have a bunch of new pieces that are coming by this week-end...



I have been previewing them for the past week or two, so there will not be any surprises, but exciting none the less.



All of these new goodies will also be available at the open studio I am having on February 9th, just in time to buy a gift for your lucky lady love or even yourself for Valentines Day!



You can find the line of Freak Like Me Necklaces at Manic Trout.

A two year anniversary of sorts

So I spent the bulk of yesterday redoing my press page and I realized that my first blog mention was on January 19th, 2006. I believe I had just made the decision to narrow down my focus to jewelry and paintings and the shopping cart was only just being added. I have a tendency to be hard on myself and not always look at all the good that has happened and is going on and instead thinking about and focusing in what still needs to be accomplished. Well yesterday made me at least see that in two years I have done a lot and I could never have had that much press without the help from all of you wonderful bloggers and fans of indie designers, thanks y'all!

A very busy January

What happened to January being a slow month? I was enjoying my little stat of the year/post holiday break and getting ready to ease myself into to 2008 with a list of things to catch up on, when wham! I'm busier now then I was leading up to Christmas! I have to admit that I have been working very hard to make this happen, but I was not prepared for it to happen so quickly. I have begun to advertise in a larger scope then I had last year and thanks to some great press in magazines I have been getting the word out about Manic Trout more then ever this month, woo hoo! Check out the Feb BabyTalk...


I designed 6 new Freak Like Me Necklaces yesterday, which I already started to photograph, so they should be online soon. There will be more to come shortly as well...right now I am spending a great deal of each day processing orders, so time is tighter then normal, but I am starting to get into the new rhythm...speaking of which, I need to get away from my desk now...I wanted to check in however and let you all know where I have been all week....

I made muffins!

So I may not cook, but I do bake...very rarely...and today I made blueberry muffins...from scratch thank you. And yes, I had to order a muffin pan from williams sonoma before I would even consider making them, (for a non cooker I have an odd obsession with buying thins from WS, it has been tamed since moving from a big house to an apartment due to space limitations, but I seem to be getting over that)


I tried one right out of the oven, and I remembered why I do not bake often, I end up eating waaaay too many of what I make...and my stomach is killing me as I ate about a cup of batter. I love batter.

Yay, new jewelry is coming!!!

I am super excited! I know, you've been all...when are you gonna give us something new Sierra, lets get to it already...well it took forever to get the ideas to formulate to where I wanted them to start to go and it finally is happening, so here they come. I will start posting the new work next week, as the biggest of all Hallmark holidays is really close and I am having a big open studio on the 9th, so I must get into the production groove.



I am feeling color right now, so prepare yourself for a heavy saturations of luscious hues. The few first few pieces are a handful vintage lucite button rings, in a new array of colors, and two necklaces made with antiques brass and candy colored Czech glass.



I should really just give up and admit that I have a candy addiction and therefore most of my jewelry looks like you could eat it.

Does it count if I didn't finish?

Well I somehow managed to stretch 3 canvases on Saturday, go me!...well they are not primed so I cannot actually paint on them yet, but its still something, right?

I have been trying since then to get some of my new jewelry line worked on, although most of it is still a jumbled puzzle in my head, I have been walking around in a trance as the new ideas are consuming me and I keep feeding them with images both print and otherwise...

Which brings me to the exciting news that I finally saw Juno last night! What a fantastic movie, run out and see it right now! Oh and ps...boys like it too.

Progress through baby steps

I have been a very bad painter recently. I mainly blame it on the fact that I hate stretching canvases. I spent 4 years making sure a local "week end artist" had his massive studio ready to go and filled with stacks of every possible size of stretched canvases and walls of paint...it made me hate to wash brushes too. So anyway...a year ago I bought a large amount of nice big stretcher bars...roughly 100, ranging in size from 14" to 42"....and a couple rolls of canvas and a few gallons of gesso. This was not cheap. I have stretched 0 of the potential 25 canvases possible to make from this pile of unpacked wasted material. I have moved the boxes of stretchers around my studio roughly 10 times. I have not painted in a month because I am out of prepped canvases. This is starting to be sad.

So I unpacked the boxes, and I feel a little bit better...but now I have to stretch and prime a few of them. I also wanted to paint big again, so the stretchers are mostly 36"+...but in reality I have no room to paint large, so I am unsure of what to do about that...I think I may have to order a bunch of 20 some odd inch bars...see how this happens...

Open Studio Saturday Jan 12th

I am having an open studio tomorrow from 10-5 and yes, there will be candy and cheese!

Prom Season and Manic Trout

I never had a prom, I know, its tragic. I went to boarding school and we just didn't have one. I have found myself randomly collecting vintage prom dresses in the past, I never wear them, but it makes me feel happy, so I figure what's the harm? I used to have them hanging in my living room, but then a fit of re decoration and room changing after the flood last year (can you believe that was a year ago!) made the dresses retret to my closet. So anyway...there is a point, I may not have been to a prom, but apparently i channel prom style and have jewelry in both the Teen Prom and CosmoGirl Prom issues this year! It makes me want to buy more vintage dresses. So here they are, in all there glory!


CosmoGirl! Prom


Teen Prom 1


Teen Prom 2


Teen Prom 3


Teen Prom 4


Teen Prom 5


Teen Prom 6

Sunshine and warm days...in January!?!

Perhaps its from living in Syracuse for 7 years that has me so jaded about the stretch of bleak weather that appears in the North East every winter. Or maybe its just the fact that yes, its usually really cold for 4 months here in the Hudson Valley that makes me really enjoy that it has been over 50 degrees and sunny here for the last few days. It just makes everything a bit easier to do. I am still really sick, so I am not really doing much that requires any exertion, but still, its nice to have sunshine streaming in the windows.

Dealing with January

I always know it will be a blow to the system when the holiday madness is over and the lull of January sets in, but I never am really ready to deal with it. To go from running around filling orders and answering emails all day and night, to almost nothing...its tough for me. I had my little vacation and have now been back puttering around my studio, trying to shake my cold...but I feel so out of sorts without the activity.

I received a huge order of goodies from FMG the other day, and I have just been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what is piled up on my shipping table, I haven't even opened anything yet.

I have been trying my hardest to stay away from the pull of winter blahs and keep my chin up, but I have been hiding under the covers for more hours then I care to admit lately. Slowly I making myself accomplish goals and work that I need to tend to, as I really want to continue to push MT as much as I did last year, but right now I just want to sit on the couch and stare at the wall.

Once again I have also realized that I have two full time jobs that are seasonal, and I have to go to the restaurant in an hour to endure a painfully slow night where I will stand around talking to co workers all night, as I will most likely have very few bar customers. Sigh.

Happy New Year!

I have fully enjoyed my mini self imposed vacation for the last week, but I have been itching to get back to work! I am very excited about this year, as always plans change and ideas evolve...so a few of my plans for 2008 may already have been altered. I though I might as well share a few of my goals for the year.

* Manic Trout open studios/trunk shows have been doing well and will continue on a monthly basis...the next one will be on January 12th.

* Continue to grow wholesale accounts

* Work with manufacturer to create higher volume of some lines, as well as recreate vintage pieces to reduce the amount of limited availability pieces

* Continue to create a higher end/couture line

* Add more One of A Kind pieces to the collections

* Increase online advertising

As well as things that I want to do, I realized that my planned move to Brooklyn in July may have to wait yet another year...I am enjoying being an artist in the Hudson Valley at the moment and want to become more involved here right now...plus the thought of having to shut down for a few weeks to move my studio terrifies me.

Oh and speaking of news...Manic Trout is currently in CosmoGirl Prom and Teen Prom on news stands now...woo hoo!