Exciting New Classes and Art Festival Fun Await!

Hey there, art enthusiasts!

I am thrilled to announce that new classes are now open for enrollment, and I’ve got something special for everyone, especially beginners. Whether you're looking to dive into a fresh creative project or just want to try your hand at something new, the project-based classes are here to inspire you. All classes are discounted until September 9th at 10pm, then they go back to full price.

What’s New and What’s Popular?

We have a blend of popular favorites and brand-new workshops that are perfect for beginners. These small, intimate classes (with just 3 spots available per session) ensure you get personalized, expert attention while progressing quickly through your projects. It’s the perfect setting to explore new skills and make the most out of your creative journey.

Bring a Friend and Get Creative Together!

Why not make it a fun outing with friends? Choose a workshop, sign up together, and enjoy a creative day as a group. It’s a fantastic way to bond and create something memorable!

Join Me at Art on the Green

I’m also excited to share that I’ll be participating in Art on the Green as the community art-making leader. On September 14th and 15th, join me at this vibrant festival in Greenwood Village, where you can create your very own tiny house brooch or sculpture. It’s a fun, hands-on activity and absolutely free for festival patrons.

Details:

• Event: Art on the Green

• Date: September 14th & 15th

• Location: Greenwood Village

Come visit our booth, get creative, and take home a unique piece of art. I’d love to see you there!

Enroll Now and Secure Your Spot

Spaces in our classes fill up quickly, so be sure to browse our offerings and sign up soon. With small class sizes, you’re guaranteed a great experience, lots of learning, and plenty of artistic fun.

Looking forward to seeing you in class or at the festival!

Happy creating!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU!

This is always a good time to reflect on the year that is coming to a close and I want to thank you for taking my workshops, buying my artwork, sharing my content, and following me! You are all the reason I have been in business as a professional artist for 25 years!

As I look back at 2023 it is clear to me that my job has become easier and WAY more enjoyable. I decided to do more for my community, to build connections, support other artists, and try to make positive change. I chose to move my work to one of the oldest continuously running art co-ops in the country where artists work in the store, have parties every month in honor of one individual artist, live with each other’s work in our homes, and visit each other when we happen to be downtown. This shop, if you’re local, you know it… Trimble Court Artisans in Old Town Square Fort Collins, has been going strong since 1971!

I also decided to teach! Most of you know this already because you’ve taken a workshop or given someone a gift card (THANK YOU). Connecting to my community this way gives me the opportunity to support everyone who is just itching for something unusual. I am the only jewelry school in Northern Colorado that focuses on a finished product in three hours or less and beginners work in sterling silver! Class size is smaller than any other school in Colorado which means you get all of my attention.

Long story short, you can buy my work in Fort Collins and you can take classes right here in downtown Loveland. New classes just went live on my website for January, February, and April.

Happy Holidays! Love ya!

Look Both Ways Before We Cross

Life as an artist can be tricky, there are so many seasons of change to witness and adjust to as I enter my 27th year in business. Markets change, my work changes, my buyers change, and sometimes injuries get in the way of what I want to accomplish! It all works out and I always say that I love change and the year ahead brings even more change and a little sacrifice.

I’ll give you all the good news first! The University of Northern Colorado has hired me to teach Metalsmithing! Working again with college students makes me happier than you can imagine. Metalsmithing at UNC is not a degree program, but rather an elective! I’ve been saying for years that we all need more electives… even us adults! So don’t worry, I will still be offering metalsmithing workshops in my shop on 4th Street and there will also be room for continuing metalsmiths to work on their own projects on Mondays. All evening classes will be held on Wednesday and Friday nights.

Murals will be put on the back burner. This year I painted my 44th mural and I think I’ve said it all in paint at this point (I might be wrong, but I’m saying it anyway). I have had the opportunity to paint about tools, paint spills, migration, suicide awareness, 2020, the opiate epidemic, swimming, play, flowers, rhythm and vibration, and community, community, community (the common theme throughout). I’m happy to put down my roller brushes and consult with those wishing to start a new mural practice. I’ve had the best career and I have learned a LOT!

Thank you all for following along and visiting me in my shop and at the Loveland Art Studio Tour and Sale! It is always my pleasure to share my skills and get to know you! If you haven’t tried metalsmithing, I promise you it is easier than knitting, you should do it!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram at JCMilnerMetalworks and JCMilnerArtworks for all the visuals updates. My work can always be purchased at Trimble Court Artisans in Fort Collins CO, Chemers Gallery in Tustin CA, and Abbey Lane Gallery in Creede CO.

Brilliant Gift Giving!

It’s that time of year again where we complain that Halloween decorations are taking over the garden section of the hardware store! I like to be right there with everyone complaining “it’s too early!” The truth is, through my years of making production jewelry, I have always taken those Halloween decorations as a sign that I have to crank up the productivity in my shop and skip ahead to thoughts of Christmas and gifts!

I’m no longer making production work, but I’m thinking about classes this way too. If you all are going to be able to get into my shop and make earrings, rings, and necklaces to give to the people you love, I have to get classes opened up now! I have gift certificates for those that want to give the gift of the process too & you can book your spot in January, by emailing me your preferred dates.

Last year a couple came to make jewelry for their daughters - they called it DATE NIGHT! Brilliant! I had a trio of ladies that work together team building AND making gifts. I also had one repeat student book Metalsmith Mondays (this is for advanced students to create their own designs using my tools). She created a gorgeous contemporary cocktail ring for herself so she could show off and have a great conversation piece during holiday parties. Whatever floats your boat, I’m here for it. I love it and I want to help you MAKE it!

New Classes and holiday specials will be LIVE on my website www.JCMilnerArtworks.com on September 5th at 5PM. See you all soon.

Workshops are open!

Hi Everyone! I just want to let you know that I’ve added new workshops in my metalsmith shop and my painting studio all the way through May 13th. I now have room for three students per class, so bring a friend or two!

Cheers,

Jennie

Here’s a few of the projects to look forward to making (and YES! Beginners are going to love them all!).

Revisiting a Journal Entry for 2020

When my business has a big event, I make a journal entry. I like to look back at 2020 because I made more entries than any other year and my business saw less events than ever. I thought I’d share, because some of you may have felt like every little thing we did was important in some way, or worth remembering. Star Date 3/26/2020:

3/26/2020 Mid-March we started seeing Covid19 in the US… now it’s in our town.

I woke up to the sirens of a public announcement on our phone to stay home.  I looked at all the people online trying to reach out to one another in a million creative ways on social media.  Then Ruby woke up and June Bug who must have been sleeping outside my door started wagging her tail which acted like a knock on my door.  Laughter.  Simple things make me laugh and simple things make me cry. 

The day starts like any other day really, Ruby is in a rush to get ready (for what?  School at home?).  I’m glad she’s motivated and she’s not the kind of kid who needs me to be overly involved in the simple act of getting out of bed.  She’s already thinking about a million ways to handle her day.  She’s pouring cereal while I’m making coffee.  I’m allowed to say HI, but nothing else at this time.

It looks like it might rain and I feel a little panicked.  I’m going to look online to see what is forecasted for us, because if I’m going outside today, it’s gotta be now, before it rains, if it’s going to rain.  I didn’t actually look at the internet, I assume the best of today.  I think the sun will burn off the fog.  This is pretty much how I handle most days.

Spring is happening in our yard.  This is the first year we’ve seen Spring in this new house on 4th Street.  We have heard that our yard is gorgeous in the Spring, so we are excited about that.  We are?  I think I am.  Yes, Greg is too, he’s taken a few photos of things popping up, tulips maybe?  Hopefully.

I am making coloring pages for people to color.  Correction, I am making coloring pages so that my brain thinks we are “working”!  My artwork is all locked up in galleries that have closed their doors.  I have inventory, everywhere, and will expect zero paychecks for months to come.

Oh yay, Greg’s awake!!!

Loveland Studio Tour

My studio has changed a lot over the years, I have worked in a studio garage in upstate New York , my unfinished basement in the suburbs of Fort Collins, a shared shop with my good buddy Anne Bossert in the Beer-muda Triangle of Fort Collins, and then an old haunted house with 8 studio mates in Loveland, Colorado, and now I’m in Artworks Center for Contemporary Art (with 28+ studio mates and two galleries).

I would like to invite you to my studio Saturday, October 15th to see my current body of work & play a little ‘build a sculpture’ game where

you could WIN a wall sculpture of your own creation!

Where: Artworks Center for Contemporary Art, 310 N. Railroad, Loveland, CO 80537

When: Saturday, October 15th, 11-5PM (or by appointment)

What: Loveland Studio Tour

Why: Because Loveland has the largest and best art community in all of Colorado!

Intuitive Abstract Painting Workshop and AirBnb Experience!

Well certainly, all is not right in the world currently, however we must continue to do the good we set out to do. I am a person that has believed in community since I was a little kid. I have seen the good we can do for each other. If you are looking for a creative and/or meditative outlet, I think you should come check out what’s new in the studio.

I was encouraged to start a painting class in June, by a fellow artist. Who knew I was doing something people want to learn? I paint intuitively almost every day because I find such pleasure in the process. I consider it my warm-up activity, it’s what I do when I can’t think what I should do in the studio. It’s my humble beginnings and my true self. Intuitive Abstract painting at its finest is scribbling and mark making… but if you refine it, it’s about trusting your next move because you trust your intuition.

To my surprise, the students’ work has been off the hook! I’m so impressed and eager to see how this can evolve. Students have asked for two different things… the first is for me to teach a 2 hour introduction class (perfect for the Airbnb experience) and the second is to teach a more in depth class that lasts a few weeks in the fall (on location in Estes Park)! The first is up and running here: Airbnb Experiences , and the second is to be announced. If you are interested in a more in depth experience let me know & I’ll add you to my list!

Meanwhile, thank you thank you thank you! You have come out to support my small business in a million amazing ways & I hope you trust me enough to share me with others. I love making art and I can’t imagine any other life, so I owe you my deepest gratitude. Cheers to you, my community!

My Thoughts on Florals!

New Flowers, Old Flowers, Make it your own Flowers… Yes, I have florals on my mind. Maybe it’s because the trees are exploding in blooms right now? Maybe because the temperature dropped yesterday and my whole being gripped with the reality that it’s not quite time yet to get things into the pots.

Meanwhile, the shop has been cranking out florals all winter, so I can’t really say this is a new phase happening suddenly because it’s springtime. I made and sold a lot of floral jewelry & most of my designs that I’m teaching are my very best sellers. What makes these good projects to teach? They are SIMPLE and use very few tools. My flower drop earrings could be made in the back of a pick-up truck at a rodeo, I’m fairly certain (not that I’ve tried). I’ll keep these on the schedule because there are so many variations that no two pairs look alike. Some are round, some are long, some are very short, and some are square! So fun.

So I’m just dropping in to say HAPPY SPRING, and to let you know that new classes have been added, so grab a friend and check out what is in store for this summer!

Workshops