07/26/2026
The email I wrote today to my mailing list about my art show and wholesale retirement (grab your coffee or tea and settle in, its a bit lengthy):
"Shawn decided to attend the Cheesman Park Arts Festival yesterday (a show that we have done for many years) to visit with the show directors and our fellow “friendors” (friends who are vendors/exhibiting artists) to share the news of our art show retirement. I had to work the store or else I would have been there ;)
Its been a quite the journey with many pivots, and figuring things out over the years. Neither one of us has a MBA, so starting a business, nonetheless an art business, and jewelry to boot (one of the most competitive mediums in the art show world), threw us into the school of hard knocks. Seventeen (did I just say “17”????) years ago, when I started making jewelry (to sell), I had SEVEN part-time jobs! Shawn was in the lighting industry which was slowly sucking his soul. We bootstrapped, maxed out our credit cards, slowly whittled down all those extra side hustles, threw a bunch of things (designs, revenue streams, etc.) against the wall and see what stuck, made come costly mistakes, survived the 2008 housing crisis and the COVID economic shutdown, and over the years…you liked my jewelry enough to buy it for yourself or as gifts and we organically grew the business to where we now have a retail store and a jewelry school. Now, I am trusted to design some of the most special pieces of jewelry that you'll ever own (engagement rings and wedding bands, along with heirloom redesign).
Passion for the art-form and the relationships that we have built is what has kept us going, and I am so grateful our paths have crossed.
With all that said, today is your last chance to peek online [to my website] and see if something calls to you for yourself or for some advance gifting needs (25% discount taken at checkout). Any unsold pieces will be taken offline on Monday and saved for the Breckenridge Arts Festival, August 6-8, which will be my last art show.
After August 8, the nature-inspired pieces will go to some of my remaining retailers (I have also closed my wholesale business, so what is left at the stores will not be replaced) and the one-of-a-kind pieces scrapped or saved as samples for workshops that I teach.
I look forward to sharing this new chapter with you, and hope you follow along.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart; you have each played an important role in my journey as an artist and businesswoman.
With gratitude,
Jen"
