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In honor of Fathers Day, this week’s throwback Thursday takes you back to a story written in 2007 about the origins of Keepsake Ornaments designed for men.

1957 Corvette
1st it the Classic American Cars series

It took a small group of guys staging a polite revolution, led by artist Don Palmiter, to get the Classic American Cars series rolling in 1991.

Now, in hindsight, it makes sense that ornaments for men would sell well. Most Keepsake customers may be women, but they buy for the men in their lives. And men collect stuff pertaining to their interests—cars, trucks, sports—so why not car ornaments?

But back in 1990, Don’s car ornament sketches had been rejected three years running. “Up until then, the line was all cute little characters and critters,” Don remembers. “There was nothing specifically for guys.”

So Don gathered the troops. Keepsake’s technical art manager at the time was a car collector who owned a classic 1957 Corvette®. The Keepsake sculpting studio boss was a classic car restorer. The art director had worked on a classic car calendar for Hallmark—and it had sold like gangbusters.

Instead of sketches this time, Don submitted a sculpted model of the ’57 Corvette. And the other guys lent their vocal support to the proposal.

“This time we all talked our marketing folks into a car series,” Don smiles.

Keepsake features an array of ornaments for guys now. And Don—known as the Keepsake “Wheel Guy”—still loves sculpting his Classic American Cars. For him, it’s personal.

“I’m heavily into wheels,” he says. “I’ve owned collector cars all along—everything from a 1962 Corvair™ convertible to a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III. I’ve always had at least one really neat car around.”

The series lets him study all the details that made each year’s model so special. That means going to car shows and taking lots and lots of pictures from every angle. Then there’s the paint colors that have gone in and out of fashion over the years. “I try to pick a color that was extremely popular at the time,” he says. There’s the pink 1959 Series 62 Cadillac®, for instance, and the turquoise 1957 Chevrolet®.

Since that first Corvette in 1991, Don has sculpted four Corvette ornaments for the series, including the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray™ Coupe (2003)—the “split window” coupe, the most sought-after Corvette for collectors. Don explains why there are so many Corvette ornaments in the line. “It’s the first and only continuing American sports car,” he says. “Collectors love them.” He should known—he owns a 2002 Corvette himself.

Classic muscle cars have also grown in popularity in recent years, so Don makes sure they’re represented in the series. A favorite ornament of his is the 1970 Ford Mach 1 Mustang (2002). It’s a car that really tore up the highway in its day. And it looks pretty cool on a Christmas tree, too.

Reprint of: “Classic Cars, For the Guys… Hot American Wheels.”Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments, The Inside Stories From the Artists Who Create Them by John Peterson.

This week’s throwback Thursday takes you back to a story written in 2007 about Kris’s Penguins, one of the most successful unofficial series (if not the most successful) in Keepsake history.

Penguins at Play

Kris’s Penguins
A Playful Spirit Animates These Polar Pals

“Unofficial series” is a phrase you hear often among artists in the Keepsake Ornament Studio. It usually refers to ornaments with a certain theme, style, or characters that are repeated from year to year. They’re not marketed as part of a series and continue only as long as people purchase them and the artist can find inspiration to come up with good ones.

For Kristina Kline, the inspiration for her unofficial penguin series is as abundant as her childhood memories of snowy Iowa winters.

In 2001, Kristina made an ornament of three penguin pals tobogganing. In the following years, she made other penguin ornaments and created distinct personalities for the young penguin play playmates.

There’s the ringleader, the one with her eyes closed, blissed out on the fun, and the plus-size guy. Other characters show up too, like an adorable seal and a baby polar bear. Kristina says the simplified design style of the ornaments lets her emphasize frolic and fun.

She says she knew she was on to something “when people started calling them Kris’s penguins.” An unofficial series had been born.

Beginning with a light clip in 2002’s Topping the Tree, Kristina started adding “simple magic” to each penguin ornament. The penguins in Pals at the Pole (2003) twirl on the ice. In Anything for a Friend (2004), the cute penguin who’s loaned her hat and scarf to a snowman shivers when the ornament is wound up.

Penguins are hot now, commercially speaking—but they always have been popular. Kristina thanks we humans see ourselves in the playful penguin nature. Having grown up on the edge of Osceola, Iowa, she certainly relates to Snow Fort Fun (2006), on which you can pull a knob know to see a snowball fight in action.

“I remember we had one of those red plastic snow block makers that you would pack full of snow,” she smiles. “We’d make big snow forts and have wild snowball fights, just like my little penguins.”

As a series, “Kris’s Penguins” may be unofficial—meaning it could end at any time—but there’s really no end to the playful spirit that inspires it.

Reprint of: “Kris’s Penguins, A Playful Spirit Animates These Polar Pals”
Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments, The Inside Stories From the Artists Who Create Them by John Peterson.