Artist Insights – Rodney Gentry
Keepsake Artist Rodney Gentry shares how he literally had a hand in creating this loving homage to a classic sandbox.
Classic Turtle Sandbox®
Little Tykes®
“As a personal touch I put in some of the sandbox toys that my daughters like to play with. But even better, if you look in the sand…those are actually my handprints. I scanned my hands and put them in the sand so I’m right there in the ornament with my daughters.”
Another 2014 In-Store Artist Signing Event Announced
If you are a collector of Kiddie Car Classics or fan of Retiring Keepsake Artist Don Palmiter’s work, you will want to put this on your calendar. Don will be at the newly remodeled Amy’s Hallmark at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO, on September 6, 2014.
Come meet him, have him sign your Kiddie Car Classics and learn about his work.
Plus, Hallmark will have a limited selection of Kiddie Car Classics from their private collection available for purchase.
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2014
Amy’s Hallmark
Crown Center
2450 Grand Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 283-0459
Artist will be available for signing from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Customly Yours Keepsake Ornaments Canceled
Based on the performance of the everyday Customly Yours product line, Hallmark has decided to cancel the two Customly Yours Keepsake Ornaments (pictured in Dream Book on page 46) that were scheduled to be released in October.
A Piece of Us
Customly Yours
A Piece of Us
Customly Yours
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Orville Wilson Interview
Keepsakes Ornaments come to life in a variety of ways. In this exclusive interview Keepsake Studio Artist Orville Wilson talks about how he used 3D software to digitally sculpt Edna Mode, 4th in the Disney/Pixar Legends series.
Click on the image below to see the interview.
Artist Insights – Orville Wilson
Take a walk on the dark side with Orville Wilson as he recalls how he “captured” a famous villain.
The Rise of Lord Vader
Star Wars™: Revenge of the Sith™
“When I was creating this (The Rise of Darth Vader), I just kept hearing ‘Lord Vader, rise.’ I watched over and over as the table tilts up and you see the steam and the fog, and you know you’re seeing the transition from the good into the dark. It’s a big moment for ‘Star Wars,’ and it was a big moment for me as I made the ornament.”
Kirlin’s Exclusive Keepsake Ornaments
1948 FORD F-1 (Kirlin’s Truck)
Created to honor Kirlin’s 60th anniversary
By Don Palmiter.
During the Friday night dinner, Kirlin’s gave away specially painted Kirlin’s exclusive Keepsake ornaments, including: 16 each of the ‘1948 Ford F-1 Truck, Special Edition’ repaint of 12th in the ‘All American Truck’ series and 12 each of the ‘Christmas at Kirlin’s,’ repaint of 2012, 10th in the ‘Christmas Windows’ series.
Christmas at Kirlin’s
Kirlin’s Associate Gift
This repainted version of the ‘Christmas Window 2012’ ornament commemorates Kirlin’s 65 year journey. It was issued in limited quantities and was first available only to Kirlin’s Associates.
Keepsakes Revealed! – Tony The Tiger
Keepsake Artist Anita Marra Rogers reveals her inspiration behind Tony The Tiger™.
Tony the Tiger™
Reveal Keepsake Ornament #3
What inspired you in creating this ornament?
“Tony is a character I grew up with. Everybody likes Frosted Flakes as a kid. I definitely did. Plus, my son who’s 20 years old…this was his favorite cereal growing up, so this was doubly fun with two generations getting a kick out of it.”
Did you face any challenges as you sculpted?
“I had to look up pictures of Tony because I didn’t have a whole lot to go on, since he’s changed throughout the years. We wanted him in this pose with this styling. It took numerous attempts to get the head shape just right, because Tony had the rounder face when he came out, and then he changed to the football head.”
The same thing happened when I worked on painting Tony the Tiger and I didn’t have the painting of Tony from the back. So I painted the stripes all wrong back there at first, and I had to reimagine what he looked like from behind.”
Anything else you’d like to share?
“What can I say, ultimately I just hope everyone thinks this ornament is g’rrrreat!”
2015 Keepsake Ornament Club Event
Get ready for a trip to FUN with your collector friends!
It’s the 2015 Keepsake Ornament Club Event!
August 7-8, 2015
(registration bag pick up will start the evening of 8/6)
Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center
Kansas City, MO
Cordova, TN Q&A Session (2014)
At the Local Club Dinner event in Cordova, TN, Tracy held a brief Q&A. Although no photos were shown, he talked about his 2014 Keepsake ornaments and provided a few insights into several of the pieces he is working on for 2015.
During the session he spoke about the second in the “Tree Trimmers” series. In addition to saying the piece was designed with Elvis in mind, he said he was excited to have it selected to appear on the cover of the Dream Book. He went on to say this was only the second time* in his 28-year career as a Keepsake Artist that one of his pieces has appeared on the cover, the first being in 1997 (the year his work debuted) when his Mickey & Co. inspired “New Pair of Skates” (QXD4032) shared the cover with “Steeling a Kiss” (QX6555) By Sue Tague and “Rocking Horse” (QXM4303), 10th and final in the series by Linda Sickman.
Tracy also spoke about “Snow Fun Ferris Wheel”, his venture into the the world of magic, light and movement. An interesting piece of trivia he shared was, although Ferris wheels usually rotate clockwise, this one rotates counter clockwise.
Another interesting piece of trivia Tracy shared was that although he submitted the concept for “Hark! Music Fills the Air!,” (QXI2563)-this years PEANUTS® Gang chorale ornament-in 2008, the year after “Ringing in Christmas” (QXI4309) was released, it wasn’t until this year that the design was realized.
Tracy revealed that the Santa sculptures created by three Keepsake Artists during a wood carving workshop, and then auctioned off as part of last year’s “Hangin’ With Your Buddies!” event, would be re-imagined as ornaments and offered for sale at next year’s event.
As for future projects, Tracy said he is working on: a new elf series, a follow up piece to this years “Surfin’ Safari Santa” which will be based on another Beach Boys song and a big piece that features Santa in flight. This large scale piece is expected to be on par with Ken Crow’s annual masterpieces. Tracy also said he is currently collaborating with two other studio artists on a Frosty Friends tabletop piece.
As a side note Tracy mentioned that the coffee grinder he created for Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen Sink, this year’s In-Store signing event piece, was accidentally placed on the wrong spot. As a result of being placed too close to the front of the shelf, the grinder’s handle sticks out making it prone to breakage. As such, he cautions people to be careful when handling this piece.
*NOTE: “100 Years of Helping You Say It All” (QXG3403) a piece Tracy created in collaboration with Don Palmiter also appeared on the cover of the 2010 Keepsake Ornament Club edition Dream Book.
Rochester, NY Sneak Peek
At the Local Club Dinner event in Rochester, NY, Edythe and Orville each showed a picture of one of their 2014 Keepsake ornaments while giving a personal insight into their respective designs and then gave a Sneak Peek of one of the designs they created for the 2015 Keepsake ornament line.
Orville started off the presentation by talking about his Godzilla ornament. He said that the ornament was based on the first [Warner Bros.] model. He also said that when he was initially given the assignment to sculpt this piece, he didn’t know what Godzilla was going to look like, as such it took longer (approximately 1-2 weeks beyond the regular 2 week period) than usual to design the ornament.
He then showed Megatron, the Transformer ornament that will be released in 2015. He said that he designed this piece from scratch based off pictures. As an interesting side note he commented about if this piece could be taken apart, it could be transformed into the shape of a gun.
Megatron
Edythe then spoke about her popular “Twelve Days of Christmas” series. While showing a picture of “Four Calling Birds,” this years 4th in series piece, she talked about Four Colly Birds, the more traditional interpretation of this fourth verse of the song. She went on to say that Colly birds are sort of like black birds or starlings. She then turned her attention to next years design, “Five Golden Rings.” Before revealing the final design for the piece she shared a concept drawing of one of the earlier renditions of this series piece that she had come up with. The design featured a tree with a partridge on top and garland golden rings. Despite getting approval for this design, Edythe wasn’t happy with it and decided to scrap it for a new design incorporating a golden pheasant.
Megatron