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
Keepsakes Revealed! – The Bare Necessities
Keepsake Artist Julie Forsyth reveals her inspiration behind The Bare Necessities ornament.
Were you a fan of “The Jungle Book” growing up?
“I remember seeing it in the theater when I was a kid, but I re-watched it because it had been so long since I’d watched it—and I was surprised at how much went over my head as a kid. I was definitely a big fan of Kipling stories when I was a kid. My mother used to read several of the ‘Just So’ stories to me.”
What challenges did you face while sculpting this ornament?
“This ornament is from a scene where they’re floating down the river singing ‘The Bare Necessities.’ The challenge was to make it look like they were floating in water without chopping off the entire bottom half of their bodies, because you’re going to see it on the Christmas tree.”
What’s it like transforming a two-dimensional character into a physical 3D object?
“I had to watch the movie a lot…over and over and over. Sometimes you have to watch the entire movie just wondering what his (Baloo’s) ears look like from the back. Nowadays, licensors can sometimes send us digital images of all the characters, but this one was all frame by frame.”
Did you have anything to work off of other than watching the film?
“Disney has color guides that tell us what color to use. I just have to take that and make it match molecule by molecule for the whole ornament.”
Anything else you’d like to add?
“There were a lot of technical challenges we had to address with this ornament. We had to figure out how the wiring for the sound could appear without showing through the bottom. In the end, our engineers did a really great job.”
August Keepsake Wallpaper
Grab your shovel and pail to revisit simpler times with this month’s Free Desktop Wallpaper featuring “Classic Turtle Sandbox” by Rodney Gentry.
Classic Turtle Sandbox®
Little Tikes®
Local Clubs Receive Third Mailing for 2014
The third of four mailing that the national Keepsake Ornament Club will be sending to Local Clubs this year is currently being delivered to Club Sponsors/Club Contacts.
The shipment contains:
- The August 2014 issue of Collectively Speaking – The local club newsletter for the Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club.
- Keepsake Ornament Club – 2014 Artist Interviews – A DVD with exclusive interviews from three of the Keepsake Studio Artists including:Tom Best talking about the Frosty Friends series; Tracy Larsen speaking about Snow Fun Ferris Wheel; and Ken Crow sharing a few details about the Where Dreams Become Toys.
Frosty Friends
Tom Best
Snow Fun Ferris Wheel
Tracy Larsen
Where Dreams Become Toys
Ken Crow
2015 Sneak Peek
A golden idea for sure!
It was your favorite series at Keepsake Ornament Premiere, so a sneak peek at the 5th in the Twelve Days of Christmas series and a conversation with Edythe Kegrize was a must.
How is she going to make this ornament as exciting and beautiful as the first four? Five Golden Rings aren’t colorful like the other ornaments in the series have been. Or at least, that was the original concern. True to herself, Edythe was not going to create something less the fabulous.
Edythe shared, “This ornament was the most challenging in the series so far.” Making the ornament interesting, while incorporating the words and design motif, left Edythe reworking her plans multiple times over the course of the last five years. After much contemplation and with some concern, Edythe presented what she thought was the final design to the team.
The design was approved, but she continued to feel like she was settling and began researching alternative meanings of the verse. “I already had approval for another concept and was getting ready to begin the final piece, but I just was not excited about doing it. I was so happy when I stumbled upon one interpretation,” Edythe stated. This version suggested the meaning of the five golden rings on a pheasant’s neck. “This made sense to me,” she said. “The song itself was about the feasting and musical celebrations of the season.”
Edythe chose the golden pheasant for its vibrant colors and prominent branding on the neck. This choice helped her maintain the feel of the series and stay true to the coloring of the bird selected.
To Marry the interpretations of the song, Edythe decided to incorporate the more recognizable interlocking ring motif into the design. Five golden rings become ornamentation on the wings and back of the dangling charm.
Edythe is thrilled with the new design and so happy to continue with the bird theme for this series. Now for the next big challenge, year number eight…
Five Golden Rings
In-Store Artist Signing Local Club Host Gift
Members of the 16 local clubs that sponsor a 2014 Keepsake Artist Signing Event will receive a repainted version of the 5th ornament in the Frosty Fun Decade series.
Frosty Fun Decade
Special Edition
Rochester, MN Sneak Peek
At the Local Club Dinner event in Rochester, MN, Kristina talked about a couple of her series. While showing a picture of the first in her new “Kringle and Kris” series, she shared a personal insight about the design (Santa’s list) including the names of her husband, son and other family members. As a side note she mentioned, given the unusualness of her son’s name, this is the only way it would appear on a Keepsake ornament.
During her presentation, Kristina also talked about the Fairy Messengers being her favorite series and shared a Sneak Peek of a couple of new arrivals that are due in 2015.
Lotus and Poinsettia
1st in the Baby Fairy Messengers series
At the end of her presentation Kristina offered up a little riddle. “What is the size of a pea (now) and in February it will be the size of a Watermelon?”
She then went on to announce she is pregnant with her second child.
CONGRATULATIONS Kris!
Chesapeake, VA 2015 Sneak Peek
At the Local Club Dinner event in Chesapeake, VA Jake and Tammy each showed a picture of one of their favorite 2014 Keepsake ornaments while giving a personal insight into their respective designs.
Jake showed “I Want You to Want Me” and said, “as a newer artist it was one of my first ornaments that brought out my style.”
Tammy showed “Snip ‘N’ Clip Fun”, 7th in the Making Memories series. She went on to say she liked it because it reminded her of making paper snowflakes with her kids. As an interesting side note, she commented about making life-sized paper snowflakes and snowmen in order to get the scale right.
In addition to sharing pictures of their favorite 2014 ornaments, each artist also gave a Sneak Peek of one of the designs they created for the 2015 Keepsake ornament line and answered questions for approximately 30 minutes.
One piece of trivia that was revealed during the Q & A session was that this year’s “Sugar, Sugar” ornament was supposed to play “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard. As a result of not being able to obtain the rights to use this song, Hallmark had to change the music to “Sugar, Sugar.”
Girls Just Want to Have Fun!
Sweet Sisters
Keepsakes-Revealed! – A Home For A Gnome
Get a behind-the scene glimpse at the inspiration and creation of this year’s Reveal Ornaments from the artists themselves.
A Home for a Gnome
Reveal Keepsake Ornament #1
What was the inspiration for this ornament?
“I’ve been making terrariums for a couple of years now. Actually, the first ones I made were for Hallmarket*. I’ve always been a gnome fanatic…gnomes and mushrooms. I don’t know why. And then one year I started collecting cool jars, and I wondered what I could do with them—so I started making terrariums. I started collecting any kind of glass things I thought were cool that could become terrariums, and then I started putting little paper clay gnomes in them.”
How did that transition into an ornament?
“I had submitted the idea to include gnomes and mushrooms in Keepsakes back when I first started 18 years ago. One of the first ornaments I did that was kind of terrarium-like was one of the Keepsake Ornament Club ornaments. For it, I wanted to do the water-globe effect without the water, so I just did it with the loose snow in it, and everyone really liked it.”
What is it about making terrariums that appeals to you?
“I just love creating a little scene inside. It kind of draws you into it…makes it a little more precious.”
Any fun facts about the ornament itself?
“I don’t do any terrariums with living plants in them. I have a hard time keeping things alive, so I use this imitation mossy grass, and we were able to use the same stuff I use on my personal pieces in the ornament.”
Are you hoping to do more terrarium-influenced ornaments?
“At this point I think people are almost coming to expect them. If Keepsake fans continue to like them, I’m happy to continue designing them.”
*NOTE: Hallmarket – An annual event, open to the public, where Hallmark employees display and sell items they’ve created based on their personal interests.