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.
What 2014 Limited-quantity Ornament Was the Hardest to Find during Ornament Premiere?
Although sell through vary by store, based on the available information, here is a list of this years Limited-quantity ornaments ranked according to the percentage of stores that sold out during Ornament Premiere Weekend.
#1 Winged Wonder
The Beauty of Birds
Special Edition
#2 Kisses for Kacey
Special Edition
#3 A Pony for Christmas
Special Edition
#4 Toymaker Santa
15th Anniversary
Special Edition
#5 Who Are You Callin’ Chicken?
Foghorn Leghorn—LOONEY TUNES
Special Edition
#6 Vina
STAR TREK™: The Original Series
Special Edition
#7 Chris Mouse
Special Edition
#8 Scarlett’s White Dress
Gone With the Wind™
Special Edition
#9 High-Flying Hero
Disney The Rocketeer
Special Edition
What Were The Top 10 Ornaments (by units sold) During 2014 Ornament Premiere?
Series ornaments were a big win for Keepsakes again this year. Simple Gifts by Marjolein Bastin was by far the top first-in-series release, followed by Tis the Seasoning!
Additionally, several series came out stronger than ever. Once again the popular Twelve Days of Christmas series by Edythe Kegrize, came in at number 1 with Four Calling Birds, 4th in the series being the highest selling ornament during Ornament Premiere.
For a complete list of the other ornaments that rounded off this years top ten please see below.
#1 Four Calling Birds
4th in the Twelve Days of Christmas series
#2 Hummingbird
10th in the Beauty of Birds series
#3 Winged Wonder
The Beauty of Birds
Special Edition
#4 Frosty Fun Decade
5th in the series
#5 Frosty Friends
35th in the series
#6 Cookie Cutter Christmas
3rd in the series
#7 Seasons Treatings
6th in the series
#8 A Springy Surprise
KOC Gift
#9 Dahlia
27th in the Mary’s Angels series
#10 Pennsylvania Torpedo Locomotive
19th in the LIONEL® Trains series
#11 Winter Fun With Snoopy
17th in the series
#12 Frosty Friends
Special 35th Anniversary Edition