Home & Family: Hallmark artist Joanne Eschrich
Earlier today, Hallmark Keepsake Ornament artist Joanne Eshrich made an appearance on the Hallmark Channel’s HOME & FAMILY show. During the segment, she spoke about her Father Christmas ornament series, talked about the path that led her to become a Hallmark Keepsakes artist, and then went on to show the process she goes through to make her beautiful creations.
Featured Artist: Tracy Larsen
Title:
Hallmark Artist
Started at Hallmark:
October 1987
Started at Keepsakes:
August 1995
Hometown:
North Ogden, Utah
Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Tracy Larsen has been working on Peanuts® products since he joined Hallmark in 1987. But his devotion to everyone’s favorite gang dates back to his preschool days.
Like most preschoolers, Tracy Larsen spent a lot of time with cartoons—but instead of just watching them, Tracy studied them! He spent his childhood hours drawing characters from The Flintstones™ and Peanuts®.
He also copied newspaper comic strips, but at the mature age of eight, Tracy moved to the more sophisticated material on the editorial page. The 1968 Nixon vs. Humphrey presidential race became a favorite subject.
While looking through newspapers and magazines, Tracy started noticing the differences among artists’ styles—another aspect of his self-described “knack for art.” He studied everything he found around his house, from European magazine illustrations to his own personal favorite of the day: Mad magazine.
Tracy did his first sculpting with clay-like kneaded erasers, but through his schooling, moved on to higher-quality materials and projects. He produced his first serious sculpture, a bust of Muhammad Ali, while he was still a teenager. During junior high and high school, Tracy kept honing his skills in his art classes, his primary instructor/mentor being the noted fantasy artist, James Christensen. What a great program those schools must have had, since Tracy is one of several classmates now working as professional artists. (more…)
Featured Artist: Ken Crow
Title:
Hallmark Senior Artist
Started at Hallmark:
August 1979
Started at Keepsakes:
November 1983
Hometown:
Long Beach, California
M
Most of us doodled in our notebooks during high school, but Ken Crow’s drawings were a real learning experience. In his 11th grade history class, he discovered that his pictures were worth a thousand words. History teacher, Mr. Ciriello, began letting Ken use creative illustration instead of taking class notes.
During a civil war lesson, Ken drew battle scenes. When Ciriello explained how an economy works, Ken sketched his teacher running a treadmill turning the cogs of an economic engine.
Ken calls Mr. Ciriello’s encouragement the “green light” for his ability to express his artistic sensibility. Ken always understood the power of communicating ideas through art, and he became an editorial cartoonist for a newspaper. Now he conveys a sense of history and emotion in the expressive and complex work he does with Keepsake Ornaments.
In 2005, Ken created the magical Keepsake Ornament City Sidewalks. Christmas comes to life in this bustling city scene. As the shoppers move about the snow-covered sidewalks, a trolley and cab pass by on the street. The lights in the buildings and on the town’s Christmas tree glow softly. Each time you press the bells on the front of the base, you’ll hear the music for a verse and then the chorus of the popular Christmas song “Silver Bells” (they alternate each time you press the bells). You’ll also hear various city noises and even Santa’s jolly voice in the background.
But how did Ken go from drawing to becoming an expert in mechanical Christmas ornaments? As a child, he tore apart every toy he ever had to see how it worked. He even made other toys out of the spare parts. For Ken, Keepsake Ornaments will forever keep him connected with that inquisitive kid inside.
Mickey’s Magical Railroad (2017)
Disney Mickey Mouse
Ken Crow has loved trains and Mickey Mouse for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Long Beach, California, not far from Disneyland, and he recalls riding the train that circles the park. Today he surrounds his work space with Mickey Mouse phones and other classic Disney memorabilia, so it seemed inevitable that trains and Mickey would come together as one of his ornaments.
“I just love trains, and I started thinking: what’s something fun we could do with Mickey this time?” Ken said. “Let’s put him in a train engine! So I tried to hark back to the one at Disneyland.”
He teamed up with longtime collaborator Ron Carlson, an engineer, to come up with a Magic design. First task: make it move!
Mickey’s Magical Railroad
Disney Mickey Mouse
“I love mechanical things and the train engine is almost like a character,” Ken said. “It’s animated. It wants to go somewhere and do things.”
Using Ken’s concept, Ron began figuring out ways of connecting the wheels with pushrods, then sending that motion up through the throttle, Mickey’s arm, the smokestack and the bell. But it’s not only those components that make the train look like it’s in motion. “I didn’t just sculpt it in right angles; everything kind of bends,” Ken says. “I tried very hard to make it look animated even when it isn’t. That quality is very Disney-like.”
Each project presents interesting new challenges. But Ken’s philosophy remains the same, “What is the greatest number of neat things you can use that would excite someone? So don’t just make the smoke for the smokestack; make it go up and down and look like it’s puffing.”
Jingle All the Way (2017)
Ken’s dad always reminded him of Santa Claus. A kind encourager, Robert Crow was the first person to go to the card shop when one of Ken’s ornaments debuted, asking in amazement, “Ken, how do you do that?” Robert passed away five years ago, and Ken always wishes he could show him each year’s new designs.
Jingle All the Way
So when Ken began to work on concepts for this family-inspired ornament, starting with Santa made perfect sense. He then filled the rest of the “canvas” with vignettes of his wife, two children, their dog and even himself as a child.
“I remember carolers outside the door and my wife, Linda, handing out cookies,” Ken says. “There are so many memories of decorating the tree with my kids. And going to the toy store with my mom when I was a kid.”
Those memories are represented in the various scenes, which rotate as the horse and sleigh move up and down along the wintry base. As with Mickey’s Magical Railroad, Ken worked with Ron to figure out how to make the motion look surprising. “He always encourages me to try things that at first seem hard to imagine,” Ken says of Ron. “He made my dreams come out of my head!”
To light the rotating scenes, they embedded small spotlights in the street lamps. “We wanted to illuminate the front like you’re sitting in a theater,” Ken says. Ken also knew he wanted to get as much use out of the “Jingle Bells” theme as they could. So they added the lyrics to the classic song along the base.
Calling the Magic ornaments that feature light, music and/or sound “brain busters,” Ken has been working on them since 1985. “And if I could choose one ornament to represent all the coolest things I’ve done, this would be it.”
Featured Artist: Tammy Haddix
Title:
Hallmark Senior Artist
Started at Hallmark:
June 1988
Started at Keepsakes:
November 1996
Hometown:
Kansas City, Missouri
T
Tammy Haddix has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Her mother was the first to discover Tammy’s talent at an early age. Unfortunately, her mom found it on countertops and in closets. The kitchen projects were washed away, but the closet creations were another story. Her mom, an artist herself, loved them so much that the artwork stayed up for decades.
It didn’t take long for little Tammy to decide on her career goals. When she was 5 years old, her mother took her along to a Hallmark store. Tammy was so impressed by all the beautiful artwork that she declared her intention to work for Hallmark right then and there.
Tammy inherited her artistic abilities from her mom. After Tammy’s colleagues saw her mother’s intricate cake-decorating talents, the Keepsake Studio Artists decided to use the designs in the 2005 Spring Keepsake Ornaments.
Tammy joined the Illustration Studio, and that’s when her interest in sculpting began. In addition to her regular drawing assignments, Tammy did freelance work for Keepsake Ornaments, which eventually won her a spot on the Keepsakes staff. Her work can still be found in closets, but only because they’re in storage until next Christmas.
A World Within (2017)
3rd in the series.
Tammy Haddix has many fond memories of visiting her grandma’s house in Oklahoma City. One of her favorite things? A vintage Christmas ornament collection.
“She had these simple yet beautiful glass ornaments,” Tammy says. “I have a few of them that were rescued from her home.” The ornaments were saved after a tornado destroyed the house but spared her grandma, Tropha, and her Aunt Joyce, as well their collies. They had taken shelter in the bathtub. Somehow the bathroom was the only room in the house that wasn’t damaged!
Tammy created the A World Within miniature ornament series in honor of Tropha, who passed away several years ago. “I try to think about what she might like when I create concepts for this series,” Tammy says. “It’s very meaningful to have some of those ornaments as a remembrance of her.”
Before she starts sketching, Tammy imagines all the shapes and the right amount of space they may need to have a scene carved into them, especially considering the ornament is only about an inch tall.
“I love creating little worlds like this,” Tammy says. “I love terrariums and things like that—any scene you can create that draws the viewer into it.”
A World Within
3rd in the series.
For this year’s ornament, she picked a natural pairing: a pinecone and cardinal.
The cardinal sits on a branch and is attached to the back of the silvery inside with a tiny peg. She added texture as a nod to her grandma’s ornaments. And she extended the branch needles a little beyond the edge of the pinecone to give it a little more depth.
Then she added glitter because, well, “It’s just one of my favorite things to do.”
Wee Little Gnome (2017)
Miniature
Remember the book Gnomes from the late 1970s? It’s one of Tammy’s all-time favorites.
Originally published in Dutch in 1976 before appearing in English about a year later, the book treated gnomes as real creatures. Author Wil Huygen and illustrator Rien Poortvliet described their habits and habitats in encyclopedic, almost biological, terms. Tammy remembers disappearing into those pages for hours.
“I’ve loved them since I was child,” Tammy says. “Gnomes are my thing!” She even has a little gnome garden in her regular garden at home.
This miniature ornament was designed as a companion piece of sorts to the A Home for a Gnome 2014 ornament that featured a mushroom-shaped gnome house under a plastic dome. She wanted to give him a slightly different look than a lot of the gnomes that exist in popular culture, who tend to appear bemused or even a bit scary.
Wee Little Gnome
Miniature
“They’re supposed to be these ornery characters, but mine are not,” Tammy says. “I just wanted him to be really friendly and sweet looking.” She’s also fond of the red and white amanita mushrooms, like the one he’s holding.
“They’re really cool and pretty, like they’re from a fairy tale,” Tammy says. “But they’re poisonous, so don’t eat one if you see one!”
Li’l Holy Family (2017)
Miniature
The look for this miniature nativity scene was inspired by the stylings of Mary Hamilton, a Hallmark artist for 60 years who passed away this January. Tammy did the sketch and Keepsake Artist Katrina Bricker did the sculpting.
Li’l Holy Family
Miniature
“I really wanted this to be a sweet and endearing scene,” Tammy says, “with them gazing down at baby Jesus.”
The manger and baby were sculpted separately from Mary and Joseph. The halos were also sculpted as individual pieces and then attached with tiny pegs, which can be very hard to do when they’re that small. Tammy says, “Sculpting miniatures can be a real challenge. And it gets harder, as I get older, just to see them!”
Joseph’s staff is painted wire. The hair features pearlescent paint. “We just wanted to give them a little glow,” Tammy says. “A nice little religious glow.”
Featured Artist: Lynn Norton
Title:
Hallmark Artist
(Retired)
Started at Hallmark:
1965
Started at Keepsakes:
1987
Hometown:
St. Joseph, Missouri
Lynn Norton’s passion for airplanes started early in life. Inspired by his father, Lynn’s early work on model airplanes would eventually lead to the intricate sculpts he does for Keepsake Ornaments.
Dozens of aircraft, starships and other Keepsake Ornaments adorn uncounted Christmas trees thanks to the artistic talents of Lynn Norton. Each of those ornaments owes a debt to hours of study, years of interest in the strange new worlds of speculative fiction—and coloring books.
Lynn, who logged nearly two decades with the Keepsake Studio before his retirement in 2006, says his lifelong interest in art began when he first picked up a set of crayons.
“As a child, I remember that I didn’t like the flat appearance of coloring books,” he says. “My parents tell me that I started to add shading and details to make the designs look more realistic. At some point, I was more easily entertained with blank paper so I could create my own designs.”
When Lynn begins creating a Keepsake Ornament, he researches the subject of his work until he is comfortable with his mental plan for sculpting it from beginning to end. He draws inspiration not only from his fellow Keepsake Artists but from his childhood memories of time spent in front of the TV.
“Being the first generation to be introduced to television at an early age, I was entranced by the imaginative sets and props that were constructed to bring stories to life,” Lynn says. “As crude as they were, the science-fiction artifacts of the early 1950s still inspire me—especially when I get a chance to sculpt one of them.”
That said, it may come as no surprise to learn Lynn’s personal favorite among his Keepsake Ornaments.
“I have to say that the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” space-station ornament is still my favorite. It was the most challenging sculpture for me and the Keepsake engineering staff,” he says. “My idea to offer it with docked miniature starship ornaments turned out to be a winning combination with Star Trek fans.”
A few years into his official retirement, Lynn counts himself lucky to be continuing his association with Keepsake Ornaments from his home studio in Leawood, Kansas.
“It’s been a pleasure and an inspiration to share the collectors’ passion for decorating and celebrating,” he says. “All this couldn’t have happened without them.”
Travel Air Model R “Mystery Ship” (2017)
The Sky’s the Limit
21st in the series.
He couldn’t have known it back then, but Keepsake Artist Lynn Norton’s love of airplane model kits would eventually help his career take flight.
Lynn remembers his father building big airplane models out of balsa wood and paper in their cellar. As soon as Lynn was old enough to use tools, in the 1950s, he started building his own.
“By my early teens,” Lynn says, “I was building powered-model kits and flying them in competitive events.”
The competitions taught him to modify his airplane designs for maximum performance, which was his introduction to the kind of sculpting that he’d end up doing for Hallmark years later.
“The first ornament I sculpted was the 1991 U.S.S. Enterprise™ from the original STAR TREK™ TV series,” Lynn says. “The perfectly natural appearance of starship ornaments suspended in midair on holiday tree branches got me thinking that airplanes would also be good subjects.”
He originally set out to create a chronological history of flight, starting with 1903 and the Wright Flyer. That path toward a long line of “beige biplanes” took a turn when his wife, retired Hallmark Editor Tina Hacker, suggested he mix in some color and variety into the concepts. This eventually led to the Sky’s the Limit series.
1929 Travel Air Model R “Mystery Ship”
The Sky’s the Limit
21st in the series.
For this ornament, the 21st in the series, he picked one of his favorites from the Travel Air Type R “Mystery Ships,” which were built secretly inside a plant in Wichita, Kansas. Their sole purpose? To win the annual National Air Races in Cleveland. This featured model did exactly that in 1929, beating the best airplanes and pilots in the country, demonstrating that sleek and aerodynamic design could defeat brute power in racing.
“Their victories set new standards for performance and paved the way for future aircraft designers to follow,” Lynn says. “And they were gorgeous machines that epitomized art deco design and styling.”
His lifelong passion for scale models continues to inform his approach to sculpting original patterns for the series. Those first model kits were little more than profile shapes sawed out of blocks of soft wood and an instruction sheet. The model builder had cut paper templates as guides to carve and sand all of the contoured shapes. Today, Lynn cuts profile shapes out of RenShape 460 (a synthetic material with wood properties), creates joints for assembling then contours the shapes with engraving tools, like a hand-held grinder, miniature lathe, and milling machine.
The resulting detail and accuracy have earned Lynn praise from pilots and airplane owners who get the ornaments as gifts. Lynn says they often become “accidental collectors,” finding that they can hardly wait for the next model to take off from the Keepsake Studio’s runway.