Tom Best to Appear on the Hallmark Channel
Keepsake artist Tom Best will appear LIVE on Hallmark Channel’s “Home & Family” this Friday, July 11, at 10 a.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (CT). Tom will share stories behind his Keepsake Ornaments, including the Frosty Friends series. The encore of Tom’s interview will run July 12 at noon (ET)/11 a.m. (CT).
Location: Hallmark Channel
Date: Friday, July 11, 2014
Time: 10 a.m. (ET)/9 a.m. (CT)
Featured Artist: Don Palmiter
Title:
Hallmark Senior Artist
Started at Hallmark:
August 1967
Started at Keepsakes:
November 1987
Hometown:
Kansas City, Missouri
Don Palmiter shares how he finally got around to featuring a model that had long evaded him in honor of the 20th anniversary of the All-American Truck series.
Don Palmiter was just 2 years old when his parents snapped a picture of him sitting proudly behind the wheel of his older brother’s pedal car.
“It was a 1948 Steel Craft Pontiac® station wagon. Burgundy with cream trim,” he says with the warmth and emotion usually relegated to describing an old flame. It’s a passion that has earned him the reputation around Hallmark and with ornament enthusiasts as “The Car Guy.”
Palmiter says growing up he loved art, but it wasn’t until his senior year of high school in 1967 that he knew he’d make art his career. At that time, Hallmark actively recruited seniors. One week after graduation, Palmiter was producing and embossing greeting cards. By the mid 1970s, he made the jump to sculpting.
Then, in 1987 Palmiter was thrilled to make the move to the Keepsake Ornament division. He quickly realized there were few men among the avid ornament enthusiasts. The reason? There was nothing masculine in the offering. Palmiter began to wonder what men would be enthusiastic enough about to start collecting. He needed to look no further than his own first love: cars.
Three years after presenting his idea, the American Classic Car Series was launched with tremendous success. Palmiter decided that he needed to pay homage to his first car, that 1948 Steel Craft Pontiac® station wagon pedal car. So in 1991, Kiddie Car Classics was launched.
“I travel to signing events all over the country,” Palmiter says. “People will show me pictures of the pedal cars they had as children and then have me sign that exact replica. They are thrilled that I have created an ornament from ‘their’ car. I can’t tell you how much I thoroughly enjoy that.”
1968 Ford Ranchero GT (2015)
20th in the All-American Truck series
Don Palmiter has spent many years studying, sculpting and perfecting the details in his hand-crafted trucks. This year marks the All-American Truck series’ 20th anniversary, and so Don selected a model that had evaded him in the past.
Don explains, “I work with an editor who is also a car lover, and we choose the trucks that we are going to do, but the Ranchero is not your typical pickup truck. It’s more of a modified station wagon pickup, but the pickups have a dedicated following. Ford quit making the Ranchero sometime around the ’70s, and so this ornament captures that part of truck history. I want the series to have a variety. I don’t want it all to be the same kind of pickup.”
Advertisements from the 1950s consistently place the Ranchero in a Southwestern setting, but they weren’t meant for heavy-duty use. “It’s not a rugged pickup truck. It’s more finessed,” Don says. “It’s more for a country gentleman, not a work truck.”
Don chose a color scheme to reflect the Ranchero’s breezy personality, completing the look with white sidewall tires—certainly not typical of your everyday pickup!
Featured Artist – Anita Marra Rogers
Anita Marra Rogers gives the scoop on ornaments inspired by a beloved bygone era, a dog breed on the rise, and a perennial Christmas favorite.
Horses, dogs and unicorns—typical subjects for children’s artwork. But Anita Marra Rogers didn’t draw like a typical child. Her mother quickly recognized that early talent, and she signed Anita up for oil painting lessons. At age 19, Anita used those paintings in her portfolio when she applied for a job with Hallmark. As good as those paintings were, she was turned down.
A few years later, a Hallmark sculptor looked at those same paintings of seascapes and landscapes. He saw talent. He told Anita that she simply wasn’t doing the kinds of images Hallmark wanted. He invited her to come in and see what the Hallmark Artists were working on—whimsical animals, warm Christmas scenes, wintry landscapes. Anita tried her hand at one, sculpting a deer and a bunny looking sweetly at each other over a snow bank. As soon as her friend saw it, he told her that her Keepsake Ornament career had begun.
Hallmark wasn’t Anita’s first sculpting assignment. As a child, she made animal shapes out of cotton candy for her brother and sisters. There’s still a touch of sweetness to every Keepsake Ornament she creates.
Puppy Love
24th in the series
Anita’s inspiration for each new Puppy Love ornament comes from the official American Kennel Club list of dogs. She looks at which dogs are becoming more popular, always choosing an especially cute breed for her sculpt—and this year is no exception! “French Bulldogs have really grown in popularity, I have started to notice them in advertising and on TV as well.”
Not everyone would find the French Bulldog’s scrunched-up nose as adorable as Anita, so she added some accessories to make this pup extra kissable: If you look closely, you can see that her hanging mistletoe prop is actually a holiday headband, fit for a puppy that’s ready for a smooch.
Nifty Fifties Keepsake Ornaments
By Anita Marra Rogers and Rodney Gentry
Available in October 2014
Although Keepsake Ornaments didn’t make their way into stores until 1973, Anita dreamt up a few nostalgic trinkets to fit in with classic 1950s décor. Anita recalls, “A lot of times in the Keepsake Ornament Studio, we try to think ‘What would Keepsake Ornaments look like in 10 or so years?’ but the Nifty Fifties ornaments had me thinking about the past, and it was a long time ago!”
Anita collaborated with a number of designers to complete the box design and overall vintage look of the piece, tapping into a number of retro styles that have been growing in popularity each year.
Birch Log Snowman
Available in December 2014
Snowmen are popular holiday icons, but it’s always fun to give a classic character a new design. Anita wanted to bring out the alpine woodland charm of this snowman’s birchwood body, so she added a few accessories. “I put a little snow in between the logs for glue, and I gave him a scarf and earmuffs to make him look warmer. He’s got a real fabric scarf and pom pom earmuffs. I just wanted to make him look really cute.”
Keepsake Studio Artist Don Palmiter Retires
Driving off into the Sunset After 47 Years at Hallmark-The year was 1967. A High school senior with a talent for art named Don Palmiter was about to graduate and was still mulling over his choices in art schools. Would he go to Kansas City Art Institute? Or maybe a small, private school in Springfield, Missouri? Or would fate intervene and put him on another path entirely?
“One day in class my art teacher pulled me aside and told me that Hallmark was hosting a recruitment assembly in our school auditorium. I told him I had plans to go to college. But he was persistent and suggested I apply and see what happens.”
Don took his advise and presented his portfolio, which was filled with intricate pen and ink drawings. And on June 5, 1967, exactly one week after graduation, Don was working full time in Hallmark’s Artistic Engraving department. It didn’t take long for him to make a name for himself and after stints working with various departments including Hallmark Gallery, Don landed in what would become the Keepsake Studio.
“When I started creating Keepsake Ornaments, I was working almost exclusively in collectibles on a line called Hometown America,” says Don. His work included a series of collectible pedal cars-something he enjoyed working on and that would resurface in miniature as a popular line of Keepsake Ornaments called Kiddie Car Classics.
“When I came into Keepsakes, one thing I noticed was we didn’t have much product specifically aimed at guys. And I have two passions in life…anything with wheels and architecture. So I immediately presented an idea for a classic car series. It took three years of convincing, but we finally launched my Classic Car series in 1991 with a ’57 Corvette®.” Later, he started working on the iconic Nostalgic Houses and Shops series as well.
“While I’ve worked on a lot of different Keepsake Ornaments, those two series pretty much set my path in Keepsakes. I’m pretty much know as the car guy,” And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
So what lies ahead? Well, he’s definitely not slowing down. While he and his wife plan to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be closer to their daughter and grandchild, Don plans to keep the wheels turning as a contributing artist to the Keepsake Studio. In fact he already has the next two ornaments in the Classic American Car series planned-plus, he’ll be at two of the artist signings this year. Stay tuned as more details about Don’s future plans roll in.
Featured Artist – Julie Forsyth
Julie Forsyth
Hallmark Artist
Julie Forsyth has loved dance her entire life, so it’s only natural that she’s the go-to sculptor for the twirling beauties that emerge from the Keepsake Ornament studio each year. Her true passion for dance is woven throughout each step of her creative life—from designing costumes alongside choreographers to studying the various poses in her free time. She admits that some of her best years have been spent watching her own daughter dance.
Only a true dance aficionado would pick up on the proper turn-out pose in Julie’s various ballerina Keepsake Ornaments—as a collector noticed. And that’s that kind of collector comment that really brings a smile to her face. As Julie puts it, “We’re the only species that does anything like dance on the planet! That’s something to be proud of.”
Julie’s family picked up on her natural artistic abilities in the first grade when she sculpted the spitting image of the family dog. She continued her creative pursuits throughout high school and went on to work at an animation studio in New York. Following in the footsteps of her sister, a fellow designer, Julie made the move to Kansas City and started a job at Hallmark. The two siblings eventually worked side-by-side in the Keepsake Studio where Julie continues to bring her delicate designs to life each year.
Simple Gifts
1st in the Marjolein’s Garden series
Fans of Marjolein Bastin’s wonderful watercolor designs have come to Hallmark for years to see her classic florals in gift books, home décor and Keepsake Ornaments. Bastin’s work has made an appearance on a few Keepsake Ornaments over the years, but this year’s new series features a hand-sculpted three-dimensional design by Julie Forsyth.
Julie and a few other artists in the Keepsake Ornament Studio were able to take a very special trip to see the home and personal studio space of painter Marjolein Bastin. “She passed around some of her original artwork and we got to see her work a little bit,” Julie recalls, “It was so fun to meet her.” The beautiful style and warmth of Bastin’s home was an instant source of inspiration for Julie’s work on this first ornament in the Marjolein’s Garden series.
Collectors interested in this series should keep an eye out for the intricate details that Julie has incorporated in her design. She used new materials to keep the flowers light and lovely, while hand-painted petals and a delicate hemp rope tie the whole look together. Upcoming Keepsake Ornaments in this series will feature all kinds of wintery woodland friends, like the black-capped chickadee perched on this painterly watering can.