For the love of laughter
Keepsake Artist Sharon Visker details her pun-tastic new ornaments.


Sharon Visker

From researching, brainstorming, sketching and sculpting, creating new ornaments is no joke! Well, usually. It’s a different story when Sharon Visker is working on a collection of humor ornaments. In that case, jokes are strongly encouraged. You could even say they’re required!

“Coming up with the visual joke is the best part. I don’t consider myself to be much of a jokester, but I love listening to comedy, watching cartoons and reading the funnies,” Sharon says. “I also have a brother-in-law who is a ‘punny’ guy, full of inspiration and dad jokes.”

Once Sharon has found a few punch lines, it’s time to conduct the laugh test.

Mistletoe Fishmas

“I usually have to pitch my idea to the art director planning the line that year. If they laugh, I know it might be a good idea or at least that we have the same sense of humor. Sometimes it might be a funny idea but a little too edgy and niche to appeal to the general public,” she says. “Humor is a hard category to work with because everyone has a different sense of humor, but that keeps it interesting.”

For her latest ornaments, Sharon used both tried-and-true humor methods (who doesn’t love a pun?) and modern visual approaches to give classic jokes a fresh twist.

“Something I love to create is automata, which are basically moving sculptures powered by hand. For Mistletoe Fishmas, I thought the idea of two fish swimming around in separate bowls stopping for a kiss would be fun, and our amazing engineer Ellie figured out the mechanics to make it work.”

All jokes aside, whether Sharon is dreaming up an elf using a jackhammer on some fruitcake or inventing new ways for that mischievous reindeer to runover grandma, we’re thankful for all the ways she keeps us smiling.

“For the love of laughter.” For Keeps 24 Summer 2024: 6-7

Shaky Cake

Grandma Got Runover By a Reindeer

Mistle-Toad