Keepsake Artist Tracy Larsen was asked to give a little more background on some of his ornaments coming out later this year. Here’s what he had to say!

Flight of Fancy

Tracy: A few years ago, at a Christmas party gathering for the Keepsakes studio artists, we created robots out of a bunch of found objects that we brought to the party. The end result of the ones I created had a definite “steampunk” feel to them that I really liked and I thought that at some point, with the right project, it would be fun to do a steampunk ornament. When I got the chance to do a Santa in a hot air balloon I thought, “This is the one.” I researched different steampunk styles, flying machines, engines, clothing, etc. and started to sketch some ideas that the team was enthusiastic about. I like the use of different metals that I found in my research, along with boilers, goggles, steam whistles and a multitude of other items. I combined as many elements as I could, added some light effects, and ended up with one of my favorite ornaments that I’ve had the pleasure to work on in my 22+ years in Keepsake Ornaments.

Flight of Fancy

Tracy: We did some really fun lighting effects on some recent Frosty Friends pieces and I was looking for other ways to implement a similar effect in one of my ornaments. Of course, it has to be the right situation. Fortunately, I found it with Flight of Fancy. The question was how to show it off well. I decided to keep part of the balloon opaque and then let the light show through the other quarter pieces. I was also able to get a couple of flickering lights in the exhaust and in the boiler to simulate the fire aspect of a steam engine. As we got samples back from the manufacturing vendor, we made a few tweaks and adjustments so that the effect would be as good as possible.

Low N’ Sno Lowrider

Tracy: I love cars and the art that is involved in car design. I admit that though I was somewhat familiar with the “lowrider” car culture, I didn’t know much of the details or the language associated with it. It was a great experience to have the chance to actually sit down with Joe Ray and learn from one of the culture’s biggest proponents. In our conversations he would suggest elements found on lowriders that would be a good fit for certain styles of cars. For the 50s-style car that we use in 2018, he suggested headlight “eyelids,” a side window air conditioning tube, and of course, the shiny metallic lowrider plaque, among other elements. We discussed what colors might look best for that particular car and what kind of paint design would look good. He came up with the icicle scallops, which work perfectly for the lowrider snowman driving the car. It was a fun collaboration that definitely has Joe’s fingerprints on it.

Old World Santa

Tracy: The original sketch that inspired Old World Santa was actually of Santa as a nutcracker, done years ago. When I was asked if I’d be interested in doing a Santa for the premium line, I rummaged through some old sketches, made some modifications on the nutcracker Santa sketch, and added some mixed materials like crystals, a bottle brush tree and fur. We keep favorite old sketches around, just in case the right situation arises, and we can dust them off and use them.

Old World Santa

Tracy: I loved working on the Old World Santa because there is so much more I could do with it in premium materials. I had the green light to use porcelain with various mixed materials that I often don’t get to use. I have often teased Joanne Eschrich that she doesn’t leave any of the rest of us the chance to include attachments on our ornaments because she uses them all on her Father Christmas series. She may have suggested that I be given the premium Santa just to serve me right for complaining! It was a challenge, because I wanted it to be special, but it was definitely worthwhile. Hopefully, it will be an ornament that the collectors will enjoy as much as I have enjoyed creating it.