Announcement: Keepsake Artists Edythe Kegrize and Robert Chad Retirement

Here is the latest Club communication that was received today.

Dear Local Club Presidents,

Beloved Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Artists Edythe Kegrize and Robert Chad have announced that they will be retiring from Hallmark Cards after 40+ years of experience. The Hallmark Keepsake ornament team will continue to deliver the very best craftsmanship and detail-oriented ornaments, as both Edythe and Robert always embodied. We wish Edythe and Robert the best in their next chapter!

While the model line is still being finalized for 2021, we do not have any plans to discontinue the series created by Edythe & Robert due to the retirement.

Edythe: 12 Days of Christmas, Brilliant Butterflies & Beauty of Birds
Robert: Mary’s Angels

Please read below for personal remarks from Edythe and Robert.

Edythe Kegrize

Edythe Kegrize
Hallmark Master Designer

What a sincere pleasure and honor it has been to have worked nearly 41 years for a company whose whole reason for being is to foster, support and celebrate relationships. My Hallmark career began in Greetings where, as an illustrator for 25 years, I honed my decorative skills and discovered my passion for dimensional paper folds and 3-dimensional art of all kinds. All of my early experiences at Hallmark fortunately led me to Keepsakes, where I could fully explore my creative possibilities. I feel so fortunate to have joined such a wonderful team of incredibly talented artists, engineers and editors. Our Keepsake family is truly special, and I am proud that our work shows the commitment and passion we all have for what we do. The icing on the cake has been the opportunity to meet and chat with so many of our wonderful collectors who share our love of ornaments. Each Artist signing, with shared stories and heartfelt words of appreciation, fuels our creative spirit and determination to create our very best. Leaving this Keepsake team will be bittersweet but, as I decorate my tree each year, I will think about all the wonderfully talented people I have had the privilege to work with and especially all of the collectors I’ve had the pleasure to meet and chat with over the years. Hallmark and Keepsakes will always be in my heart as a very special part of my life and career, even as I move on to explore new and exciting artistic directions in my next chapter.

With sincere gratitude,

Edythe Kegrize
Hallmark Master Designer

Robert Chad

Robert Chad
Hallmark Artist

I started my Hallmark adventure as a freelancer in Little Gallery back in the 80s. Lucky enough to be hired into Trim-A-Home, which subsequently became Keepsake Ornaments, my journey continued and my very first collectible ornament was a Mary’s Angel. That has been a legacy I’m very proud to have created with my dear departed friend Mary Hamilton.

Over subsequent years I became acquainted with you, the wonderful people of the Collectors Club, who have amazed and honored me with your remembrances. The truly humbling thing, though, is a seemingly unending generosity you all possess: giving back so much to your communities. It’s one of the things that makes me thankful to know I’ve touched your lives even a little with the work I’ve done. That kindness, and your love of my work over the past 40-odd years, is what drove me to do better.

With some melancholy, but with much gratitude, I start the next part of my journey. I’ll miss my fellow artists and the special people who gather at conventions and signing events, and I wish each of you good health, much happiness and many more years of collecting.