Hallmark sat down (virtually!) with Nello Williams to discuss his Soft Serve Surprise. Enjoy!

Nello was inspired by a former Keepsake artist! Nello: “the biggest inspiration for this ornament is the soft serve ice cream machine that former Keepsake artist Chis Webb used to bring into the studio for special occasions. He had a number of food service machines like that.” How fun!

Nello went on to say, “I think that I mentioned his popcorn machine as inspiration for the Nellco popcorn machine which I did a few years ago. The design itself is pretty typical of what I’ve been doing for all of my Nellco ornaments, the retro look. I’m so glad that I’ve been able to use that look as my “signature” style for Keepsake Ornaments. I do really like that style. Chris had a whole bunch of food service machines, so this might not be the last Nellco ornament to be inspired by something of them. I’m not sure what kind of ornament design I can do with a nacho cheese sauce dispenser, but I’m willing to try.” Yum!

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Nello: “though I sculpted traditionally when I first came to Keepsakes, I’ve pretty much completely moved over to sculpting digitally. For the Nellco ornaments, I mostly use a 3D CAD program. That program lets me share files with the engineer (in this case, Keepsake Engineer Jean Newton). We can make sure the mechanics will fit and such.”

From there, Nello says “usually we do a 3D print of the ornament to make sure it’s the right size and actually looks correct. Sometimes, we catch things that we didn’t notice or just looked different on screen. Several digital artists in the studio have their own 3D printers at home. The rest of us want one.” Cool!

Soft Serve Surprise