Artist Profile: Debra Nielsen (Murray)

Debra Nielsen’s Iowa childhood bestowed her with a love and appreciation of animals. She was inspired by the horses she raised and showed with her sisters, and she’s rarely been without a dog by her side. Now, with expert instinct and a careful hand, Deb creates Keepsake Ornaments that celebrate those beautiful horses and other animal friends.

Sculpting horses can be tricky, but this labor of love has become a life-long passion for Deb. Her authentically inspired designs require a sharp eye for detail that comes from a childhood of growing up around horses—and around the growing collection of models on her desk!

Deb has always loved art—and her beautiful show horses. These were, after all, the inspiration and models for her first drawings and paintings as a child. But when it came time for college, she went to beauty school rather than an arts program. Deb knew she didn’t want to teach, but she didn’t know there were other options with an art degree! Ironically, Deb now uses her cosmetology experience to fashion the hair and makeup on Madame Alexander® ornaments.

In addition to her other talents, Deb used to sew wedding gowns, and she is able to use that fashion experience in the fabric attachments she creates for our ornaments. Deb loves the details of her job, from dreaming up new ornament concepts to the intricate sculpting detail involved in bringing her sculpts to life.

And more than a Keepsakes Artist, Deb is the proud mother of Mallory, who “expresses her art through words,” has successfully achieved her Masters in Communication, and is now a proud wife and mom herself.

In Deb’s spare time, she enjoys painting, interior design, exploring the great outdoors and spending time with her husband—fellow Hallmark Keepsake Artist Steve Goslin.

SNEAK PEEK

Keepsake Artist Debra Nielsen is an avowed animal-lover, and that love comes through in a big way in her ornaments. In 2019 Deb contributes again to the A Pony for Christmas series, along with Baby’s First Ornament (which features an adorable elephant) and a Unicorn ornament that’s perfectly on-trend.

Pretty Pony for Christmas (2019)
Premium Collection

Debra has sculpted for the Pony for Christmas series before—and the series itself has been running for over 20 years.

Pretty Pony for Christmas
Premium Collection

“This premium piece is set apart by the fact that it’s in porcelain,” she said. “It’s similar to the series, but it’s an elevated piece.”

Debra was excited to get the chance to experiment with a variety of materials. “This was my opportunity to use more fabric, to use porcelain…and crystals, and his saddle is actually faux leather, and it was a lot of fun to kind of dress him up.” The pony’s extra accessories made it possible for her to “make him more like a parade horse.” Debra rode in parades and showed horses when she was a child and participating in the local 4-H group. “So this pony takes me back to those days,” she said.

When people see a horse ornament Debra has designed, they often ask her whether it’s the same color as her childhood horse. Not this one. “I went with a gray horse, which I thought was really pretty with the red and green Christmas colors that I used to decorate it.”

Baby’s First Christmas (2019)

Debra was given a lot of freedom in designing this ornament. “The sky’s kind of the limit,” she said, “for you to dream up a concept that uses different materials in one ornament.”

Baby’s First Christmas

A few different factors helped her decide on an elephant. “It’s a classic,” she explained, “and it’s gender-neutral, which is important too.” She also took into account current trends in baby products, and in nursery decorating. “Elephants have been quite popular for the last several years,” she told me.

Debra made full use of the chance to design a mixed-materials ornament. “I’m really excited about him because he’s in wood,” she said. “And he also has a lot of attachments. He has a blanket, and a pull string—a candy-striped pull string—with a wooden bead, and he has little fabric ears.” But she didn’t stop there. “He rolls on wheels…and they use foil stamping on his body,” she said.

Overall, Debra is very happy with the way all the materials come together. “He’s turned out to be quite charming,” she said.

Stunning Unicorn (2019)

There couldn’t have been anyone more perfectly suited to designing this beautiful unicorn than Keepsake Artist Debra Nielsen.

“Obviously, I have a long history with working on the horses that we do,” Debra said. But her experience with horses goes back much further than that—she has fond memories of taking care of horses with her sisters and cousin on her grandparents’ property in northeastern Iowa. “It was a huge part of our life,” she said, “And it kept us out of trouble, is what my Mom always said. And it was a quick way to escape, if you wanted to get away from someone who was bothering you!”

Stunning Unicorn

Designing the unicorn also allowed Debra to draw on her years as a hairstylist. “It was really fun to play with the hair, and make this unicorn more magical, more glamorous.” Rather than creating the unicorn with any specific horse breed in mind, she gave it a magical, feminine sort of beauty.

Debra also feels that now is a great time to come out with a unicorn ornament. “I pay a lot of attention to trends,” she said. “Unicorns have been so popular, that I was really excited that we decided to include one in the Keepsake Ornament line.”

Overall, Debra had “a lot of fun” working on this ornament. “It was like the perfect mash-up of what I do,” she said.

Shoe-sational! (2015)
Barbie™ Ornament
Special Edition

When Hallmark and Mattel reunited recently, Debra Nielsen was a natural choice to create the new Barbie™ shoe ornaments. Not only did she love playing with Barbie as a child, she had also been working on the Barbie line for more than 20 years. As a technical artist for Keepsake Ornaments, Debra became known as an expert at painting Barbie—especially her finely detailed eyes. “They’re very small and they have between 6 and 10 eyelashes. Each one has a lot of detail.”

Shoe-sational! (2015)
Barbie™ Ornament
Special Edition

She then began sculpting the ornaments herself and has become a regular at the annual Barbie® Convention. This year for the convention, Debra and the team brought a limited-edition repaint of the 2009 Shoe-sational Barbie™ shoe ornament that coordinates with the Event theme, “A Star Is Barbie™.” Attendees also got a sneak preview of the 2016 Barbie™ shoe!

Debra’s appreciation for Barbie has grown even stronger in recent years. “She has branched out. She has career aspirations. She’s not just floating through life looking for the right Ken. She has political interests, green interests. Barbie can do anything.”

Wendy Wishes You a Merry Christmas (2015)
Madame Alexander®
20th in the series.

Debra is also quite fond of another iconic doll: Madame Alexander, which has been around since 1923. Debra’s first Madame Alexander ornament was Yuletide Shopper in 2011. Since then she has created the series each year plus three KOC exclusive Madame Alexander WIZARD OF OZ™ ornaments. Deb creates the ornaments and also helps select the dolls that are chosen to become ornaments.

Wendy Wishes You a Merry Christmas
Madame Alexander®
20th in the series.

Her time working on Barbie and her background made her a natural fit to add Madame Alexander to her portfolio. She credits her background in cosmetology for giving her a solid foundation for these projects—Debra was a hairstylist and makeup artist before joining Hallmark as a freelance artist in 1987.

“It’s very similar: painting on the makeup, styling the hair,” Debra says. “That’s where my interests lie. Cosmetology has morphed into my career here, as I’ve worked on quite a few very feminine ornaments.”

Mom & Daughter Memories (2015)

Debra and her daughter, Mallory, baked together a lot when Mallory was little. Their quality time in the kitchen inspired this mother-daughter apron. The inspiration for the design style and color palette came from classic blown-glass ornaments in retro colors, like hot pink and turquoise.

Mom & Daughter Memories

“This was a really fun ornament, but also a challenging one because it was made out of fabric,” Debra says. She also notes that Mallory’s generation seems to wear cute retro aprons like this much more than Debra’s generation.

Now that Mallory has moved back to Kansas City from St. Joseph, MO., she sees her even more—which means even more time to start new holiday traditions. Mallory’s 4-year-old son Henry also loves to bake and cook. “So that tradition continues,” Debra said. “All the messiness and the fun just keep on going.”

Halloween Wicked Witch of the West™ (2013)
Madame Alexander® THE WIZARD OF OZ™

“This particular ornament combines a few things that are very special to me. I used to paint the ornaments for the original sculptor of the Madame Alexander Doll® Keepsake Ornaments at Hallmark. When he retired, I asked if I could give them a try, and that ornament became my very first hand-sculpted piece.

Halloween Wicked Witch of the West™
Madame Alexander® THE WIZARD OF OZ™

“When I was growing up, I would watch The Wizard of Oz™ over and over again on TV. My father would say ‘Seriously, you’re going to watch that again?’—and I did! I passed that love onto my daughter. Now that she’s a mom, I’ll be able to share it with my grandson a few years down the road when we can watch it together.

“My birthday happens to be on the day before Halloween—and this doll is just so colorful in her Halloween dress! There are just so many cool dolls in The Wizard of Oz™ Madame Alexander® collection for fans to be excited about, I hope to be able to do more!”

FUN FACT

Tracy’s Letters to Santa Keepsake ornament from 2006 features his Daughters voice.