Featured artist

Featured Artist
Nello Williams
OCTOBER 2014
Poppy Holidays! - 2014
“This is an idea that had been around for a while. The technology was developed
for a previous ornament that was a Star Trek™ ornament, The Trouble with Tribbles.
Captain Kirk opens an overhead bin and a bunch of Tribbles fall out. We thought we
could do the same thing with a popcorn machine. This is the second time it was on
my schedule to do, and so we finally did it."
"It’s a vintage theater popcorn machine so you have the kettle that’s turned up like
it’s dumping out the popcorn, and you have popcorn dumping out. But we also
have a little snowman made out of popcorn balls to add some character."
"This is another in the Nellco unofficial series—a variety of things branded as Nellco.
Most of what I’ve done in Nellco have been these vintage-looking appliances. I’ve
done radios and refrigerators and washing machines. They’re always done with a
hint of Christmas meets vintage.”
Santa’s Merry Phonograph - 2014
"This is also a Nellco item. The idea behind this was that this is Santa’s personal
phonograph, and since he’s a tinkerer, over the years he’s added to it. So it has
sort of a Steampunk feel to it. The other Nellcos that I’ve done have sort of a
‘50s diner feel, whereas this one is a little earlier feel with the piping and other
touches added on.”
Window Wonderland - 2014
“This is set to Silver Bells, which talks about Christmas in the city, so this is
like the storefront that kids would be looking at as they’re shopping in the
city. Again, this is in that vintage, almost diner style like most of the other
Nellco stuff. I’ve always liked that golden age of robots and science-fiction
look. It was a futuristic look for the time, and as we look back on it, it has
that dichotomy of being both vintage and futuristic.”
“There’s artwork in the back of this one created by one of our card artists.
There’s also a train and a robot in it that I did for another piece. It’s just fun
to give a playful nod to work we’ve done before.”
Featured Artist
Nello Williams
NOVEMBER 2013
Santa Hotline Countdown Phone - 2013
"This phone is a follow-up ornament to last year's countdown radio, the
second retro concept I've done for Countdown to Christmas. It's in a style that
we call the Nelco line. Each one has a little logo and everything! The Nelco line
started out with an oven that we wanted to give a brand, so we came up with
Nelco and it really gained a lot of followers. This phone has got the countdown
feature—concealed as a rotary dial! Plus, the little sound clips that our editors
and writers came up with are a lot of fun."
North Pole Countdown Radio - 2013
The North Pole Countdown Radio Ornament was so popular last year—we
couldn't help but reinvent it as a table-top version. Kids can turn the dial to
hear updates from the North Pole every day leading up to Christmas. And
now, you can even plug in your phone or MP3 player to hear music thanks to
the new auxiliary input cord, volume controls, and an on/off switch!
"We started with the original radio ornament, but we changed some of the
proportions. The dial on the little radio ornament had to be bigger than what
I would have designed for an actual radio so that all the electronic parts could
fit inside. When we scaled it up this year, I was able to correct that proportion
on the big one. The dial was back to the size that I thought looked right for a
real radio. We played around with the speakers and added lights that we didn’t
have on the smaller version, too."
Jolly Jukebox for Magic Cord - 2013
"This is another Nelco! It's the second Nelco jukebox that I've done. The first one
was more in the Art Deco style, but this one is a little more modern. It's still a
little retro, maybe the '70s, as opposed to what you’d see in the '40s and '50s.
It's got a magic cord component, so the lights can be on all the time. There are
four songs in different styles that match the design. Don Palmiter gave me a
book for designing the previous Jukebox, but I had to find more modern designs
online for this one."