Heraldry

The art and science of heraldry is not just pretty pictures on old paper, nor is it nearly as mysterious and cryptic as most seem to think. In fact, while there is the more tedious genealogical side to it (the science part), there is also the art of creating a pictorial representation of the life, loves, and achievements of an individual. This individuality of each achievement is what makes every coat of arms so wonderfully unique and special.

Heraldry is not the sort of thing one wakes up one morning and decides to get into; in fact if it were not for my father I would have gladly gone my whole life without ever looking at anyone else's arms let alone creating my own. As things turned out however, when I was Knighted my father told me after the investiture that he had always wanted his own arms. I had worn my grand-father's ring with his arms during the ceremony, and that ring meant and still means more to me than any other possession I have and never leaves my finger, but the arms on it were my grand-fathers not ours.

The arms of a paternal ancestor are inheritable, and currently I have assumed these, but dad got me thinking about what I would want on my own and more so what he would want. I spent many hours at the local library and online learning as much as I could about how arms are put together and the rules of who can bear arms. As it turned out, I am a pretty good artist so I put pencil to paper and started designing for my dad.

I am on the 8th and I think final set and am so excited about this. It is my intention to actually paint the full coat of arms on velum for him for framing but I also have plans to have a ring made as well. There is a local jeweler that will let me come in and cast the ring I have (my grand-father's) to make a wax mold. I will then cut out the center part with his arms engraved on it as well as the two supporters along the shank. Then we will cast dad's supporters (two bears) and I will have all of that then cast in gold. The next step will be me cutting a piece of gold to fit in the whole left where the arms were removed. I will send off that piece of gold along with digitized artwork of the achievement to have the engraving done on it (I cant do that part myself). Finally I will solder the whole thing together and finish the ring.

I was worried about the cost of all the gold, but I have several large gold rings which I do not wear anymore and I plan to melt them down for the gold. The cool part is the color of the gold will be a one off as I am using three shades of gold so I should end up with a darker and more antique look to the final ring.
The sad part is I am almost done with this project that I have worked on for around eight years. I have come to love the challenge and the thrill of creating art that actually means something to others as well as to myself. For this reason I have decided that I will eventually offer my services to others. Maybe I will be able to help someone else feel the pride of having something that symbolically shows to the world just who they are; or at least who they aspire to be.