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Design Your Own Coat of Arms: An Introduction to Heraldry
Hundreds of years ago, warriors identified themselves in battle by using certain colors and symbols on their shields. Later, these distinguishing marks also appeared on surcoats worn over armor. Thus, the term "coat of arms" was born.
Now, with genealogist Rosemary Chorzempa's fascinating new book, anyone interested in the ancient and distinctive language of heraldry can create his or her own coat of arms. This easy-to-read, profusely illustrated guide to the history, symbolism, and construction of heraldic devices allows even a child to fashion authentic designs.
Step-by-step directions tell how to trace the shape of the shield and its divisions and how to select symbols that reflect personal origins, traits, and achievements. (Forty-seven illustrations include human forms and manmade objects such as forearms, helmets, crowns, whips, books, crosses, bells, and much more. Celestial, plant, and animal shapes include suns, roses, trees, eagles, bars, dolphins, dragons, and serpents.) You'll find tips on necessary materials, how to color and outline your design, how to achieve professional results, and even how to register your coat of arms. You'll also find sample coats of arms belonging to some of the world's most famous people, corporations, and nations.
Once you've finished your emblem, you may want to display your work on personal belongings such as a hooked rug, a wall hanging, or other needlecraft projects. Decorate a plate, mug, or other ceramic objects — or make sew-on patches, pin-on badges, and T-shirt decals. Rubber stamps, bookplates, stationery, and jewelry can be custom-made to depict your coat of arms.
Here's a book for lovers of traditional design and for those interested in the study of family histories, relationships, and accomplishments — a veritable treasury of information for anyone wishing to display his or her family's roots in a long-cherished form.
Now, with genealogist Rosemary Chorzempa's fascinating new book, anyone interested in the ancient and distinctive language of heraldry can create his or her own coat of arms. This easy-to-read, profusely illustrated guide to the history, symbolism, and construction of heraldic devices allows even a child to fashion authentic designs.
Step-by-step directions tell how to trace the shape of the shield and its divisions and how to select symbols that reflect personal origins, traits, and achievements. (Forty-seven illustrations include human forms and manmade objects such as forearms, helmets, crowns, whips, books, crosses, bells, and much more. Celestial, plant, and animal shapes include suns, roses, trees, eagles, bars, dolphins, dragons, and serpents.) You'll find tips on necessary materials, how to color and outline your design, how to achieve professional results, and even how to register your coat of arms. You'll also find sample coats of arms belonging to some of the world's most famous people, corporations, and nations.
Once you've finished your emblem, you may want to display your work on personal belongings such as a hooked rug, a wall hanging, or other needlecraft projects. Decorate a plate, mug, or other ceramic objects — or make sew-on patches, pin-on badges, and T-shirt decals. Rubber stamps, bookplates, stationery, and jewelry can be custom-made to depict your coat of arms.
Here's a book for lovers of traditional design and for those interested in the study of family histories, relationships, and accomplishments — a veritable treasury of information for anyone wishing to display his or her family's roots in a long-cherished form.
- GenresArtNonfictionHistory
48 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 3, 2013
Highlights are:
* The drawings through which you can trace your own shield. The recommended process is to trace onto paper with a light pencil, then color with pencils, then line with marker.
* The family shield lineage which shows how shields evolved and changed.
* Line drawings of medieval European shields by kingdom (56 shield alphabetically by kingdom)
What is missing:
* The section on national heraldry ("You may wish to incorporate some of the symbols from your ancestors' native lands..." contains written explanations without visual representations. This was a missed opportunity. Even if colored presentations were impossible, line drawings equivalent to those provided for medieval European kingdoms would have made it more likely that our student would have been interested.
* The text was just okay, and managed to be rather boring. The introductory paragraphs were good. But in a book entitled "Design your own coat of arms" I would have like more information about what the various choices MEAN in a heraldic context. For example, we are told what tinctures (colors) were used, but not what they mean or why these colors were popular (were they easier to produce?). The result is that we have a lot of technical language (tincture, sinister side of field, supporters), but no understanding of what different tinctures mean, how parts of field communicate importance (are some locations of more significance?), or what a choice of supporters conveys (what does the choice of unicorns over knights or lions mean?).
We supplemented with other resources: history, youtube video summarizing heraldry, "make your own coat of arms" online.
This was okay as a book we didn't have to purchase. It generated ideas for what we wanted to our final project to look like and created a template system that we could use. However, it was not adequate as a stand along to design our coat of arms. That was a disappointment. I was unable to find a suitable replacement in the time available, so we cobbled things together.
* The drawings through which you can trace your own shield. The recommended process is to trace onto paper with a light pencil, then color with pencils, then line with marker.
* The family shield lineage which shows how shields evolved and changed.
* Line drawings of medieval European shields by kingdom (56 shield alphabetically by kingdom)
What is missing:
* The section on national heraldry ("You may wish to incorporate some of the symbols from your ancestors' native lands..." contains written explanations without visual representations. This was a missed opportunity. Even if colored presentations were impossible, line drawings equivalent to those provided for medieval European kingdoms would have made it more likely that our student would have been interested.
* The text was just okay, and managed to be rather boring. The introductory paragraphs were good. But in a book entitled "Design your own coat of arms" I would have like more information about what the various choices MEAN in a heraldic context. For example, we are told what tinctures (colors) were used, but not what they mean or why these colors were popular (were they easier to produce?). The result is that we have a lot of technical language (tincture, sinister side of field, supporters), but no understanding of what different tinctures mean, how parts of field communicate importance (are some locations of more significance?), or what a choice of supporters conveys (what does the choice of unicorns over knights or lions mean?).
We supplemented with other resources: history, youtube video summarizing heraldry, "make your own coat of arms" online.
This was okay as a book we didn't have to purchase. It generated ideas for what we wanted to our final project to look like and created a template system that we could use. However, it was not adequate as a stand along to design our coat of arms. That was a disappointment. I was unable to find a suitable replacement in the time available, so we cobbled things together.
January 25, 2024
How to design one's Coat of Arms?
I needed an answer to a similar question and chose to read this publication. The book by R Chorzempa offers quite a lot of condensed information on the subject, and by the way, reveals the broadness of the topic and can be considered in the first place as an introductory book on "heraldry". Information and expertise found in this writing could thus be used as a valuable resource.
This 101 Basics type booklet presents less than 60 pages, is for that matter a fast read, it additionally contains a lot of graphics which help and support the design of a customised family name-based coat of arms.
I needed an answer to a similar question and chose to read this publication. The book by R Chorzempa offers quite a lot of condensed information on the subject, and by the way, reveals the broadness of the topic and can be considered in the first place as an introductory book on "heraldry". Information and expertise found in this writing could thus be used as a valuable resource.
This 101 Basics type booklet presents less than 60 pages, is for that matter a fast read, it additionally contains a lot of graphics which help and support the design of a customised family name-based coat of arms.
April 28, 2011
A fun little book aimed at kids, teaches the super basics of Heraldry. I use this book for examples in the SCA. Note; not all of the material in this book is SCA appropriate but it has some usable clip art and charts.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews