Coat of Arms Design

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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09 December 2015 10:12
 

Hi all,

Attached is what I have for my coat of arms so far.

 

I was excited, so I showed it to some friends and family. Comments ranged from, "why do you have Baylor’s colors? You should have purple and white for TCU" to "I like it because it has eyes and a mouth" (my 4-year-old). Everyone was most interested in wanting to know the symbolism in the design; does this stand for love, does this stand for family, etc.? I think they were a little disappointed in me when they learned how literal the images were. smile

 

I’m considering the following changes, but I value any input from anyone:

 

Crest: Omitting the flower from the "mad horse’s" mouth. The reasons are to bring more simplicity and because I want to have a 3-D wood carving done and I don’t know how well that would work (or look) with the flower there. Maybe it’s not an issue.

 

Shield: Switching the places of the grenades enflamed with the bowl and likewise swapping the colors. In other words, two bowls on top and a grenade on the bottom to avoid the mask-like look of it—possibly unavoidable whenever the two charges on top don’t match the one at the bottom. I think I’d also like to have the "wall" on the bottom half of the shield that was formed by the fess embattled be gold rather than green. But I don’t know.

 

I’m not an expert. So I played around with the image in Paint to see how it would look both ways. I’m interested to know anyone’s thoughts.

 

Thanks for any input or feedback!

 
arriano
 
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arriano
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09 December 2015 16:27
 

I like what you’ve done so far. Nice and clean look. I also like the flower in the horse’s mouth, but I understand the issue with 3-D rendering. Wouldn’t bowls on top and grenade below look like closed eyes and open mouth? (LOL)—Seriously, any time you have 2 and 1 on a shield it’s going to look at least a little like a face. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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09 December 2015 17:44
 

arriano;105264 wrote:

Wouldn’t bowls on top and grenade below look like closed eyes and open mouth? (LOL)


Yes, I suppose it would…

 

Thanks for the feedback. And the more I see it the less bothered I am about it looking like a face. So I’ll probably leave the shield as-is.

 

Everyone says they like the flower and I like it too. A crest of a horse crippling its hooves on a cactus is apparently unique enough to not require further differencing. Still, the addition of the flower to the horse looks nice. As long as I’m not unnecessarily "gilding the lily" on the crest then I’d like to keep the flower. I’m torn between having as simple a design as possible and having that last finishing touch.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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12 December 2015 22:40
 

Very attractive and likely unique design! - but I don’t recall seeing the intended symbolism.  (But at my age, recall can be spotty, & I’ve been off-line for awhile for ongoing home repairs)

The bowl is obviously canting, but is there more there?  And why the grenades, embattled partition, horse, cactus and rose?  Not questioning any of it, just curious.

 

Sounds like you’ve about settled on this design; but before you spend big buck$ on fancy art work, jewelry, engraved silver, and a heraldic tombstone wink  you might want to do a refrigerator test for several weeks to be sure it’s Ms. Right, not just Ms. Right Now…

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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14 December 2015 10:25
 

I thought of that too. I have it up on my wall. It’s a 50/50 coin toss on whether I want to keep that rose in the crest or not.

On the basis of design, everything has multiple meanings. I wanted to keep it a little nebulous. There were arms granted to only one other “Bouldin” (in quotes because the spelling is different in my name) as far as I know. The horse and the bowl, are very loose acknowledgements of that loose precedent. Instead of a sea-horse on a garb of wheat, I have a proper horse on a cactus. My crest is supposed to be a crazed or demented horse crippling his own hooves while charging through a cactus and chomping on a yellow rose. The symbolism there refers to Iraq where, as the fire support officer of a Stryker reconnaissance troop, command of “Crazyhorse Troop” devolved to me during an operation in Anbar. The “Crazed Horse” is a lot like the personalities in our family too. Horses can be a reference to my mom’s family’s history and its present. The rose is a reference to my dad’s professional trade in lawn irrigation repair and hobby of gardening. It’s a yellow rose, symbolizing his immigration to Texas from England. The cactus can also represent my paternal step-grandfather’s land in west Texas.

 

Besides the use of bowls seen in previous arms with the surname, I went ahead with the bowl as a cant on Bouldin. Jokingly, the empty bowl can be a pun on my mom’s surname of Dunagan; though that’s more coincidence (and admittedly terrible). It can represent winning a chili cook-off or just my favorite foods; chili, gumbo, other stews, etc. It can represent whatever descendants want it to be: giving/charity, pottery, Texas again (state dish), anything. The grenades enflamed represent an IED, the prime weapon of Iraqi insurgents with whom we fought in Iraq. But the grenades can in a corny (and coincidental) way represent the “din” to the “bowl”; thus completing the cant. The green is another nod at my dad’s profession of keeping lawns green. It represents Irish ancestry. It represents a golf course. But most of all it’s just my favorite color. The embattled fess represents my contracting work with the Corps of Engineers and NAVFAC and, in particular, some Marine Corps barracks I did at Parris Island and Camp Pendleton. It can represent the Roman ruins at Sinjar where I was also in command of C Troop, loosely tying together the crest and shield. The interesting image of the grenades appearing to rain down on the battlements is reminiscent of things kicking off in Sinjar again while we were there in 2006. A lot of this is more justification in hindsight after I assigned a single meaning to possible charges I suggested and after they were arranged by the herald. I like the division as well. The top part of the shield is gold with grenades; while the bottom is green with a bowl: Greed and war on one side. Environmentalism and charity are on the other.

 

Something funny I noticed later is that the three charges on the shield could jokingly be called two “piss pots” on top and a piss pot at the bottom.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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15 December 2015 00:57
 

Thanks for sharing your design rationale!  Other than the last paragraph - wink - you have a good start on a written rationale.  You might consider a couple of editing options - either for each charge in turn, or for the achievement overall - give the more general symbolism first, as applicable to the whole family now and in the future; then the Bum-specific allusions, which are colorful and interesting but not directly personal to others in the family.

I’d keep the rose in the crest, both as a nice counterpart to the cactus, two approaches to the beauty and thorns theme; and a specific reference to your Dad (mine was also a rose fancier, a happy memory).

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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16 December 2015 14:00
 

There is already an "official "design rationale that came with the blazon that I received back in Aug or Sept. There were some mistakes in it though that are easily fixable:

"Jeff Bouldin comes from Texas and has been involved in construction companies, hence the embattled arms. The bowl is an allusion to his name and also suggestive of the ‘State dish’ of Texas – a bucket of chili con carne. Mr Bouldin has served with the US artillery in Iraq, hence the grenades."

 

This only refers to the shield. The parts originally describing the now-gone crest and badge were omitted by me.

 

I’ll probably change this to:

"Jeff Bouldin comes from Texas and has been involved in construction companies, hence the embattled arms. The bowl is an allusion to his name and also suggestive of the ‘State dish’ of Texas – a bowl of chili con carne. Mr Bouldin has served with the US cavalry in Iraq, hence the grenades and the horse and cactus representing his call sign of ‘Crazyhorse 70’. The yellow rose represents his father’s love of gardening and his immigration to Texas from England."

 

Thanks for your weigh-in on the rose. The only "devil’s advocate" argument I’ve had against it was a light one from the herald himself who suggested that since the crest is a male thing, I might want to move the flower to the badge. It’s going to be in the badge too I think. To me the badge is the hardest part since there’s so little information on how to do them.

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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16 December 2015 16:29
 

What does the crest being a "male thing" have to do with having a flower in it?

For that matter, how out of touch is your "herald" that he still thinks crests are "male things"?

 

The thing that lost me is what the embattled partition line has to do with being from Texas.  It makes sense for working in construction, it is a nice allusion to military service, but not seeing the Texas connection.

 

(Nice arms, and having many meanings for each charge—in contrast to the usual tendency to have many charges with the same meaning—is very refreshing.)

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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16 December 2015 16:31
 

JJB;105291 wrote:

To me the badge is the hardest part since there’s so little information on how to do them.


I don’t know where "heralds" got the idea that a coat of arms is incomplete without a badge.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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16 December 2015 16:43
 

The rose as a feminine symbol inaopropriate for a crest is IMO a weak argument, given the other symbolic meanings one might ascribe to it, and its use in other cases both male and female.  Glad you’re inclined to keep it, especially since it primarily refers to your father.

I’d almost forgotten that you’re petitioning thru the English COA.  The artwork on your eventual patent should be top-notch.

 

The design rationale you quote, with your edits, is nice; but your earlier recent posting includes more, all worth preserving (except the last paragraph re: a pot to pee in wink ) - if not in the "official" COA record, then in a private family record.

 

All this talk of chili reminds me that I’m late for lunch…

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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16 December 2015 19:41
 

I’d also forgotten that this was to be an English grant.

So I should delete the quotation marks I placed around "herald," and obviously the herald would still be stuck in the idea that women can’t have crests—just about the only place where that’s still the case.

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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17 December 2015 18:04
 

Joseph McMillan;105292 wrote:

What does the crest being a "male thing" have to do with having a flower in it?


I don’t know.


Joseph McMillan;105292 wrote:

For that matter, how out of touch is your "herald" that he still thinks crests are "male things"?


I think he just meant that the crest only follows the male line in the English custom; unless there is an absence of male heirs.


Joseph McMillan;105292 wrote:

The thing that lost me is what the embattled partition line has to do with being from Texas.  It makes sense for working in construction, it is a nice allusion to military service, but not seeing the Texas connection."


If I said that, it was a mistake. Perhaps it was a play on words someone thought of a year ago to Fort Worth, TX? Either I don’t know or don’t remember. It was probably just a mistake.

 

Thanks on the feedback on the design. I feel relieved knowing that everyone likes it. I of course like it too. But it’s nice to see it hold up to scrutiny.

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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17 December 2015 18:13
 

Michael F. McCartney;105294 wrote:

The design rationale you quote, with your edits, is nice; but your earlier recent posting includes more, all worth preserving (except the last paragraph re: a pot to pee in wink


No sir. The "Pots" and Pot Conundrum is going to be buried in this thread for eternity, never to be mentioned again by me. It was just something odd that I noticed.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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18 December 2015 01:19
 

wink

 
JJB1
 
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JJB1
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20 December 2015 14:35
 

Oh well.

I think its sort of neat that a practiced, scholarly eye might find pieces of humor in what is on the surface some violent imagery. It reflects a deal of complexity. At least that’s my latest story and I’m sticking to it.

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
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21 December 2015 01:29
 

Works for me if it works for you! wink