Here’s a pure per-fess attempt

And a per-chevron attempt

It does seem that Argent for the field with the Tree would be most closely echo the old New England flag:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:New_England_pine_flag.svg

Any ideas for going forward?  Any thoughts on the current designs?

If I’ve understood the relationships in Kyle’s family correctly, the Silvia design with a bordure argent charged with cross crosslets fitchy azure seems a bit odd to me. The relationship of these brothers is through their mother. The cross crosslet fitchy azure, however, is a MacLea device, referring to Kyle’s father, not his mother. I had suggested a bordure azure charged with fleurs de lis argent, evoking the flag and arms of Québec. If Kyle’s mother is French-Canadian but not from Québec, perhaps something else would be more appropriate. What about a bordure compony azure and argent each piece azure charged with a fleur de lis argent and each piece argent charged with a maple leaf gules?

Another thought for the New England MacLea’s: Argent a pine tree standing upon a triple mount in base proper between flaunches or the dexter charged with a lion rampant gules and the sinister charged with a dexter hand couped gules holding a cross crosslet fitchy azure.

You’re right that I am related to my brother through my mother… but I guess I hoped for a more overt sign of relatedness in his shield, because he has very little contact with his Silvia family, but much with the MacLeas.  I *did* however think that some sign of my mother’s family would be very appropriate.

Honestly, I’m not crazy about the fleur-de-lis, but I like maple leaves very much.  Something of that sort would look nice.  If there is some way to work in a CCF Azure, even if understated, it might sell me on it.  But I love the Pine Trees, it looks really nice how you did it!  (If anything, I’m currently much more excited about the Silvia shield idea you had than any of the MacLea ideas I’ve had, but maybe a better emblazonment would really show me the potential of the designs that with my crudely-photoshopped version just doesn’t stick out!)

I’m open to the flaunches, would like to see how it looks…

I guess what I’m looking for is something that at least smacks of highland-ness a little bit, but also looks nice and non-lucky charms.  Whatever gets us to that point is good by me.  Though originally I really wanted a traditional quartered shield, I see some great ideas coming out that are really exciting.  And they seem better design, and simpler.

Let’s see where they lead!

Thanks, all!

Kyle=

As an aside, we are not entirely sure from where my mother’s French Canadian side originates.  We know they lived in Quebec for a time, but the loose oral history suggests they could have been Acadians before that?

Kyle=

For what it’s worth, the five-tree format seems somewhat more characteristically Spanish than, say, three would be.  They also, to me at least, are more suggestive of "forest" than just "trees."

How can one not like fleurs de lis?

Here is the idea for the New England MacLea’s using flaunches. Frankly, I don’t care for it much myself.

Here is also a much simpler design, retaining only the cross crosslets fitchy azure.

As for Silvia, perhaps a bordure argent charged with alternating maple leaves gules and cross crosslets fitchy azure. (No picture yet.)

Thanks, Father!

To be fair, it’s not so much that I don’t like fleur-de-lis as I think they’re perhaps a little too obvious as the default "french" emblem?  But I guess we might say the same for the maple leaf for "canadian" nowadays.  Still, I like the maple leaf more, for no good reason… {shrug}

Anyway, I think the idea of maple leafs and CCFs in the bordure for my brother might work quite nicely.

Actually, though I don’t think the flaunches are wonderful, it does make me think that one of the earlier bits I tried might look a little better if done by someone with a better hand.  Perhaps you could give a try putting the lion and Cross of St Moluag in chief on that same shield, but without the flaunches (basically a little higher up on dexter and sinister, to either side of the tree, but keeping the tree the same size)?  Could try this in both argent and Or.  Or perhaps there is some other way to "box" the lion-and-hand other than per-pale in chief or in flaunches that I’m not familiar with?  (EDIT:  I suppose we could try per-saltire again, with the lion to dexter and hand to sinister, but have the tree-on-trimount overall?  Not sure this would be a good thing though.)

Thanks so much for the ideas, they really help a lot!

Kyle=

Kyle—

Attached are two versions of the tree between the lion and cross in chief, without flaunches—one on argent and one on or. It seems to me that I have seen this sort of arrangement in some Highland arms, but one of our better experts can pronounce on that.

I’ll see what I can do with maple leaves and CCFs, when I get time.

Your "try3" version—large tree, small lion & handetc in chief—is the best of that lot.  Too bad there’s not a readily apparent simple way to include the fish & ring, but that’s life…

It didn’t take as long as I thought to do the Silvia arms with a bordure of maple leaves and cross crosslets fitchy. I’m not too happy with the version with the bordure argent. I think the problem is the field or with the bordure argent. The metal on metal is not strong enough, and the colored charges seem scattered, uncontroled. For this reason I tried a version differently tinctured: Vert 5 pine trees eradicated in saltire or within a bordure also or charged with 8 maple leaves gules alternating with as many cross crosslets fitchy azure.

Dohrman and everybody,

Well, I’m sorry to say, but I actually liked your original Silvia arms better… somehow the bordure Azure just looks really nice.  And the fleur-de-lis look really nice in it (even if I had wanted to get away from them, moving on…).  I really think these Arms "work" visually and I think my brother would be really happy with them.  Only one other thing I might try is maybe the Azure bordure but charged with maple leafs argent (EDIT: or alternating maple leafs and CCFs argent) instead?  Then I could compare the two and see which I liked better.  But perhaps in the end I would end up liking the one you did already better….  BUT thanks so much for emblazoning them, I really like it!

As for the MacLea arms, I am a little less excited at the moment.

I do think the Or version with the larger tree and the lion-and-hand in Chief is the best of the lot so far (and your rendition much better than mine, which helps a lot), but somehow it’s just not really getting me excited.  I still think it’s a possibility, but so far I’m not moved by it.

At this point, I don’t know whether to go back to quarterly or per saltire, or just to start from scratch with the pine tree and free artistic license to come up with wholly new "american" arms for the family.  I really want something that looks nice as arms (as nice as the ones for Silvia, which I really like).  Though my goal IS to tie the arms into the Scottish MacLea tradition in some way, I wonder whether it might not be better to "have a freer hand" with the heraldry, and not stick to such traditional highland ways of arranging the charges, etc.  When I look at the members gallery, the arms I like the best are those that look best artistically and I’m not sure if I need to be so traditional, because I can explain the symbolism to my family, the only ones who care anyway, and if I ever petition Lyon for traditional arms, I can get those instead/too.

So, I’m open to other ideas, including dumping or altering any of the charges.  Including at least one of the MacLea charges seems in order, and "most" MacLea charge to me seems to be the CCF Azure, but I’m open to creative ways to include it with or without hand.  To tie into my brother and the New England symbolism, the Pine Tree seems a good one.  But if anyone comes up with their own ideas, send ‘em in!

Any takers?

I really like most of the "Silvia"designs, they are very Spaish to me, and I’m a big proponant of Spanish Arms.

I have an idea or two for the MacLEa portion, and now that I am back to my comp with photoshop on it, I will try and maybe put something together tonight.