Crest with Zest

A very interesting recent Spoonflower contest was to create your own family crest.  I decided right away that I wanted to make mine more like a Japanese style crest (aka "kamon") rather than a European heraldic shield type. I first became aware of kamons when I was a kid, and we had a drawing program on one of our computers that came with a ton of vector clip art, arranged into pages.  One of the pages was all different kamon.  I had no idea what they were at the time, but I really liked their graphic qualities and "collection-ness." Years later I became familiar with the quilting work of Kumiko Sudo, who made a whole book of patterns turning kamon into patchwork and applique designs, called "Circles of The East : Quilt Designs from Ancient Japanese Family Crests." I love this book!  I also read Susan Briscoe's blog, a quilter in the UK who does similar kind of work - I haven't gotten her book yet but I want to.

Back to my design - I wanted to incorporate computers, guns, and something about the area where we live (Goleta/Santa Barbara). For the computer aspect, I made the circuit diagram symbol for a transistor in the kamon style, and made that the overall design.  I decided to make the foreground & background each composed of their own repeat, in a semi-cheater style. 



I also uploaded each design separately, so you can see the repeat more clearly. The background is eucalyptus leaves, in reference to all the eucalyptus trees that grow in this area.



The foreground is a repeat of little guns (Sig Sauers to be more specific).



My design came in 54 out of 86, with 55 votes.  My favorite entry is this cute, minimalist one. I also like this more ornate design that came in second place.  This Zelda-inspired entry is pretty great, and I was pleased that this very punny one came in ninth.