Welcome to the "Fun with DrawShield" blog!
The purpose of this blog is to have fun with the heraldry creation tools available at https://drawshield.net . These tools allow us to create coats of arms and heraldic crests, along with other symbols like flags. There is already a blog on the drawshield site but that is for serious discussion of proper heraldry matters... This blog is more light hearted - you might not find strictly heraldic things here but by studying the blazons (the language used to describe the images) and reading the commentary you will hopefully learn how to improve your own heraldry skills!
As an example, there is a newly released feature which lets us put ordinaries on to charges. (Don't worry if these terms don't mean much to you yet, we'll cover these as we go along). Let us use this new feature to create a coat of arms illustrating a pair of maracas...
The "blazon" that created this was:
Celestial azure
2 embroiderers broaches brunatre in saltire shown lower,
a roundel bendwise in dexter side or shown much larger and very much raised charged with a fess wavy gules cotticed azure charged with a lion vert,
a roundel bendwise sinister in sinister side or shown much larger and very much raised charged with a fess wavy gules cotticed azure charged with a lion vert
The important parts illustrating the new feature are underlined. Although it appears complicated, we just give the name of the charge and its main colour, and then describe the ordinary, just as we would if were on the main part of the shield. As seen here, we can use all of the usual features and modifiers that are available for ordinaries, in this case giving it a wavy edge, and two parallel bars. And we can another charge on the ordinary. (And yes, this can go on indefinitely if we really want to!)
We will be explaining more in future posts, please check back again soon!