A Royal Greeting

Hello! Welcome to my new blog. I had considered starting this with some kind of grand introduction to you, my royal subjects, but I’m really not that full of myself. And it just seemed cheeky.

Instead, I would like to think of any who come to visit as friends and potential collaborators. As you can probably see from my blog title, I’m one of those people who enjoy producing something, usually creative. Normally, my projects are solitary pursuits and mostly done for my pleasure. But my habit of making things does seem to please others when they receive something from me. That is my ultimate goal here.

What kind of projects will you find? Probably more than most people would consider normal. I’m obsessed with making things. Drawing was my first love. I remember drawing lots of horses starting around age four. Wildlife and a variety of mediums entered my artwork by high school. Along the way I also started learning various crafts; crocheting, sewing, knitting, embroidery, cross-stitch, needlepoint, some beading… If it has any creative possibilities I may have tried it or dreamed of trying it. My taste can kindly be described as eclectic. As time progresses, various examples will be submitted here for your viewing pleasure.

The first project I’m sharing with you is the design at the top of this page. I worked as a graphic designer for 12 years, so of course I couldn’t settle for just text as my blog title. Being the Project Queen, I just had to embellish. It is probably best classified as a coat-of-arms, also known as heraldry. For those who haven’t studied such subjects, the various elements of heraldry have specific meanings. I gave careful thought to the kinds of things I wish to share here, and the type of experiences I hope you, dear reader, have while visiting.

The symbols

Unicorn – extreme courage (Doing a blog is a big deal for me. I’m not usually social.)

Crown – that’s probably obvious

Banner – a personal choice. (A lot of my projects involve textiles or fiber.)

Some of the elements, such as the acanthus decorations at bottom were added to introduce certain colors. And the unicorns needed a footrest.

The colors

Purple – royalty

Blue – loyalty and truth

Tawny – worthy ambition

Silver – peace and sincerity

Green – hope, joy, and loyalty in love

Gold – generosity

Credit where due

When I started this design, I was looking for elements already made to speed up the process. The following sources kindly shared parts of this design for free on the internet:

MrTentacleGuy.deviantart.com, ARS GRAFIK, and Enigma Designs. Thanks to their submissions I was able to put together an image that pleases me a great deal. Adding color made it even better. However, it wasn’t a quick process. It took me an entire morning. I’m not going into much detail concerning how I did it, except to say it involved a lot of drawing in Adobe Illustrator.

A look to the future…

I work for a school district and summer break is coming to an end. (Boo-hoo! Sucks for me. ) Some of my upcoming blogs will be about what I made during the break. I actually started back to work today so I’m not sure yet if I will have time to post every day, but this week’s submissions will include an item I made and donated to a charitable event that occurred Saturday, August 18.

I thank you for spending a little time here today, and look forward to future visits.

The Project Queen