So, a couple of days ago I posted a handful of

Rose Garden

Vert a semy of roses argent, purpure and gules, all barbed or supporters: Thoth crowned in a full moon

The rose garden uses a semy of roses on vert to represent a rosebush, the various colours reflecting the variety of colors of rose in the municipal rose garden. Thoth is used to represent how the neighborhood contains that one egyptian museum. Most neighborhoods don't have anything clear to use as supporters which is why most haven't gotten them in their arms.

Santana Row

Santana Row: Ermine ten lizards en arrière vert, a bordure sable. Supporters: two rats sejant erect cendrée

Santana Row. This went through a few revisions. The color scheme was always going to mostly be black and white, as logos seem to use those colors. And I was going to have to include a rat or mouse as a tribute to how the site of the first Chuck-E-Cheese was where Santana Row now stands. I feel like outdated symbolism gives it a more old timey feel, partially more relevent to the way the place used to be than the way it is now. As heraldry itself is old, and sort of old fashioned.

There were ideas I had with rats and mice as charges where they would be argent on a field sable, but when I looked for statues in Santana Row on images I noticed quite a few of various sorts of lizards. So I decided to try and make a coat of arms with a number of lizards, in this case, ten.

Blossom valley

Or, ten trees blossomed argent

Blossom Valley has trees in blossom. It's a fairly literal interpretation of the name.

Silver Creek

Pean a bend wavy argent

The starting point for Silver Creek was obvious: something wavy argent to represent a body of water. Then I hadn't used heraldric fur yet, so I went with Pean because it has the best contrast.

Midtown San Jose

per pale azure and argent, in dexter a 5 storey building agent, in sinister a house azure

Midtown feels like a neighborhood in transition from suburban to urban and I tried to capture that in this coat of arms.

Upcoming posts

I'm hoping to do evergreen. I found something about a glider in 1911? But it would be hard to make a heraldic version of it. I know what to use for the crest for Cambrian, and what to use for supporters, but I don't know what to put on the shield.

So, I have been into heraldry for a while and have been decided to make a few coats of arms for various San Jose neighborhoods. This is mostly just for fun, but feel free to use these if you want to. They all use the San Jose Sun you see on the signs for the city's parks and on the city's logo. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements!

Almaden

Impaled per fess, in chief sable a gerb of wheat proper, in base argent a cross of calatrava, all impaled with gules in chief the alchemical symbol for mercury or, and in base a hammer and pick or

This is based off of the coat of arms of Almaden in Spain, except I removed the coats of arms of the Spanish royal family, and coats of arms of Castile and León, replacing one with the sheaf of wheat we see in the Seal of San Jose (in heraldry the exact way in which a charge is drawn is immaterial as long as it followed the blazon.) I also added the symbol of Mercury due to Almaden's history as a mining town.

Alum Rock

Or, on a chief murrey, three alchemical symbols for alum argent. Supporters: Tláloc

Alum Rock uses the symbol for alum. Tláloc is used because apparently in the chicano movement aztec symbolism was used, and I chose Tlálo, because Wikimedia commons has an SVG file of Tláloc that is holding something (which I masked out because as a heraldic supporter, Tláloc needs to be holding the coat of arms), and it was listed as "public domain" in terms of copyright! Maybe something should go below the chief on the shield, but I don't know what to put there.

Spartan Keyes

Per fess gules and agent between two keys inverted addorsed countercharged a paintbrush proper headed azure, helm: a cornithian helmet proper crested gules.

Spartan Keyes is mostly canting, which is when a coat of arms uses puns. Here it is twofold: the helmet is the kind a spartan would wear and there are two keys on it! The paintbrush is a reference to how there are a lot of art studios there.

Willow Glen

Or a pall reversed wavy azure in the corners willows proper fructed with cherries gules.

Willow Glen's COA contains a pall reversed, a representation of the joining of the Guadelupe and Los Gatos rivers, as well as the titular willows. These willows are in fruit with cherries since I heard that a lot of Willow Glen used to be cherry orchards.