The SCA arms
The arms of the SCA itself are a green laurel wreath on a gold field. Their origin is surrounded by mystery, but people who were around in 1966 have vague memories that the winners at the first tournaments were crowned with Bay Laurel wreaths, because it grew in the park where the first members gathered. It soon found its way into the society’s arms and always has been an important element its heraldry.
Of course a laurel wreath is not a very strong symbol. All the little leaves make it a bit finicky and the wreath is almost always too ‘light’ in weight to make a nice balance within the shield. You have to enlarge the leaves, and so use less of them, to make it stronger. But then it becomes hard to combine it with charges within the wreath as many of the kingdoms’arms show. A medieval herald painter would probably have chosen a different composition, more in the manner mr Leonhard designed somewhere in the 1970’s. To make the wreath better fitting in a (high) gothic shield, it’s better to not shape it as a circle.
So I designed a coat of arms where the laurel branches follow the edge of the shield and fill up the centre of it more. It's a different way op looking at established heraldry, but I personally think that is is more pleasing to the eye
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