Utter Bibble: Behind the scenes

I was designing... okay, that sounds too breezy. I was drawing Celtic knots for the first time and wondering what had possessed me to decide to mash them into such an odd shape. I was erasing holes through paper and wondering what I'd name the things anyway.

FS suggested using "heart" in different languages. Now, he's a very bright four-year-old but he can be terribly critical of himself for not already knowing what his older brothers have learned. He timidly told me the Apache and Lakhota words and I was delighted. Once FS was certain that I really liked his idea, he was proud to have helped "a big person." Most of our family are Native American, so I thought it would also be cool to use only words from their nations' languages.

Easier said than done.

"Lad Is Far Away" joined the search and along the way he found an anonymous quote about small roots of the heart. Google led us to the original quote.

It fit so nicely with the importance of trees to the Celts that I decided to incorporate the idea as well. Granted, Heartknots' description is a mouthful. I paraphrased what John Long wrote but still wanted to credit him. Far too much online content is left unattributed.

For that matter, I doubt most people will care one way or the other about any of this back story. Personally, I like wondering what led to the designs I see other icon artists publish. I *really* like that my family are so enthused about my designs that they contribute ideas.