"Realistic" Heart Ornament

I had a heart attack in May, 2005, and spent the rest of the year regaining my health. I wanted to make a heart ornament as a reminder of how precious it is. Simply shape a walnut-sized ball of polymer clay (I used Sculpey) into a fist-shaped heart. I wanted the heart to be shaped realistically, rather than like a Valentine heart. I rolled long clay strings to use for veins and arteries on the outside of the heart and put a fat tube at the top. I then cut and bent wire to embed into the top behind the 'aorta', and poked it in. I baked the heart at 275ºf for about 20 minutes. When cool, I painted the heart dark red (only because I didn't have red clay on hand) and the veins and arteries off-white. To soften the creepy factor, I added a little jewel to the upper left corner, and coated the whole thing with a sparkle glaze. Then I added a coiled wire hanger and wrote my initials and the year on the back. Perhaps there's something in your life that could be represented by a clay ornament.