Feelings icons that are not emoticons?

Question

For a particular project, I've got to come up with a set of a ten small one-color icons meant to represent certain feelings. However, these icons must not be emoticons, or faces, of people for that matter. While it doesn't sound like much, I find it to be way more difficult than I thought.

Here are the feelings and my ideas of icons to represent them:

1. Loving || This one is obvious.
2. Angry || Lightning bolt
3. Surprised || Gift - wrapped up present?
4. Happy || Flower or sun
5. Scared || Spider?
6. Disgusted || No real idea. Poop?
7. Confident || Sunglasses?
8. Sad || Tears
9. Amused || No real idea.
10. Unimpressed || That's the toughest of them all. A tumbleweed might do the trick, but there's no way I could draw a recognizable one in 32x32px.

Any thoughts or ideas on the subject would be greatly appreciated! Advice on corresponding icons packs, if any, are also welcome.

Thanks!

Answer 1

1. Loving || Yup, obvious!
2. Angry || I would go with fire rather than lightning; when someone is angry or mad, they're "fired up", "hot under the collar", etc.
3. Surprised || I imagined a Metal Gear Solid styled exclamation mark, but a gift or present would probably be friendlier!
4. Happy || Agree
5. Scared || A spider, a skull, a snake, or some of other similar connotation of death
6. Disgusted || I would suggest a cockroach - everyone knows what they are, and most of us can agree that they often live and survive in unpleasant environments, by unpleasant means. A poo might be a tad too literal for what you need, but by all means...!
7. Confident || Agree
8. Sad || Agree
9. Amused || What about one of those theatrical happy/sad masks? This is a tough one without going too literal.
10. Unimpressed || This one definitely implies boredom and lack of entertainment. Perhaps a 'zzz' icon or something like that, something that connotes sleepiness or lethargy?

Sorry if these aren't too helpful!

Answer 2

• Surprised: a jack-in-the-box toy?
• Scared: a Halloween pumpkin? A bat? A ghost? Snaring teeth?
• Disgusted: a rotten fruit? Just a mushy looking fruit with "smell" coming out of it. Or a dirty sock?
• Confident: a rolled up diploma? A graduates beret? A judge's hammer?
• Sad: a fainted flower?
• Amused: a clown? (Mind you, they are scary for me)
• Unimpressed: agree with the sleepiness idea, although might imply boredom

Answer 3

1. Loving || Agree
2. Angry || A hissy cat?
3. Surprised || This one is the hardest for me to visualize, maybe just "BOO"?
4. Happy || Agree - maybe a sunflower! ;-)
5. Scared || A scorpion to gives a good impression of something that is scared and scares.
6. Disgusted || Roach or pile of trash with curl of stench/smoke.
7. Confident || Sunglasses or military hat.
8. Sad || Agree
9. Amused || I thought about a Joker Hat.
10. Unimpressed || Maybe two feet on a desk or tapping fingers?