Decks, Glorious Decks!
Deck Review: Genius Garden Tarot
Eeeeeek, I can’t believe how quickly this deck went from me falling in love with it on Kickstarter to being in my hot little hands. Seriously, the creator and artist of the Genius Garden Tarot, Jessi Huntenburg, runs a tight ship. This is the swiftest and most professional Kickstarter campaign I think I’ve ever backed! Huntenburg describes the ‘genius’ of the Genius Garden Tarot as “the unique spirit of your higher self, the directional arrow that points you toward your most creative potential”, adding “genius isn’t a title that’s reserved for the quickest or most accomplished among us. Instead, it’s a gift that’s given to each of us at the…
Deck Review: Green Glyphs Tarot
The Green Glyphs Tarot is part of the latest collection from legendary Tarot creator James R. Eads (he of Prisma Visions fame). I really like its simple style and muted palette; for some reason it reminds me of the 50’s art my grandparents used to be in to (and the overall G-Plan-chic vibe of their house when I was a little kid). Eads writes about how he created the Green Glyphs collection (there’s also a Lemonard and some Rune cards) to feel purposefully familiar. “It finds itself in your daily life. A yellow butterfly. A day old cup of coffee. The Sun. The Moon. You. Me. It’s all there, woven…
Deck Review: The Forager’s Daughter Tarot
Having seen it in a few other people’s collections, I initially decided to get the Forager’s Daughter Tarot (Afterlight Edition) because I really liked the concept of it as an artwork (as opposed to thinking I’d necessarily work with it a lot). I was not disappointed – the art in this deck, and the quality of the cards, really is stunning. If you collect Tarot/pretty, clever things then this deck is a really worthwhile addition to your collection. The artist and creator, Jesscia Lei Howard grew up surrounded by nature (a forager’s daughter!), and it is this love for the natural world, and the gifts it gives us, that is…
Currently On Kickstarter: Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot
And in our next episode of ‘backing decks that in theory I don’t like’ we have: The Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot! I’m not a big fan of AI decks – not only do they de-value the bread and butter work of jobbing artists and designers, but I also just… don’t really like the hyper-realist style of image that AI produces. It’s a bit too uncanny valley for me. Having said that, I really like what this creator has done with the traditional RWS deck, and you can see they have a real talent for re-imagining and re-stylizing images. This is NOT just your bog standard AI produced deck, IMO,…
Deck Review: The WayHome Tarot
I got the WayHome Tarot after it had sat on my wishlist for a little while. I was a bit uncertain about it, and now I own it I do find it a bit of a mixed bag. I feel some of Autumn Whitehurst‘s art, while gorgeous, is internally incongruent and it gives a haphazard vibe to the deck I don’t always connect to. But there are so many cards where the imagery is so clever that I am OBSESSED. Simple. Perfect. On point. You can tell the co-creator, Bakara Wintner, has a deep affinity with the message of the Tarot, and she has an uncanny knack for making difficult…
Currently On Kickstarter: The Not So Classic Doré Tarot
I don’t know what’s going on with Tarot Kickstarter at the moment, but there’s been a sudden flurry of great projects going live that I feel compelled to back (which is NOT convenient as I am in the process of moving house right now and am broke af). This deck, the Not So Classic Doré Tarot, has lots of features that I’m traditionally not that keen on – it’s black and white, it’s a bit dark/murky, it’s not ‘original’ art created to suit the message of the Tarot but instead re-purposed stuff (which I can often find a bit of a reach for some cards)… but, nevertheless, I found myself…
Currently On Kickstarter: The Journey Deck
EDIT: Since I wrote this post, my deck has arrived :-). You can read my review here and buy the deck here. I LOVED the ‘Journey’ Tarot Deck by Teagan Michael Turner when it launched on Kickstarter a few months back, and was gutted when it didn’t reach its funding goal. Thankfully the creator has relaunched it, and this time it has already reached its (more modest) target, which I’m super pleased about, as I think it’s going to be a brilliant addition to my collection. This deck is quite an abstract take on the Tarot, but I really love the artist’s interpretations, and the art style is lush, dense,…
Deck Review: The Everyday Enchantment Tarot
The Everyday Enchantment Tarot is a mass market deck that is readily available (either new or secondhand) from a range of online retailers . I’ve linked to W. H. Smith’s here, as they’re slightly less horrifying than Bezos’s Evil Empire, but it’s available from a whole range of sites. It’s really different from the style I usually like, but I was totally in awe of how amazingly the creator has managed to interpret some of the minor arcana cards through her artwork. I looked at some of the images and was like “yes, that’s it! That’s it exactly. That perfectly captures the mood of that card”. It was like I…
Currently On Kickstarter: Liberation Tarot Deck
Edit: Since I wrote this post, I’ve received the deck :-). You can read my review here and buy the deck from the publishers here. Any deck that features contributions from the amazing adrienne maree brown instantly gets my attention, so I was very excited to see the Liberation Tarot Deck come up on Kickstarter. This is a collaboration project from a collection of artists and writers, and describes itself as being “in the lineage of projects like Slow Holler [and] the Collective Tarot” – hell yes! It’s a 79 card deck, and comes with a rigid box and a guidebook, and, you guys, *each card has a poem recommendation*…
Deck Review: The Botan Tarot
The Botan Tarot by Addi Miyako is just super beautiful, really dreamy and soft, like falling into a bed of petals. I was really lucky to come across a reasonably priced secondhand copy, as at the time the deck OOP. The artist has now launched a second edition which you can (pre)order here (UK) as well as some other online stores (please check the artist’s webpage for authorised stocklists). The Deck: Look, Feel, and Finish The deck comes in a simple but stunning deep purple slipcase/shell and slide box, and the cards are then further held by a lovely peach ribbon. My one tiny quibble with the box is that…
