Blogging the deck design process - does anyone else do it?

Hi Karen and everyone

I am keeping..I guess you could call it a blog though I hate to be trendy LOL

I haven't decided if it's a good thing yet or not, I think it is probably somewhere in the middle.

One of the reasons I started doing it was because I thouroughly enjoyed reading Sarah Ovenall's account of publishing her Victoria Regina tarot and I thought some people might enjoy reading about what goes on when a deck is created.

/here is Sarah's:
http://www.ovenall.com/diary/

I don't have to worry about it taking up any extra time because I basically have down time when I am nursing my baby or he is sleeping on my lap because I have spoiled him that way, and can't do anything else anyway. I am far too fidgety to just sit in front of the TV, so I sit here in front of the computer.

I got in the habit a long time ago of writing my impressions and experiences down while I am working on a card because basically they are like a dream and fade away fast when I am done and there is a lot of stuff I don't want to forget when it comes time to write the book plus it gives me an overvue I might not otherwise have.

There were a few things that concerned me when I started. I didn't want to be a victim of 'familiarity breeds contempt". A little mystery is probably good. And I am always worried people will think I'm weird, and god forbid that my mother might read it LOL Flawed resoning really especially since I let my mom proofread my stuff sometimes!
But sometimes I think that maybe it is ok for me to be weird but isn't so ok to leave proof in writing!
Anyway, I don't put anything too too personal and try to leave out the really boring stuff and record that stuff elsewhere even though I like to imagine that no one is reading it anyway. Sometimes I get an email with a comment about it though so at least some of the time people are reading it.

All in all it's been a good experience so far and if you can squeeze out a few minutes here and there I would recommend it.
Karen, if you decide to go public with yours I will be reading since I would love to see how other people are doing with their decks.

Marie

Lorena, Thank You!

Ironwing said:

I don't have a journal for my deck. My website doesn't get enough visitors to be worth it. ..... I enjoy writing, and am directing most of that sort of energy into the book to go with my deck.

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Well, you just got me as a visitor and i bookmarked the address.

Your art is absolutely exquisite! I look forward to the book... your writings on the website are wonderful.

Being a 'rock hound' (love herkimer diamonds and Chinese fluorite!!), I deeply appreciate your use of 'earth' in your work.... how significant.... I would think such inclusion in the work will be a dynamic influence for those who chose to practice with the products.... wow! Thank you

Hi there!

i'm still not sure what "blog" is, I never heard of the word before...

I read some of Sarah's (Victoris Regina), and to me this is a diary... (I don't know if that conflicts with blogging!)

In January, I plan starting to write the book that will come with my deck. The book will consist of whatever is expected in book that comes in a tarot deck, but I intend to add things about the creative process, and the point of view of an artist. Is that blogging?

For me, to write a diary publically, it's just too much for my personality... I'm a scorpio... I like things locked in!

Another thing about this, is that I would like the "center" to be the deck, and not me...
It's true, that today that we have such communication, it seems a pity not to use them to get to know what artist's think..to understand about the process...
On the other hand though, I would like the image to speak, so anyone can create stories around it...

and i feel that it must be like taking pictures: I hate taking them, but then I love having them...

and on that note: I have 6 pieces of huge expressive art, that I did a while ago, with writing in them, but the kind you can't read (of course!)
I kept a small diary (attached to a wallet), where i wrote exactly what I scribbled in the painting...since even I can not read it...
Well, that diary/wallet was stolen at the gym!!!! so, now, even i don't know exactly what is written there...

i'm sad, but I like it too...it's like a let-go..
Like , it's OK not to have everything written down... Life still has meaning even when it's not recorded!

maybe TEMPERANCE then, is the key!
all in moderation!

more thoughts (should I blog them? lol)

Well, in answer to the question "what is a blog" it is the (probably as Marie implies over-trendy) word for a "web log" which just means a web diary. I suppose the crucial difference between most blogs and most diaires is that blogs tend to be public. I've read lots of blogs off and on, and sometimes I like them a lot and other times I wonder why people bother.

We didn't even think of blogging anything about Tarot of Prague - it never crossed my mind. But since then we are asked a lot of questions and sometimes I wish I'd recorded the process more (honeslty, I wouldn't call it formal documentation, more like a very informal record or trace). But like I say, it's for me as much as for anyone else perhaps.

I've looked again at Marie's diary (you see Marie, it DOES get read) and honestly, it puts me to shame. Mine isn't nearly as thoughtful about symbology - well, not at this point anyway. It's not so serious - although like Marie I do wonder if I'd entirely like my mum to read it! (oh well, she thinks I'm totally eccentric and doesn't seem to mind so maybe it would be fine).

Our new deck involves cats - LOTS of cats (I won't say more until we have some cards to show) and so the blog is partly about the amazing process of finding all the cats to photograph - and in the meantime of being adopted by the Prague Cat Breeder's Club (who have got to be one of the nicest groups of people I've ever met). So it's EVER so rambly and half the time isn't specifically about the deck or the process of making it at all - but more about hte wider context (which in the end of course is crucial to how the deck is coming out). Like Marie, I have also wondered how much personal stuff to put in. In fact, I do put in some, but I tend to make it private (on the site I use you can mark postings as public or private) so that later I can look back and see all the private bits and see how they fitted in with what we were working on.

What really threw me the other day was that a rather "management consultancy" type friend recommended my blog as a place to learn about how to build something new in a foreign country (or something like that, I was too red-faced to read what he said properly- eeek ). So now I imagine some poor young businessperson reading my musings about cats and costumes and wondering if it some coded message about how to do a start-up business. Oh dear

So - from all this you can see how tangled a simple blog can get!

Never mind, at least it's got me to (quietly quietly) announce the subject of the new deck - which is all over the blog of course.

Anyway, Marie, like you I have wondered if somehow a blog spoils the mystery - but on the other hand, well, who knows. A deck carries its own mysteries maybe? I don't think Sarah Ovenall's blog spoiled anything, and I even like realising there is a very down-to-earth and even funky person behind the rather romantic Victoria Regina.

Wooooo - long post. I'll stop!

Wow, Baba, a Cat Deck? The big three interests seem to be cats, Egyptian and faeries--are you combining all three? That'd really pull in the sales!

The 12 or so cat decks that are listed over at Tarot Garden only has one that stands out for me, the Tarot for Cats. I was hoping for a realistic type deck to come out. The French ones didn't get my attention at all, and the Japanese ones aren't much better.

I'm coming in late to this conversation -- I've been offline quite a lot lately. But I'm coming down firmly in favor of blogs on the creative process -- although I prefer the term "journal" -- just sounds better! I'm keeping one of my own, but only sporadically -- the link is in my sig below. I enjoy reading Marie's and I'm sure I would enjoy yours too Karen.

But then I've always enjoyed the "story behind the story" . . . I'm a sucker for those "making of" type shows.

I hear what some of you are saying about preserving the mystery though, at least some of it -- I actually write copious notes and journal entries as I create my deck, that aren't for public view. I have found that journaling is a great way for new connections and epiphanies to appear. We capture ideas, thoughts, impressions that might otherwise fade away like dreams, as Marie has said.

Besides, it's fun. Both to write them and to read them.

HudsonGray said:

Wow, Baba, a Cat Deck? The big three interests seem to be cats, Egyptian and faeries--are you combining all three? That'd really pull in the sales!

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LOL! We are certainly NOT combining all three - though no doubt someone somewhere will one day ;-)

I am a cat obsessive - or is it "cat addicted" person - just can't live without at least two cats, so the deck is my opportunity to finally put this to good use. Alex was at first VERY doubtful about the idea of a cat deck. It has the danger of becoming kitsch or cute, neither of which appeals to us (though cute is good - but not us, if you see what I mean). But as we've gone on the deck has found it's own style and I think it's going to be fun, but also quite serious.
However, it involves no Egyptians (well, do Sphinx cats count, we do have one of those?) and no faeries. But so far we do have Abysinians, Somalis, Persians, Maine Coons, Siberians, Russian Blues, Exotics, Siamese, Burmese, Tonkinese, Angoras, Turkish Vans, British Shorthairs and many other breeds - as well as a good number of beautiful mixed breeds. A cast of thousands! Well, hundreds anyway. It's all taken over our lives to be honest. I am permanently covered in cat hair - and can now recognise most breeds of cat at 100 yards - but I am SO loving it

You can see why it provoked a blog though, as sometimes I have to think "What on earth are we doing?" - and writing it down helps me work it all out in my own mind.

He..he!
This sounds so much fun!
Who who have thought that through the tarot i would expand my education on... zoology???
First the ferrets and now all these kinds of cats!!!!!
I can already prepare a long list of customers for you baba! All my friends are cat people! I'm the only dog one!(nearly...)
Anyone up for a dog tarot????

ps: I SO many times wonder how each one of you look like...Now I can think of baba covered in cat hair!!!!

but recently it's been very superior white Persian hair! Not great as I tend to wear quite dark clothes. Oh well, what we do for our art (big grin!)

Have you seen Animal Lords tarot? - now there is a tarot if you are interested in zoology.

But the fact is that animals and tarot sort of go together. It isn't by chance that so many tarot people are into cats - and other animals.

Anyway, back to the subject (sorry moderator!) which is about blogging.
I did have this sort of fantasy about starting a blog under the name of my cat - it could be so funny and sweet. But sadly life is too short.

Now there it is!!!!
ifg it will be like the CAT does the blog, that would be incredible!!!!!
Then all your very personal stuff, won't go there, and you'll still be loose enough to write things...
your mum, and distant aunts can read it safely!
Oh, it's a marvelous idea!!! YES! YES! YES!!!

ps: I'm not a big animal person, although for years I want a Husky...
Besides too much traveling that I do, it's the HAIR that gets in the way!!!

and I knew you wear a lot of black!