A different approach to designing cards

dadsnook2000

I'm in the process of woodcarving and painting an entire set of miniature tarot cards. I'm about half way there having completed the major arcana, the court cards and some of the minor arcana cards (Aces, twos, working on the threes). All of mine can be seen on my website.

What I find about the carving process is that I sometimes have to take a simple approach in terms of the detail or the number of symbolic items to be included. The three dimensional effect makes the cards exciting and interesting but it makes it more difficult to include minute details. This is influenced by the fact that I make molds and replicate the cards, so each card has to be hand-painted and cannot be "printed" in volume.

As for working with the completed deck, I'll just toss them all into a bag and draw them out instead of shuffling and splitting. Dave
 

The Hanged Man

Hi Dave,

I'm intrigued, can you put a link to your site do I can have a look?
 

dadsnook2000

For The Hanged Man

If you click on my profile you'll find the website there. It's not considered good form to promote your products on the several AT forums except in the Advertising section. My response was just to show that dimensional, carved tarot cards were another consideration over drawing, painting, etc. -- plus I have a great number of them done already. Hope you like them. Dave
 

tabi

dadsnook2000 said:
If you click on my profile you'll find the website there. It's not considered good form to promote your products on the several AT forums except in the Advertising section. My response was just to show that dimensional, carved tarot cards were another consideration over drawing, painting, etc. -- plus I have a great number of them done already. Hope you like them. Dave


Dave make your own thread.
 

dadsnook2000

For tabi

I'm not sure why you would suggest starting a thread? As far as I can determine, I seem to be the only person currently part of AT who is doing tarot carvings. In addition to my cards I also do tarot card figures from various decks. Many on the list know of my work and web-site but I miss your point about a thread, its subject and interest as a focus on just carving. Dave
 

Major Tom

Moderator's note

Dave - I'm of the opinion that your work deserves its own thread. I'm fascinated by the idea of carving a 3 dimensional tarot. You are permitted to post a link to your website to share your work of creating a tarot deck on the Tarot Deck Creation board. Thus, I've taken the proactive approach and split your posts off into their own thread where you can share not only the work you've done so far, but any work in progress.

Thanks for understanding. :)
 

truelighth

Wonderful work! I really like your work, Dave. I am glad Major Tom made this a separate thread, or else I would have missed it. What a great idea, carving miniature Tarot cards. Are you making just one set?
 

dadsnook2000

My carved tarot deck

Yes, my intention is to make just one deck. HOWEVER, I don't see that deck as remaining static or frozen once done. An example is my first Wheel of Fortune card which followed the Waite-Smith. Early in my carvings I just wanted to have several cards done for the purpose of selling them on my website. As I completed the Majors, I found myself unhappy with the "copying" of themes as the deck didn't reflect my thoughts and creativity.

So, I adopted a "traffic or travel" theme, a sort of road-of-life. This enabled the card to have clear cut symbols -- go, stop, turn, yield, etc. -- and avoided the need for additional corner symbols such as in the W-S card. This last point was important due to the nature of the wood being used.

I had been using a very fine grained by stringy wood called Aspen. It was easily available in various sizes and at a low cost. But, it was hard to "finish" or to get the fuzzies off the cross cuts. Hence the problems that I had early on with details. Now, I am using poplar which cuts much cleaner.

So, to summarize a couple of points.
1) I expect to re-do or redefine some cards as I go along, both for creative design reasons and to provide better detailing of the figures.
2) I will be making some major shifts in the product offerings on my website, shifting from making complete products to offering just the carvings alone. They might be in both painted and unpainted form. This will enable others to have carvings of their choice at a much lower cost and to adapt them to their own boxes, chests or jewelry applications as they wish.

Dave
 

dadsnook2000

Introducing the newly carved Three of Cups.

This is everyone's "happy" card, so to speak. As I noted in an earlier post, I tend to keep many of the cards "relatively" simple because of the three-dimensional effect (makes busy designs look "clumpy"), replication process (molding and extracting complex undercut designs can tear up the mold over time), and painting time (the only time consuming phase once the carving is completed and the mold is made).

In this design, I portrayed the three cups held aloft by three arms, with a garland or banner of flowers above. The sky and grass/land is indicated. Having some of the carving overlap the white border of the card adds to the deep relief effect of the design.

This particular design doesn't invoke new or unique symbolism. The nature of the Three of Cups is such that just the joy and celebration of its theme is all that is needed -- the essence of it all can't be easily improved in my opinion. Dave

Added: a larger photo can be seen on the website.
 

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Chronata

Oh I just saw this thread, Dave...and I agree that your work deserves it's own thread and as much recognition as is available!

Seeing your carvings in person was such a treat for me! I am so thrilled to own one of your beautiful boxes, which I carry to all my gigs, and it never fails to garner great compliments!

I like the idea of making small tarot pieces that can be pulled from a bag...I did that myself a while back, with a clay set I made, and it's a neat way to do a reading.

And just wanted to say...that I love the design you carved for the wheel of fortune, with it's traffic signs!...and your new Happy 3 of cups is just lovely!