Fantastic Menagerie Tarot - a few cards online

The deck will be out soon, and due to many things - including sheer lack of time - we've only just put some cards on the web (previously I did show a few in my blog, but very few). This page is still a placeholder and it's likely to change and hopefully expand over the course of the next few days. but I thought that before the deck comes out I still just have time to sneak a preview into the Creation forum.

Hope you like it. Oh, by the way, so far I've posted mainly Majors, but we hope to get some pages built for the suits before long.

http://www.fantasticmenagerie.com

Oooooh they are beautiful, Karen!

I am enjoying the Fairytale deck/book so much, yet I can hardly wait for this one to come out!

Thanks for the sneak preview....I will be keeping an eye out for more cards!

Luna

Have bookmarked the site. Definately another one for the collection

The pictures are just so lovely, i find animal decks so enjoyable to work with particularly - i cant wait for this deck *jumps about excitedly*.

Thank-you! I've added a few cards to the temporary home page (sooner or later I'll be able to add pages for all the cards). Also, here are a few attachments - not yet on the site.

The Five of Coins is one of the most tragic images I've seen for this card - in a way (funny too, but very sad) - so be prepared. I think it really captures both the desperation and the family love that need to be part of this card. But it's cruel.

Thanks for showing the cards Karen I was getting very curious about this deck and was about to ask if and where we could see some of the cards.
They are so beautiful ! I think they will trigger strong emotions in me, like animal decks often do ~ particularly that 5 coins (oh dear !) but the other cards as well, but in a (hopefully) happier way.

You know we debated using that image as the Five of Coins - but it ought to be a tragic card and I didn't want to lighten it too much - and it does get across (powerfully) the love between mother and offspring. But yes, it's sad - and quite cynical. Grandville had a dark and wicked sense of humour and these cards are going to be very thought-provoking I think.

Oh, I meant to add, if you look at the site, please don't forget to run your cursor over the card picture - that starts the slide show. There are about twenty cards to see there now, and the card back (which we are really pleased with, I have to say!)

I have been sitting here looking and looking at the slide show Baba; sniffling and sniffling because of my treasured Gulliver book from way back when I was at school. I have so many wonderful illustrated books that I treasure but that one holds a special place. I will be in line to purchase that deck as soon as it is possible. In fact I will most likely purchase two- no three- and make one a prize for the best metamorphic Tarot story essay and keep one for my granddaughter. ~Rosanne
PS If I was choosing a deck for a card this deck would be the best Death Card ever!!

Oh - that Gulliver book is wonderful isn't it? We haven't used many of the Gulliver pictures but there are a few bits and pieces here and there. If you know Grandville then you'll know that the deck isn't all prettiness - there is some quite dark and wry stuff in there too. But oh, he is SUCH an illustrator - we've loved working with this material - it's very fine.

We bought two of his very early editions (one is 1847, the other a few years later) so that we could see the actual colouring that he himself supervised - we've tried to do the colouring in his style (as you'll have realised a lot of these images were black and white in the original, so we've done a good deal of colouring). He used a startlingly vivid indigo though, and I honestly don't think modern print techniques can quite capture that - we'll see.

A metamorphosis tarot story? I would just love to see what people come up with - it's a great idea. There's a lot of interesting insight in the idea of a human/anmal metamorphosis - and it's such an ancient notion of course.

Oh - ps - glad you like Death - I think it works (and even more so when you can see the expression on one of the frog's faces). Did you notice the little scarab beetle with his scythe? I sneaked him in as I couldn't resist - I like small details that aren't immediately obvious.

I can't wait for this to arrive. I've had the Fantastic Menagerie Tarot pre-ordered for months. I just got The Fairytale Tarot. It's wonderful. I can't wait to see a preview the oracle set.