The Fairytale Tarot

baba-prague

Well, as this was brought up this evening I suppose it's time to show something.

http://www.fairytaletarot.com

The page was just put up in the last hour, so it's only one page, and quite simple - but at least you can see some cards.

We have been working on this one for many months, together with Irena, a Czech artist. It will go to print in three weeks (big smile!) so I was planning then to put up something in the main decks section. However, you guys here have "outed" the deck (not that it was a big secret - it's on my signature after all :) ) so it's great to be able to show something here.

Why didn't we show this before? Well, basically because it was very complicated to design and for a long time it was all plans and sketches - one of the hardest parts was mapping traditional tales to the RWS system. So although I could have shown some sketches, I don't think anyone would have been very taken with them. I was also a bit anxious about getting in very long conversations about the tales we chose - any selection will be controversial, and in the end I felt we had to go with our own feelings (oh, and okay, I am a fairytale obsessive and I really did want to do this one myself - the pain of working it out was also a wonderful experience.) There IS one AT person who has acted as a sounding board on some of the tales - very reassuring. She may or may not choose to (ta da!) reveal herself. Edited to add, no in fact I think she is on holiday, but I hope she will say something when she gets back - I really appreciated her help.

Final thing to say. The "fairy godmother" for this deck has been Rachel Pollack - I know she has shown some eary sketches in her classes. Even as we speak Rachel is writing the foreword for the companion book and we are just SO pleased about this. I see Rachel as a wonderful "teller of tales" as well as a tarot scholar.

Oh - this moment of going public (albeit quite quietly) is always strange - I will now make a soothing cup of peppermint tea...
 

contrascarpe

Karen -

You and Alex are on a mission to get all of our money, aren't you?????

The cards look beautiful, as usual. Another one for the wishlist.

Good luck,
Dan
 

baba-prague

LOL! Well, I am really glad you like it. The process has been a bit mad sometimes, and lots of fun. Imagine me telling each tale to Anna in English and she translates it into Czech - while Alex listens in. A collaboration from four countries! We had such an interesting time comparing tales too - we all of course come from slightly different traditions.

You would also laugh to see the studio. I think what Seneris was tactfully trying not to say is that it is AWASH in stuff - much of which is old fairytale books. I have loved fairytales all my life (I was quite ill as a child for a while and my dad gave me the 1001 Nights as I was stuck in bed - I never looked back). The idea of being able to have my nose stuck in old fairytale books and call it work has been BLISS.

But some were so easy and obvious to assign to cards, and others so difficult. I really wanted to use the old, authentic tales too, so some are very dark, but also very resonant. Oh - by the way, there is a summary of each tale in the companion book, as some of the stories are not at all well known and we can't expect people to go and track them down - although I'm really hoping that the deck will encourage people to read more of the old tales - AND (importantly) to make up their own.
 

Annabelle

Hooray!!! Baba-prague, I've been waiting a long while for you to post about this deck, so that we could "officially" start talking about it here in the forum. It has already been on my wishlist for some time now :).
 

Chronata

As a sometime storyteller, and collector of folk and fairy tales...I consider myself pretty fairy tale obsessive as well!

It's one of the reasons why the Whimsical and other decks like it have been somewhat dissapointing.

But oh! baba-Prague! These cards look incredible!
Already I see images of tales here that fit the cards better than those other decks!
And the artistry is wonderful too!

I am all smiles! :D
Can't wait for these to be in my hot little hands!!
 

baba-prague

Annabelle4 said:
Hooray!!! Baba-prague, I've been waiting a long while for you to post about this deck, so that we could "officially" start talking about it here in the forum. It has already been on my wishlist for some time now :).
Click to expand...


I know, it's been ages and people have been incredibly good about not saying anything. I honestly find the moment of really showing the cards quite difficult - I don't know why. I do want this deck to work, I mean I look at people like Ford and Rackham and am just blown away by the way they did things (by the way we have little references to may of the "golden age" people in the images - those who know them will spot them). We have tried to keep a very traditional look, and sometimes that has meant a lot of redrawing and rethinking.

But - it's all gelled finally.
 

baba-prague

Chronata said:
As a sometime storyteller, and collector of folk and fairy tales...I consider myself pretty fairy tale obsessive as well!

It's one of the reasons why the Whimsical and other decks like it have been somewhat dissapointing.

But oh! baba-Prague! These cards look incredible!
Already I see images of tales here that fit the cards better than those other decks!
And the artistry is wonderful too!
QUOTE]

That's so good to hear from someone who knows fairy tales. We took an early decision to use non-toned-down tales, so for instance the really harsh "Juniper Tree" (Grimms, and a story I have had in a wonderful translation for many years) is there. Rachel has gone way beyond what she needed to do and actually sent us a copy of "Godmother Night" which is a retelling of Godfather Death and includes references to the Juniper Tree and other tales (great book if you haven't read it). This helped to convince me that we should do this deck in a very adult (and quite demanding) way. It won't be an easy deck to work with, but I'm convinced it will be very rewarding.


Oh dear, you can see the other reason why I said nothing about the deck. I think once I start talking about it I won't stop!
Click to expand...
 

Thordia

Oooh, the cards look amazing! I can't wait to see more of them and hear more about the deck when you are all ready to share... but then I actually pre-ordered it on amazon UK weeks ago after seeing some promotional postcards so I'm already sold ;)
 

baba-prague

wagtail said:
Oooh, the cards look amazing! I can't wait to see more of them and hear more about the deck when you are all ready to share... but then I actually pre-ordered it on amazon UK weeks ago after seeing some promotional postcards so I'm already sold ;)
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Oh, I saw there were some Amazon pre-orders! Amazon now should have the real packaging up - the first image they put up had gone a wierd colour.

More tomorrow!
 

Chronata

baba-prague said:
[
That's so good to hear from someone who knows fairy tales. We took an early decision to use non-toned-down tales, so for instance the really harsh "Juniper Tree" (Grimms, and a story I have had in a wonderful translation for many years) is there. Rachel has gone way beyond what she needed to do and actually sent us a copy of "Godmother Night" which is a retelling of Godfather Death and includes references to the Juniper Tree and other tales (great book if you haven't read it). This helped to convince me that we should do this deck in a very adult (and quite demanding) way. It won't be an easy deck to work with, but I'm convinced it will be very rewarding.


Oh dear, you can see the other reason why I said nothing about the deck. I think once I start talking about it I won't stop!
Click to expand...


Yay! The Juniper tree is one of my very favorite stories! Back in May, I told it at a local resort's campfire night...instead of the typical "ghost stories" because there were so many kids.
I rewrote the song that the bird sings...and included 4 different versions of it in an eerie screechy sing song voice.
the parents said it was far creepier than any ghost story!

Oh please don't stop talking about the deck! ;)
I am even more excited now to hear what else it might include!
 
tarot isabel copyright pictures