Tarot Box-making hobby

Debra

YIKES! bluefusion, these are gorgeous! What a great hobby! What a talent! (I lived in the Philippines for a while--a good memory.)
 

blue_fusion

thanks Debra. glad you liked you stay here in the philippines. it's a fun hobby since a lot of experimenting (with technique, with media, etc) is involved. i'm encuraging those interested to try making their own tarot boxes. it's also a very rewarding experience. :)

here are some more. the first one's a gift for friend, and the other is for an art trade. both trades were local. i tried sending some other creations to people abroad but our local mailing system messed things up. the only reason i was able to send the ones to Jeannette was because they were via courier. ugh. anyway, here they are:

"Native" box: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/26963974/

Yuletide Japonized Box: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45870343/
 

blue_fusion

thanks for the plug Debra. btw, Tarotgarden's carrying them already. :)

anyway, how bout you guys, i'm sure there are other crafters here who've also experimented with different bo designs. :)
 

Grizabella

I just love that Japaned box! I'm collecting Asian/Eastern style decks now and that would be beautiful for one of those decks, wouldn't it? You have a great talent there. Thanks so much for showing us your work. :)
 

WalesWoman

blue_fusion, those boxes are fantastic! I especially liked the Kiddie Night box and Yuletide Japonised box. Amazing talent!
 

blue_fusion

thanks solitaire and waleswoman. how bout your own attempt at box-making? solitaire, the japanned box is particularly easy to do. just cut really thin bamboo slivers into, well, a bamboo grove-looking thing and glue it to a black box. the "wooden block" is just a thin piece of pine. you can use balsa wood (since it's available in craft shops), and just write the characters you want on it (mine says merry christmas. lol), and glue to the box it together with a red tassle. i find a few thick coatings of oil varnish helps give that faux lacquered look. go on, try making your own. :)

i also tried making a guide for a fake stained-glass paper box. i used metallic and glitter gel pens to colour it. the dimensions are small, though, but you can re-scale them when you try to make your own. just cut out the stencil, paste it on white card stock. then colour the white parts that show with glitter and metallic pens.

the guide's here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29537047/

and the final product looks something like what i would like to call my Louis Comfort Tiffany Box: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/28788584/ :D
 

AJ

It would be great if you'd add a tutorial to your site for making the basic box.
Your finished boxes are beautiful, thank you for sharing, and congratulations on having your deck published.
 

jayem

aww, for some reason the pages wont load on my browser. and im dissapointed because im making a box of my own, and id love to see what you did for yours.

boo :(