The Bohemian Gothic Tarot

jackdaw*

She's stunning - and I think that she may look young, but she's in fact ageless.

Actually, that's a bit conceited to say, because I think she looks like ME!
 

HearthCricket

baba-prague said:
Anyway, here is another taster, the High Priestess. Please bear in mind that knowing us, these will get tweaked a bit between now and the autumn. It's a long, long way to go yet (by the way, the barn owl is my favourite barn owl in the world - she is dear who was rescued here with a bad wing, she loves people and I've held her a few times - but I digress a lot!)

Oh - and yes, it's borderless. I never thought we'd do a borderless deck, but these images seemed to demand it (we tried various dark borders and they just closed everything in too much).

Picks Hearthcricket off the floor, dusts her down and offers her the smelling salts...

LOL Thank you! I wanted no borders for two reasons. One is that it would be that much more different from your other decks and just give it that extra uniqueness, and secondly, the whole dark, mysterious aspect to it-lovely but deeply haunting-seemed to cry out "no borders". The few images there really have a beautiful, seductive nature to them. Seductive in the meaning of being inviting, like they are asking you to walk right into the deck and experience it with them. And maybe that is also why I like the lack of borders.

I LOVE the light coloured gloves on the High Priestess. They match her skin tone, but looking closer you realise she has gloves on, thus the mystery surrounds her, perfectly. I am having a blast with several decks, and an autumn release is perfect. I really do hope it is out and in my hands a few weeks before Halloween so I can use her most of October, to warm up! Being in New England the pumpkins and cornstalks and decorations start spilling out into yards and porches in September, so "she" will be a nice companion during the long evenings and firelight, and a silver special edition....grabbing silver candlesticks, putting dark bayberry candles in them, looking for my dark blue or purple spread cloth....making plans....need a bag for her. Will buy several decks. Expecting this to easily outdo my Gothic Vargo, which I love, too. :D
 

faunabay

OH! OH! OH! The DarK Sisters!!!!! I bow down to the magnificance of Karen and Alex! (giggle) Actually I'm serious! I can NOT wait!
I love the borderless look. I can see what you mean Karen, black borders would close it in too much IMO. And no matter what you name it this will always be the Dark Sisters to me. :*
 

baba-prague

High Priestess's gloves

We found the image in an antiquarian bookshop - but it was one of a shelf of books we were going through and between us we managed to get totally confused about which book had this image. Bit of a panic as Alex badly wanted this particular High Priestess, partly because of the gloves (references to episcopal gloves of course). Anyway, we just dragged home as many of the books as we could afford and eventually found her. The face is completely changed from the original - there is an artist who I will say more about later, I wanted the faces to resemble his (not quite his as this one needed basically to be drawn, but based on the heavy-eyed almost pre-Raph types he does).

The pillars are from Kutna Hora here - a friend (the one we were out with tonight) took the oriiginal pictures for us. They look almost African I think - but in fact are well and truly European. Czech is so full of riches like this.

I don't want to say too much about the symbols as yet though - somehow if we voice them too much it can cut off the imaging of them. They are sort of spilling on to the screen right now - I think this deck has been brewing (or brooding?) a long time.
 

HearthCricket

baba-prague said:
I don't want to say too much about the symbols as yet though - somehow if we voice them too much it can cut off the imaging of them. They are sort of spilling on to the screen right now - I think this deck has been brewing (or brooding?) a long time.

Yes, but wow! The sunlight momentarily gleaming down through the stormy clouds, behind her. One pillar in the sun, the other kept deep in shadow. Oooh, such lovely layers! Knowledge and mystery all bound in one. I am dying to know about what she is holding. It looks like the elixir of life-alchemy red, philosopher's stone in liquid...am I too excited? :)
 

whipsilk

Hello Karen & Alex -
Well, the High Priestess is simply stunning; I was bowled over like I've never experienced before. The Queen of Swords (yep, it is she) is lovely too (as jackdaw said, she's ageless). I've loved -- no, been enchanted by -- all your other decks (save one), and own them all. This deck, I know, is going to be my ne plus ultra deck. I love the fact that the cards are borderless (yay!), even more I'm taken by a silver limited, which I'll have, thank you very much. As you might guess from my avatar, I'm very attached to my dark side, but haven't ever found the right deck for it yet -- and now I have.

As to the name -- I really do love Dark Sister; it's so evocative. How about using Gothic in a subtitle, e.g. Dark Sister: A Gothic Tarot? That covers all your bases -- non-English speakers as well as those of us who'll never think of her as anything other than Dark Sister.

I'll eagerly await autumn, "on needles and pins-uh".
 

HearthCricket

whipsilk said:
As to the name -- I really do love Dark Sister; it's so evocative. How about using Gothic in a subtitle, e.g. Dark Sister: A Gothic Tarot? That covers all your bases -- non-English speakers as well as those of us who'll never think of her as anything other than Dark Sister.

Oh, nice! Or "The Bohemian Gothic Tarot; Dark Sister". :D
 

baba-prague

No, we won't change the name now. Partly just for boring, practical reasons - it's all been sent off to Amazon etc (we have to do all this months in advance).

But I think there is really another reason. I have a feeling this deck needs its public, rather generic name and also a more hidden, personal name. Or have I been reading too much Le Fanu and Poe?

I can't explain. Maybe best not to try?
 

connegrl

My interest has been sparked! I really like borderless decks. I wish more decks lacked borders. I'm just not up to hacking borders off yet. LOL There is a quality to these cards that invites you in, seduces you. I look forward to it. I may very well be suckered in! I love the production quality of baba decks.

Jen
 

Apocalipstick

Wow! So far, this looks like the Tarot version of all those delicious Victorian horror stories.

I can't wait to see more of it!