Haaaaaha!
Well, here is my take on it.
First, let's get the negative out of the way. Well, negative *for me* anyways. The lamination reminds me of one of those super glossy self made lamination you can do with one of those things you buy from the craft shop. I have *always* preferred cards on the matted side, for use or collection or anything else.
Second, I do not like the borders. To me, the sharp black ink feel contrast too much with the soft pencil texture. So they feel *to me* as if the sketch and the borders belong to two different decks.
Third, the price is a tad high in my opinion for what I feel I am getting. I have no doubt that these cards have been lovingly handmade (I think the sketching is printed on though, so not actual sketching, because these are the sketches which she produced in the process of creating the deck, at leas this is my understanding, so there can not be more than one of the original, I think?). And I think this is what we are paying for.
HOWEVER:
If you do not get this to read with, which I don't (I think I have mentioned somewhere that I am more of a collector really), I feel that you can see the inner working (artistically speaking) of the deck before it took its final shape in what we now know as Mary El tarot deck.
This, to me, give me some glimpse of the creator's thought processes, and creative path, and this add to my understanding of the final product that is the deck.
I usually just look deeply into each of them and then compare them to the final print. It does add some layer to your understanding of the actual deck. But I come from a place of ignorance, so I do not know much about the possible philosophies which may underlay the design of the deck, other than the basic RW or Thoth which I picked up from reading here and there. This makes the layering of the creator's mind very helpful to me. As it provides me with more context to understand her deck. If that make sense......
It is like being able to glance at a draft of a great literature. Where you can see the author's notes and thought processes in the creation of the piece. Some kind of historical artifact from which you can enriched your understanding of what stand before you.
This would have been an amazing deck printed on card stock that is more like the Light Vision or Wild Unknown. I really feel that it is a pity truly. Almost as if she has ran out of energy after the publication of the actual deck. And would rather just produce the sketch deck herself. Which can be a good thing. But only if you really have the time and energy. I think.... I could be wrong in my impression. It is just an impression
