How do people feel about altering cards?

I haven't held a Gaian deck, but love the concept and most of the cards as seen in scans... But the Chariot (I think... with the canoe????) That guy... there's something a bit odd with the head/face/proportion thing, and aggressive, too, which puts me off the deck... Before I could own the deck (which I'd quite like to do) I'd need to know I could address that issue.

In most cases, I'd only buy cards that spoke to me and didn't need doctoring......

Hi...newbie to the forum here, but I will tell you that I just recently trimmed my Radiant Rider-Waite and after I did the corners, it was a mini deck! I already have a miniature edition so I re-ordered it on Amazon. Lesson learned.

Another lesson learned. I trimmed my Druidcraft with scissors and tried to round the corners by hand. Then I got the bright idea that I would edge them with a gold metallic pen. Completely ruined them, so..................I waiting on the new deck from Amazon.

Did I mention that I now have a Fiskars paper trimmer and a nice little gadget to round the corners off?

I now have trimmed my Wildwood, Druid Animal Oracle Deck and will will also trim the next set of Druidcraft , with the trimmer, when I get them. I am amazed how the colors pop and the images flow into each other when trimmed. You sort of feel like your falling into the story.

I took black permanent marker to the outside edges of the Gilded and Legacy because the black edges were looking chipped. This worked really well and they look very classy. I like them better now than I did before.

I am now in the process of putting silver edges on my Hidden Realm. Very carefully! They look great with the back of the cards.

I have learned that there are some things that are not to be messed with!

May you day be Blessed,
Sassenach

sapienza said:

Just wondering how people feel about the issue of altering or changing cards. ... For example, I have the Robin Wood deck which I really like, but was never able to read with or really connect with. ... I finally got a brown permanent marker and re-coloured a lot of the blondes to make them brunettes.

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I think that's perfectly fine for you to do, but I haven't yet done it and I haven't yet considered it.

I'd like to say I'd never do it, but I find that when I make time-unlimited statements, I *hate* it when, over time, I am proved wrong.

My feelings are that when I buy a deck, or swap a deck or get given a deck, I'm given the deck as ids, along with all its little faults and foibles. If I were to change its "faults", then the deck would lose some of its character.

We all have friends. Each and every friend of ours has at least one aspect of their personality, or political beliefs, or tastes in clothes or something else, which we do not like. Do we try to change our friends? No! They're a package deal, and we love them as they are. If we were god and *could* tamper with them without their even knowing, would we? No. Because it wouldn't be a matter of improving your friend, it would be a matter of making them more like you, and so reducing the diversity in the world. That's a huge crime, in my books.

If I altered my decks, I'd be making them more like the ideal Tarot deck that lives only in my head. And that's wrong, because it would be moving them away from the ideal Tarot deck in their creators' heads, and reducing diversity in the world.

(Yes I know I was replying to an old post - the threads came back and I found my thoughts were more articulate this time round.)

sapienza said:

Just wondering how people feel about the issue of altering or changing cards. Now, I don't mean trimming, even though that is altering. I'm more thinking of making changes to the artwork.

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Never saw this thread until now. I have altered ALL 78 cards in a deck - the Rider Waite. I bought an older printing Rider Waite off eBay, but when it arrived, the Arabic equivalent of the Roman Numerals were written in blue ink in the upper left corner or the Minors 2-10 (but strangely enough not the Majors). I KNEW I was never going to use that deck the way it was, so I blackened the borders with paint pens. And since I was doing that I went ahead and changed something on EVERY card. The result was my "Pimped Rider Waite". You can see pics of what I did over in the Pimp My Rider! thread.

I've been in the process of pimping the Adam Fronteras RWS deck. Started it in 2011 and it's been waiting for me to get back to it ever since....

Rodney

sapienza said:

Just wondering how people feel about the issue of altering or changing cards. ...
I just couldn't relate to it. So....after much umming and ahhing, I finally got a brown permanent marker and re-coloured a lot of the blondes to make them brunettes. I guess it sounds crazy but it seems to be working for me. I just did a few at first but now I've done quite a lot and the deck seems to be growing in it's appeal to me.

There is of course a part of me that feels really bad. Kind of like I've dishonoured the artists work somehow. But now I get so much more from the deck, I just feel like I've personalised it a bit.

How do others feel? Has anyone else made changes to any of their decks that have cards they didn't like or couldn't relate to?

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I say have fun & be proud you are doing it! At this moment it is not OOP. People change their hair color all the time in real life! A lot of people have that blonde issue with this deck. If changing hair color makes it usable for you, power to you. I did buy a 2nd RW to trim and I love it both trimmed & original...

Now I have not been able to bring myself to use the corner rounders on the Soprafino since it is fairly expensive. Also, I cannot bring myself to trim the Via even though I bought a 2nd Via several years ago to do just that. It is just keeps climbing in value being OOP... <<Hey Rodney, it is your Via that made me want to trim this. I know yours was originally a demo with holes punched in the edge...>> I know a few deck owners of decks that were written on back when they were beginners. Now they do have huge regrets because they are now OOP.

baba-prague said:

Although I joke about being horrified at the idea of people "trimming" our cards, in truth I don't see anything wrong with altering your own cards - if it makes them work better for you, then why not?

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I will say, I would not trim a Baba deck. There is just something about your decks that is amazing!!! I especially love the old card stock of your 1st edition decks!

We would love to see that modified Spiral in "Trimmed Borders/Altered Decks Index" thread.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=165283
I have this thread "watched" so I can find it easily by clicking "Quick Links"! I just got to post#69 & I love the pictures posted! Wouldn't it be great if a 2nd ed Spiral was printed with black borders. I also just noticed, this is an old thread that got bumped. Fun!

I never thought about trimming a deck or altering the edges until I saw what others here have done to their own cards. I'm glad that I was given the idea to trim the cards.

Because of having small hands, making them a tad bit smaller makes them more user friendly. I can hold them more comfortably and I find that I spend much more time with them. Sometimes, even if I'm watching TV, I will hold them and gently shuffle them just because they feel "right" and are a comfort to me.

So much more feeling comes out of the cards if some of the borders are trimmed. When they borderless, they are less distracting for me and the reading flows from one card to another and I can get lost in them. That also has left me spending more time with the cards. I have made them my own and they are special only to me.

There are many that have the Hidden Realm, but not everyone has them with beautiful silver edges. They are unique only to me and are my special friends. I am spending hours taking my time with each card. I pick up the card, study it and reflect, then read the meaning out of the book. Then each card is altered lovingly and carefully, allowing a stronger connection from them to me. Thus again, I spend more time with them.

A few years ago, I also felt that it would be sacrilegious and a violation to cut or mark a card and would have never have thought about changing anything. But a few years ago, all of my cards sat in a box and were not used. They are now my dear friends, even with a different hair color, and are out of the box and in my hands every day.

As I get older, I feel that each of us is more diverse than ever before. One of my life's lessons has been that our time is short and we must do what feels right for ourselves and that it just may be different than that what feels right for another, and that it is OK.

May Your Day Be Blessed,
Sassenach

I have had no problems in altering a few of my decks. The DruidCraft and Druid Animal oracle were just to big for my small hands so l trimmed them and rounded the corners. Much better to handle now. Oh, and l put a loin cloth over the Hanging Man in DruidCraft, he was beautifully endowed but caused a little embarassment when reading for strangers. Did the same thing with Robin Wood on the lovers card.
My other half calls them the smutty cards They are good reading decks but not everyone likes their readings done with everything on show.

Sassenach said:

I never thought about trimming a deck or altering the edges until I saw what others here have done to their own cards. I'm glad that I was given the idea to trim the cards.

Because of having small hands, making them a tad bit smaller makes them more user friendly. I can hold them more comfortably and I find that I spend much more time with them. Sometimes, even if I'm watching TV, I will hold them and gently shuffle them just because they feel "right" and are a comfort to me.

There are many that have the Hidden Realm, but not everyone has them with beautiful silver edges. They are unique only to me and are my special friends.
Sassenach

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Isn't AT great for inspirations!

Do you have a picture of the silver edges?
Oh so curious to see! I just love the black edges on the Spiral...

I personally think that if that made you happy and made you use the deck more successfully - it has been the right choice. The deck is yours, if you don't use it then what's the point?

I have trimmed about 4-5 of my decks and I am regretting of doing that a lot! I don't have a good trimming equipment, so all borders and corners look uneven and the decks look dishonored. They've lost their royal proud borders and became small and insignificant like queens without their crowns. I still use them because they are "small and comfy" and "were expensive" but secretly I want to get the new versions with the borders and never cut them.

Another think that I like but always regret is writing the card meanings with the marker on the card borders. They turn all black and messy unlike some graffiti and I've already bought the new versions to replace them. However I love using them for myself as it has the "warmth of my own writing".

I think that I wouldn't be comfortable with the deck that was full of pretty blondes and supermodels too (sadly, I couldn't relate) and I had this problem with the "Crystal Visions" tarot where all the figures seemed to be too young for me (or something like that?). So even cutting the borders and writing with the marker didn't help. I gave it to my 6 year old daughter who actually chose it as her favorite of all my 20 decks.

So in short: I think altering decks is OK if it's what you want and if that makes them more usable