personal patchwork/random decks

[donnalee]

I am unsure if this is the place for this thread, but I am interested in people's various patchwork/random/pick 'n' match decks. I find that mine has acted almost like a tarot reading/mirror to real life in itself: there have been some folks who sent me things for it, some who didn't, some things that got lost on the way to me, some that made it just fine, some that had emotional attachment, some that did not, etc., and I finally bought a lot of mediocre-seeming decks for cheap in different places and made a big fat deck with those plus decks I had but did not like the entire decks of (thus doing it mostly myself and making the best of an eh range of choice and also being open to replacing any of the cards when 'better' ones come my way as trade, gift, purchase etc.: story of my life, really, which amuses me). Has this been the experience of others, that the making of their decks has been similar to a reading in its own way...? I'd love to hear about them and see photos. I have wound up so far with four cards for each card: four aces of wands, etc., and find that each card means a different variant for me. Since many of the cards have come from decks that I have felt indifferent to, it reflects to me the options in life that sometimes are presented to us which are not what we would really want, so we make the best of it and still sometimes hope for better. I am still happy to receive and trade any kind of cards and have some available ones listed in the singles area of the forum here.

In my deck, I also included four fronts of a kind of organic coffee made by Joey Kramer, drummer of Aerosmith, which has dragons on them and other bits of language, and tags from clothing lines which have names on them that evoke meanings for me, as cards. Other than that, I have stuck with only the 78 traditionals for the most part, although people have sent me unusual things like oracle cards or nontraditional cards. They still may turn up in the deck but are not in there today, since there are not four of each at this point and I want that symmetry somehow now.

It all fits in a clear zipper makeup/pencil bag that I got somewhere, and I am really getting into it. I love it when two of the same card come up, and it gives me the chance to really examine the similarities and differences and my own understanding of the distinctions. I may get some photos up sometime.

Thanks for showing and telling about yours too!

 

[VioletEye]

that sounds really amazing, donnalee! personally, i would love to see pictures of your deck.

i've never done this myself, because i really like to have the cohesiveness of one artist's vision for the tarot. if i don't like the way a card works with the rest of a deck, there must be a reason for it! and i also generally like this to be intentional. (sometimes i feel like decks made of an artist's work that was not intended to be tarot feels... fake.)

however, i often hear people say that there's one card in a deck that makes it, or breaks it, and it's so particular to the individual! there's something so personal and powerful about creating your own system, i can't help but think that you get some great things out of your patchwork creation!

 

[shadowdancer]

I have put together my own patchwork deck using favourite cards from decks across my collection.

I contacted artists/publishers where I was able, and as it was a one off deck for my own use, they said yes. (Very humbling).

The advantage I found doing this was that every card sings to me, in spades.
I don't have any card that grates or leaves me feeling empty or wanting.
I could use additional cards (3 different Hanged Man cards, each representing clearly one aspect such as seeing things from different perspective, sacrifice & things put on hold).

It works for me

 

[donnalee]

In general, I let decks stay together since that is the intention of the artist etc., but i wound up with some damaged decks and then one deck in particular, Lo Scarabeo, that i bought brandnew and wanted to like, but found much of it too cartoonish to me, so I kept the few cards from that which I thought okay and followed the example of folks on here who have made patchwork decks. I can put some photos up soon, but am expecting a bunch of random cards in the mail that I want to see first. They may be no use at all, but I am unsure just yet. Then I'll try to take photos.

that sounds really amazing, donnalee! personally, i would love to see pictures of your deck.

i've never done this myself, because i really like to have the cohesiveness of one artist's vision for the tarot. if i don't like the way a card works with the rest of a deck, there must be a reason for it! and i also generally like this to be intentional. (sometimes i feel like decks made of an artist's work that was not intended to be tarot feels... fake.)

however, i often hear people say that there's one card in a deck that makes it, or breaks it, and it's so particular to the individual! there's something so personal and powerful about creating your own system, i can't help but think that you get some great things out of your patchwork creation!

 

[donnalee]

You're luck yo to find cards that mean particular things to you and to have a way to use them.. Enjoy! Any photos you'd like to show us please...?

I have put together my own patchwork deck using favourite cards from decks across my collection.

I contacted artists/publishers where I was able, and as it was a one off deck for my own use, they said yes. (Very humbling).

The advantage I found doing this was that every card sings to me, in spades.
I don't have any card that grates or leaves me feeling empty or wanting.
I could use additional cards (3 different Hanged Man cards, each representing clearly one aspect such as seeing things from different perspective, sacrifice & things put on hold).

It works for me

 

[Dark Victory '39]

I have put together my own patchwork deck using favourite cards from decks across my collection.

It works for me

I love this, shadowdancer; i tried to make up one these 'quilts' myself, but found i couldn't get the balance right when i actually sat down to use it for readings. Like color schemes being off, or i'm not quite sure. I was wondering, did you place any aesthetic restrictions on yourself when you were making? If i were to do it again, i think i'd be attracted to doing a blue colorscheme (yes, v. picasso); i've always admired that carol herzer deck done w/ a blue spectrum choice, only i'm not such a fan of straight up RWS so have never purchased, and its never really been in my budget.

 

[shadowdancer]

No, no colour restraints. If I liked how the card was portrayed, and it had a lot of takes I could home in on, it was a consideration.

Nor have I found it difficult if differing styles are appearing in a spread due to being from different decks originally. What does make it work particularly well is the fact I can select my courts. Far too many are bland and doing nothing other than standing / sitting holding their suit icon. All the courts in my patchwork are dynamic.

I also did this with Lo Scarabeo decks, where I just pulled out favourite cards and just put them into one deck. Easily done when they are all the same size For sure backs are different, but that is no matter - all it tells me is what deck it is from, not what the card is.

I used:

Wheel of Year
Gay
78 Doors
Mona Lisa
Witchy

I had another copy of each of these (except witchy) so still a deck intact if I want to use that specifically.

 

[Dark Victory '39]

I had another copy of each of these (except witchy) so still a deck intact if I want to use that specifically.

Smart! I was a lunatic and made color photocopies and then backed them on 'jumbo' playing cards (which were cheap and i got two decks to make up the requisite 78), and then sealed them w/ a brush-on glaze. It was v. labor intensive for something that i've never gotten much use out of. I also might have gotten a better effect if i limited myself to just a few decks in my collection, vs. wanting a deck composed entirely of favorites.

 

[Barleywine]

I haven't done this sort of thing. I think the aesthetic and handling anomalies would put me off if I tried to use one for anything other than browsing through. Jarring color and style contrasts, different dimensions, thicker and thinner card stocks, glossy or grainy finishes, bordered/borderless - it would feel like a Frankendeck to me. Even the decks where two different artist do the Trumps and the pips throw me

 

[Dark Victory '39]

Donnalee, I'd really love to see photos of yours. It sounds so unique.

I think my final conclusion w/ my own project was that just because its 78 images that I really like doesn't mean I'm going to read better w/ it. I think it was shortly after I considered mine a lost cause that I went through my collection and pulled out samples of each that aesthetically were not my favorites, and realized how often when they came up I was able to see with a clarity in the reading, maybe because I was less blinded by love. I really don't know. It was a strange time in my life when I did that project; it's possible I'd do it now and choose entirely different candidates.

But yes, Barleywine the different textures and sizes of my cards left a lot to be desired. As did the general quality of the jumbo playing cards. It was v. frankendeck.