Want to see the printing process? A day at a printer's in Prague

[baba-prague]

Yes, 78 cardboard boxes. It reminded me of the song "Ten Green Bottles", except that the line:

"and if one cardboard box, should accidentally fall - "
doesn't bear thinking about does it? (as it is, I got nervous when I saw that big bottle of mineral water in the photo - RIGHT NEXT TO THE CARDS - but you can't really tell the lady what to do with her mineral water, can you?")

I must not stress, I must not stress...

Anyway, the deck is yours Helvetica. And the other three are already winging their way across the Atlantic (well, I hope they are - they certainly got left into the post office.)

The first AT member to see the final deck is... (well, I won't say, but we are having dinner with an AT person tonight in Prague - you'll have to guess who).

The book is printed too - they called this morning to say it's done. Scary in a way - I always get to this point and wonder why we aren't doing cards each day and then I remember and duh! Oh yes, all done.

Thanks Roseanne for the song - this deck deserves a song, it's a deck with a good deal of attitude you know (we did one reading, the very first, and it was - er, opinionated). I think it sings in French though - and I suspect it is a bit bawdy.

Thanks Fulgour for the congratulations. Thanks Cocobird - I hope the parrots like this one too (no, I am NOT joking - and if they would like some spare cards with parrots on them, let me know, we have some - I mean it).

 

[Cocobird55]

I'm so excited -- the decks are coming soon! It's been enjoyable to see the pictures of the process, too. Fascinating.

Thank you, Baba -- the parrots would love cards with parrots on them. Okay, let's be honest. The parrots love to chew any piece of paper that comes their way, so I would only be able to show them the cards. I would love cards with parrots on them -- thank you so much for your offer.

Sue

 

[HudsonGray]

"You collated the New Vision? Really?"

The black & white deck based on Piers Anthony's "God of Tarot" series, not the New Vision that came out just a year or two ago. This was back in 1984 or 1985, Liz had done all the drawings and even used my hand as a model for one of the cards (I had to hold still for 20 minutes, she did two versions). Another friend sat on the floor cross legged to be sketched in as the Page. But after going through that high intensity assemble the deck afternoon, we all had headaches from the high energy and weren't thinking to ground, which would have helped a lot. I swore I wasn't going to ever hand collate decks again if I could possibly help it!

 

[mythos]

I haven't exactly been around much, but I can't belief that I missed this whole thread. Your work, and the work of all your colleagues is wonderful Baba, and showing us how it all comes together is tremendously fascinating, inspiring and daunting, all at the same time. You all should be so proud of yourselves.

thanks so much
mythos

 

[jackdaw*]

Oh baba ... congratulations! I'm so happy for you!

Thank you for sharing the collating process. A lot lower tech than many of us realized! In fact, it put me in mind of assembling our junior high school newspaper ... getting dizzy doing laps around big cafeteria tables to assemble 25-30 pages to staple and then going around again ...

And the other three are already winging their way across the Atlantic (well, I hope they are - they certainly got left into the post office.)

Ooh! Is one of those ... mine?? I live across the Atlantic ...

 

[FearfulSymmetry]

Hi Karen,
I just saw this for the first time. Really cool!!

 

[blue_fusion]

OMG the stuff i missed! nice to see how you're cards are done (though, frankly, what i had in mind was wholly different: a bunch of brownies munching and fighting over milk and cookies while weaving decks from leaves, stones and laughter. and i thought that was the "baba" way of printing. lol)

 

[AJ]

I just thought I'd bump this because Realist has their new deck coming out. Different everything according to Baba, but still...this is interesting

 

[baba-prague]

I think but I'm not sure, that the collation might be done by machine this time around. Mind you, I'm not convinced it will be perfect even so. I've come to the conclusion that perfect collation does not exist with tarot cards - maybe only with playing cards where tens of thousands are printed at once.

 

[canid]

I think but I'm not sure, that the collation might be done by machine this time around. Mind you, I'm not convinced it will be perfect even so. I've come to the conclusion that perfect collation does not exist with tarot cards - maybe only with playing cards where tens of thousands are printed at once.

But still, someone has to run the collating machine. I'm a graphic designer but I've also worked for printers. That's a great idea-a step by step printing process video!