View Full Version : Tarot and Handicrafts
Hi,
i know of a french book offering 22 cross stitch patterns of the Marseilles majors. i know that many of you sew their own tarots bags/totes. i've seen somewhere tarot t-shirts and bags illustrated with tarot pictures.
what about you, how do you combine both your passion for tarot AND handicrafts?
Kissa
very curious!
ps: if someone knows about a cross stitch book offering RWS patterns, would they be kind enough to give me the book'references? thanks very much in advance!
Do you have access to the title of that French book offering cross stitch patterns for the Marseille Majors, Kissa?
I'd be interested in looking into it...
Moonbow*
05-12-2003, 04:04
Originally posted by Kissa
how do you combine both your passion for tarot AND handicrafts?
Handicrafts have gone out the window for the time being. I'm far too busy studying new decks (and old) doing readings and sitting at the computer!!!! But its always there for me to go back to - and I will -. The book sounds interesting though
Moonbow*
Oh oh! jmd, now you have to tell me how you can manage:
- reading so many books about tarot
- writing all these long, interesting and informative messages on our favourite forum to share your knowledge
- reading (and remebering!) the whole Kalevala (arghhh!)
- and now cross stitching ?!
WHEN DO YOU SLEEP ????!!!!
;-)
Here is the book (you probably know one of the authors already: Régine Deforges but not for this kind of books. She is the author of "La Bicyclette Bleue" series. She is also famous for writing more erotic litterature):
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2234045002/qid=1070622953/sr=1-31/ref=sr_1_2_31/171-8598540-2989046
The book is OOP but amazon.fr listed four "used".
I found two on abebooks.fr:
http://www.abebooks.fr/servlet/BookSearchPL?ph=2&isbn=&an=&tn=&pn=&sn=&kn=regine+deforges&cty=&bi=&fe=false&sgnd=false&dj=false&prl=&prh=&countryprovstatedisplay=&sortby=3&searchtype=refine&refinecriteria=key&refinetext=tarot&x=23&y=4
And from now and then, some appears on ebay.fr.
Hopes this help!
Kissa
PS: shall I post the references in the book section as well?
Originally posted by jmd
Do you have access to the title of that French book offering cross stitch patterns for the Marseille Majors, Kissa?
I'd be interested in looking into it...
Originally posted by Kissa
Hi,
ps: if someone knows about a cross stitch book offering RWS patterns, would they be kind enough to give me the book'references? thanks very much in advance!
Kissa I too would be interested.. I do a lot of counted cross stiich ( mostly at the holidays for gifts) I am in "winter warmth" mode right now, so its all afghans and hats and scarves ( completely un Tarot)
but I have been thinking of embroidering a bag for my cards but haven't had the time to sit and draw out my design.
I knit Tarot bags for some of my decks, often with yarn that I've spun myself on my wheel....
HudsonGray
05-12-2003, 12:22
Remember you can scan any cards from your decks into the computer & put those images onto t-shirt transfer paper. It doesn't necessarily need to be put onto a t-shirt, you can put it on fabric to make a quilt, wall hanging, pouch, carry bag, etc. The transfer paper will work with any 100% cotton fabric.
I also know someone who can engrave any image, including tarot images, onto glassware.
What a great idea--embroider your favorite card from the deck on the outside of the bag.
I haven't yet made any bags for my cards, but I plan to, and I love needlework. I sew, embroider, knit, crochet and tat (lace).
However, I don't do all of these things all the time. I shift between types of needlework for a few weeks or months at a time, and quite often go for lengths of time without doing any. I have lots of unfinished projects, and planned projects that never get started, along with some that do get finished (usually things to wear).
Anyway, the idea of the Marseilles cross-stitch designs is intriguing!
Nevada
Moonbow*
05-12-2003, 13:12
Hi Nevada34
I can tat too, My mother used to tat and she taught my daughter (which meant, I had to learn too) I also do bobbin lace when i have the time. This site never stops surprising me........
Moonbow*
HudsonGray
05-12-2003, 18:32
People still TAT??? I thought that was a lost art. Like doily making & millinery (sp).
Tallarico
05-12-2003, 19:34
What is TAT? :confused:
Tatting is a type of shuttle work, used to make knotted lace. The lace is formed using double half-hitches, which slide along a thread to form rings and chains.
Here are links to some photos that I found with a Google search:
http://pweb.jps.net/~mcmasters1/tatting.html
http://www.kaleden.com/search/images.jsp?id=244489
http://web.triton.net/t/tenclay/tatting/cl-edge.jpg
and a description:
http://www.malcolmbluefarm.org/Farmskills/more_about_tatting.htm
Nevada
Tallarico
05-12-2003, 20:39
Tatting is really nice. I wish I had that talent. I suppose it's something that needs an apprenticeship!Thanks for the links Nevada
You're welcome!
I've taught a few people to tat, and yes it does require some hands-on learning.
My grandmother sat me down one day when I was fourteen and said, "You're going to learn to tat." She didn't let me get up until I'd made one good ring. I didn't want to learn (the only explanation for this is that I was fourteen and almost as hardheaded as she was), but you didn't say no to her. I was the grandchild most interested in needlework, and at that time she thought tatting was a dying art. Now I'm glad she made me learn, but tatting has caught on again so it's no longer a dying art as she feared.
Nevada
tigerlily 6563
06-12-2003, 02:50
I too have done embroidery and knitting but of late, with children, work and other interest don't spend alot of time with it but I have an unfinished piece of embroidery which I designed. It is still not complete and have no idea when it will end but every so often I add a bit to it when I feel the desire to do so. The piece seems to be evolving along with myself. I don't beleive it would win any craft exibitions but is one of my most cherished pocessions.
Tarot Sparrow
06-12-2003, 03:20
Oh how I wish I had time for creative endeavors :) I haven't cross-stitched forever, and I completely forget how to crochet....haha. What a shame that I could do it when I was a kid and now I don't have a clue :D
WolfSpirit
06-12-2003, 09:31
Most of my decks have a self-made bag, some sewn, but most are crocheted all from the same simple pattern, the difference is in the different colour patterns suitable for the deck.
When I get a Marseilles deck someday it will get an embroidered bag :)
I am now knitting sweaters I started years ago and am now finishing. I found the knitting movement soothing but I lacked the energy to finish them, with correcting little errors to make it fit and have a presentable neckline or collar or whatever. It can take me a long time to finish something, but I usually do get the job done. Making tarot bags is a nice diversion: you don't have to think so much about making it fit (decks have different sizes, but not many models ;) ) and it is not such a big project, so you can finish it more quickly.
I did a small peice of blackwork embroidery a couple of years ago and have been meaning to make it into a tarot bag. Blackwork is a "fine line" looking style that would go well visually with an engraved deck or delicate pen and ink like the Nigel Jackson. I also have several tiny hardanger pieces that might make a great bag for the Hanson-Roberts.
If you know someone with a charting program any historical tarot card could be made into a cross stitch chart (watch out doing this with cards by living artists) I once had a chart made from the Thoth Two of Cups but the person who made it hadn't quite refined it enough so it was quarter stitches galore.
--Myrrha
firestorm
06-12-2003, 10:28
I wish! :(
I used to cross stitch years ago and I still have several projects I never completed. Wow, now I feel bad. Maybe its time to MAKE time. I really did love it, I guess life just got in the way. I need some deck bags anyway....maybe I'll dig my stuff out.
Hi all,
How cool to find a couple of other tatters here! A few years ago I thought I was the only one left on the planet and then I did a Goggle search. There are some wonderful patterns available!
aaahhhh! Women after my own heart! I LOVE making things... I only wish my daughter would take an interest. She told me I have to teach my grandaughter :) because it's cool, but she won't learn.
I never learned to tat but I still have my mothers old shuttle. Some day I will attempt to learn.
I have just started sewing a tarot bag, when my sewing machine pooped out, ( that was my mothers too). It will be an unfinished project until I get myself over to my sister in laws to borrow her's.
I am hoping Santa will be good to me in that respect this year :D
I love X stsitch but i am hopeless in sewing. The only tarot bag I ever sew, well er... dh sew it! Honest! This is the marvellous thing about marrying a guy from upnorth, the new generation doesn't have a clue what being macho means! They clean up, iron, change diapers ;-)
I still plan to sew more bags, we bought really nice material to do more. Only this time, I might have to sew myself: dh doesn't seem to have the time at all ;-)
Kissa
Ps: dh did a great job, velvet bag has lining in matching colour!
Both my Granny and Grandad are avid cross-stitchers, embroiders, knitters, crocheters... You name it, they do it!
One thing that interested me last time I visited their house, was that they've gone all hi-tech recently. They have a program on their computer, which enables you to put any picture you can scan onto it, and it will create the cross-stitch pattern for you. I believe they have the same thing for a knitting machine and embroidering.
So I suppose you could, if you had such a program, simply scan in a picture of any Tarot card you like, and turn it into a Cross-stitch pattern. :D
Kiama
PS- I used to be into handicrafts of the 'stuff with needles' kind, but I never really got the knack of it. My knitting was very... artistic. ("Knit one, purl one, knit one, drop nine, pick up three, end up with a holey triangle...")
I used to do alot of cross stitch, embroidery and crochet. But the only sewing I've done in a long time was a couple of months ago and I hand made a couple of bags for my Ancient Italian and Classical decks. I could never knit, I used to drop stitches and then that would be that lol. Crochet is better, you can usually sort out dropped stitches easily. My Nan knitted and crocheted until she was around 80 years old, then gave them both up when she couldn't do fine lace crochet anymore.
Originally posted by Kiama
One thing that interested me last time I visited their house, was that they've gone all hi-tech recently. They have a program on their computer, which enables you to put any picture you can scan onto it, and it will create the cross-stitch pattern for you.
Oooh! Yes, that is the kind of program I was referring to in my post. The thing is cross-stitch patterns can either be too crude, if the program separates it into too few colors, or have a great many widely separated single stitches of a certain color, which is a pain to stitch. So you would have to fiddle with the chart a little bit to get it right. :)
--Myrrha
Belladonna
08-12-2003, 12:11
I've done cross stitching in the past. It is time consuming, though. I got into quilting for awhile. My best friend is about a million times better at it than me, though, and it's a bit discouraging. I sew my own tarot bags from silk scarves I find at church bazarres. Oh, but to have beautifully carved wooden boxes... that would be the thing. I make jewlery now. Maybe I should make some beaded bags?
Mystic Zyl
08-12-2003, 12:43
I would like to have Christmas tree ornaments in tarot images. I think I'll take a deck and experiment with cutting it up and putting the on balls. I hope no one fainted, when I said cut up.
Hi Mystic Zyl,
Couldn't you scan your favourite cards from decks and use the scans instead of the actual card, you could then use coloured or glittered pens straight onto the scan of the card and then cut them to shape to fit whatever decoration you wanted them on. :)
Chronata
08-12-2003, 13:54
I am a bit envious of everyone here who can knit, crochet, tat, cross stitch and emboider! I am way too rebellious, I guess, to have the patience to follow a pattern, or to do repetitions.
(although, I admit I was a milliner's apprentice for three years!)
Don't know if this counts as handicraft, but I just made oodles of hand painted candleholders for an art fair, using my tarot designs. I also just did a bunch of ornaments as well (none of the ornaments sold, but that just means I can have a fortune tellers Christmas tree this year!)
oh...and I just made my first soap molds to make tarot soap! I don't like the way they came out so I will have to make some new ones when I am not so rushed! One little molded soap in each of the four suits, and one large bar wrapped in a Major Arcana design!
Now I just gotta find out who the heck would even want tarot soap!
Mystic Zyl
08-12-2003, 15:47
Oh Emily you are so smart! Yes that would be better to scan them. You know me too well when you speak of glitter!!!!
Originally posted by Mystic Zyl
I would like to have Christmas tree ornaments in tarot images. I think I'll take a deck and experiment with cutting it up and putting the on balls. I hope no one fainted, when I said cut up.
I am having a stroke!
Scan them !!!
Edited to say ...Phew! I read your last post....lol
dolphingirl
09-12-2003, 15:34
Hi Everyone
I make Tarot ornaments as well as tote bags and tarot boxes if you would like to see the ornaments http://home.comcast.net/~dolphindaze1/Ornaments/ornaments.html
Thanks
samantha
Jeanette
09-12-2003, 19:50
I can scan in a simple line image and assign embroidery stitches to different sections, and then embroider it on my computerized sewing machine. It is so FUN. There are even more advanced programs out there, I just don't have the money. And you can purchase designs already "digitized," cross-stitch included. It goes so fast on the machine. But I also liked the idea of the iron-on transfer, that would be fun to play around with for a tarot bag. It seems tarot and handiwork go together! I also love to knit, crochet, hand embroider, sew, etc. And GLITTER! Don't get me started, everything needs sparkles in my opinion!
Originally posted by Jeanette
And GLITTER! Don't get me started, everything needs sparkles in my opinion! I am the 'Glitter Queen'...
I can glitter ... anything ....
Jeanette
11-12-2003, 13:12
Yes, I agree, glitter is essential. And, I recently discovered felt at the Walmart that has glitter already on it, and I bought some (but I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it). It even comes in a few different colors, I think black, white, red, cream and navy.
Glittery is cool..
This week I sewed two sequined over black mesh bags lined with purple satin.. I must say, I am very pleased withthe results. Better than I imgained. The purple under the mesh gives the bags a much different look than I originally thought..
And the rest of the material will go into a costume for my grandaughter (4yrs old) for next Halloween :)
always planning ahead..
blue_fusion
16-09-2005, 02:31
apparently this is an old thread, but i found it just now after searching for info on tarot boxes. cuz, well, that's what i've been doing, making tarot boxes. it's kinda fun, especially if you base the theme of the box with the look of the deck you're putting into it. one of the weirdest i'm working on is for the mythic. it's supposed to look like a roman pillar but ended up being somewhat more akin to a marble tomb. hehe