Baba-Prague's Tarot - in progress
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Apr 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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I hope babaprague comments on her own deck, as the collage of images from Prague are quite spectacular...
Here are a few from a forthcoming deck (which I had to, unfortunately, resize to post):
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| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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...here are the Lovers:
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| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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... the Magician:
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| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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... and the Tower:
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| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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...and I nearly forgot the World!
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| Kissa |
16 Apr 2003 |
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WOWWWWW !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to baba-prague. I am really impressed, it is gorgeous ! Because of the strong "historical" taste of this collages, they don't look sterile like some modern decks do IMHO. I love the colors.
If you have some more "spoilers", jmd, please don't hesitate !!
Kissa
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| jmd |
16 Apr 2003 |
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in case you haven't seen it:Karen had mentioned that the deck was due for publication next month - I trust this is still happening!
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| Major Tom |
16 Apr 2003 |
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It is indeed a stunning work in progress. I wish Karen and her partner every success. :)
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| baba-prague |
16 Apr 2003 |
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Hi jmd - thanks for putting these up. I didn't expect it actually (I just meant them for your interest) but it's really kind of you to do this. Much appreciated - and all feedback is really welcome too.
So - please only look at our old website:
www.baba-prague.com/tarot
for our older designs (some of which now look a bit crude to us to be honest). We have redesigned almost everything - partly thanks to some great feedback from here on Aeclectic - and partly because we just thought we wanted to do the best we could.
With luck (and if the friend building our web site has time) the new site will be up in about a week - with fifty of the final cards (!!!!)
It will be on www.tarotofprague.com
So - what can I tell you? Well, we want this deck to be very much about story-telling. Alex and I are both very interested in fairy and folk tales (btw it's the two of us doing the design together, and our mutual interest in fairy tales is one of the things that brought us together) . We want each card to feel almost like an illustration from a tale that you can almost ;-) remember. We want the deck to really spark the imagination and set off a whole lot of stories in the mind. The cards are all photo-collage of course, but beyond that we don't want them to be all in the same style - just in the way that in tales you get some very grand and serious pieces of mythology, and at the same time some very homely folk tales, so we want the pictures to feel like they have come from all sorts of stories. So, for example, the Magician is very much linked to Hermes and alchemy and is quite solemn, but our Nine of Cups is just like something from a very domestic, fun, European folk tale - much more entertaining, though still with a moral.
Tell us if you think this works - please. We know it's an unusual approach.
In fact, most of the cards have their own stories - sometimes it's the stories of the symbols used, sometimes there are stories about how we came to do these images. There is some strange stuff (like we discovered that the place where we set the Ten of Swords really was the site of a murder - and is still haunted by the remorseful man who killed his lover there centuries ago) and there is some fun stuff - like the day we found "Puss in Boots" hidden high up in the foliage on the facade of an Art Nouveau building. Anyway, it will all be in the book that is going with the deck - it also has pictures of some of the original symbols and statues and buildings that we've used, and background information about Prague's history- particularly the history of magic and myth here.
So, thanks again jmd, and I'll answer any questions as best I can.
btw - thanks also to those people here who have been giving us advice and criticism on the work in progress (you know who you are - huge thanks)
Karen
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| Mimers |
16 Apr 2003 |
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Karen,
Your deck is beautiful! I can't wait to see the whole thing!
Mimers
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| Aerin |
16 Apr 2003 |
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Karen - it's breathtaking :D and I can't wait to see the other cards. I love the way you have stories for each card!
Aerin
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| Astraea |
16 Apr 2003 |
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Karen, your deck is lovely and I will be among the first to purchase it when it's published!
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| baba-prague |
16 Apr 2003 |
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Astraea,
Just to say that the deck has many Rosicrucian and alchemical references - I love your tag-line.
Most people now think that Rosicrucianism was largely based on the philosphy of John Dee "Elizabeth's Merlin" , who of course was here in Prague for some years in the late 16th century practising as an alchemist (and in some ways, a magician, though he was very serious about his work and did not like to be described in this way). Prague is steeped in such things, and there is still a lot for me to learn. I've read all of Frances Yates now, but it's really only a start.
- also many, many thanks to everyone for this feedback. We are trying to get even a temporary site up so you can see some other cards soon.
Karen
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| Demonesse |
16 Apr 2003 |
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You should see her Wheel of Fortune! Gorgeous!
:D
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| baba-prague |
17 Apr 2003 |
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Thanks Demonesse and everyone!
Wheel of Fortune is not up on our temporary page but six of the other cards are - they are a bit bigger than the ones uploaded here, so you will get a better idea of the detail (actually, the detail will be much greater in print, but we just don't have a way of showing that).
It's at:
http://www.baba-prague.com/tarot/
Hope you like these cards too.
Karen
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The Baba-Prague's Tarot - in progress thread was originally posted on 16 Apr 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.
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