How do people feel about altering cards?

tarotbear said:

Maybe you just don't like uncut men?

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No, it's the shape of that particular uncut man that bothers me. It's a banana, not a penis. I don't mind nudity in the least. Including the World Spriit 10 of Pentacles, because I don't think nudity and children are incompatible with each other.

I agree with you completely Helvetica - that is definitely a banana, and I cannot see that card without that thought taking preference and it is very offputting. I cannot think of any other nudity on cards which bothers me in the slightest.

Boccachio's Decameron is a bawdy bunch of rowdy stories about sex involving monks, nuns, knights on horseback, and peasants ... sometimes all at the same time. The deck, of course, has a lot of people having sex in it. However, the two illustrations (which I removed from my post, as rquested) were of sexual mutilation, and one moved in the direction of kiddie porn. These cards were deliberately redesigned or they would not have been allowed to be sold in the USA.

Nudity (even female nudity) doesn't bother me [in a Tarot deck] in the least; sensuality between loving couples is O.K., too. But cards that depict hardcore rape, pornography, pornography with children, or severe acts of sexual degradation just don't belong in a Tarot deck.

If it is your deck do what you want to. It is your business at that point.

Bridget said:

Your image looks really good, Fulgour; it took me a second to figure out what was missing. I take it you find the HP as Waite designed it too heavy on the Judeo-Christian symbolism?

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Hi Bridget! Thanks! It's not so much the symbolism
but to me the fact that it was added after the card
was originally drawn... check the B+J against Smith's
other lettering, and you can see it was dabbed on by
some flunky, probably paid a quid by a dithering AEW.

And the lines of the blouse don't conform to the cross
that was added... and who ever said that's the TORA
she is reading? I mean, c'mon! The HP "speaks" clearly
enough all by herself...why not put INRI on card 5!

I once tried to recolour the whole Grimaud TdM using Paintshop Pro. It's relatively easy to do, but I just didn't have the time to do it.

You could probably do this with any deck, ideally one with 'flat' colours. I've thought about doing this with the RWS, but have never got around to doing it.

Couldn't resist bumping that one up...

To answer the question: do as thou wilt.
Your cards, your creativity.

ISSUES TO CONSIDER BEFORE starting to alter cards

PRACTICAL ISSUES
- consider buying a backup copy if you wish, though altering a deck in the first place probably means that you are not fully happy with the original one... then why buy it again ? (my two cents: maybe the money would be better used on some quality tools, see next point)
- get the right tools, think a little bit of what you would like to do: trimming, rounding corners, painting metallic accents, adding stickers/colors, hiding numbers/keywords, adding keywords.
Check/download free fonts, print out if necessary (or have the computer nearby to check online if needed). Calligraphy books are also a valuable source.

OTHER ISSUES
- except if you are a fantastic artist with a hand that never shakes , stick to altering mass-market cards.
- accept the fact that you will probably not want to use that "new" deck for public readings if you are not completely comfy with displaying your masterpiece ;-)
- altering a full deck is time consuming. You will need some nice free time. A long interruption between altering sessions might just put an end to your project, you'll lose the inspiration, get annoyed/ashamed at your lack of artistic talent, regret "ruining" a deck etc.


FINAL ADVICE (the one that really worked for me)
The fun of altering cards lies in the process, the whole "craft" thing.
Try not to give too much thought to the final result and just get inspired card by card, HAVE FUN. Surrender to the creative flow (can I sound more new age guru????) and have a blast


OH and that DARN "Matter of GUILT AFTERWARD" issue...

There you sit in front of that deck you altered, tiny pieces of all kind of more or less expensive material scattered around the table, multiple tools, your fingers black, glued and maybe hurting, your eyes sore.
And the result is plain terrible. Horrible. Ugly.
It sucks.
And the cards cannot be "saved" anymore.

You feel guilty for wasting a perfectly fine deck that you could have sold/traded instead (it's not like you are Rockfeller, you could use the money...) and you feel guilty about wasting your time while there is a pile of dirty laundry eyeing ironically on you in the bathroom (is it *waving* at me right now???!!!).
You feel stupid because you thought you would be better, that the cards would look so much better but your artistic skills are definitely not what you thought. You overestimated yourself big time, you silly cow! You should have known better. Hell you always sucked at arts class ANYWAY. What went into you????
You are a bit sad, discouraged and disappointed as well :-(

"Whatever. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." (S. Becket) (it always makes a good impression to quote a Nobel prize, especially as he was so darn right).

- Think of all the crap we buy all year long, a deck of cards is probably NOT what will drag your household to bankruptcy. If you hate it, give your masterpiece to the kids to play with or throw it away (as cardboard???).
Cut the cards, use the bits for greeting cards, decorating a journal etc. (Note to Moms: Kids are naturally practical, efficient and enthusiastic "failed artwork" recycling devices)
- Give yourself a pad on the shoulder, many people do not even DARE to think of altering anything.
- So what, you were immersed in your own creativity, you lost track of time, fully tuned to your inner voice and you brought it out to the world. Yes you did (now stop arguing, this post is getting way too long already). You brought your own voice out, maybe not as skillfully as you would have wanted to but let's face it, we are not all Van Gogh (counting my ears, yep, still 2) and anyway, the concept of beauty is very objective.
- Maybe altered cards are like your own kids: sometimes you are the only one to see the beauty in them ;-)

Now get out of here and go to play!!!!

This is great! I have been thinking about colouring my Ironwing forever! I even bought the right kind of pens to do it, and this is inspirational. Doing something 78 times is always daunting, even something as simple as trimming a deck or doing the 'pull it across a table edge' thing (which I did with my new Gaian and it took forever).

I also think it's important to remember that most decks will go out of print in time so if you're interested in having an out-of-print deck for sale or trade at a later date, get two if you want to alter one.

Or buy three, if you use one a lot that you've altered and you want a backup for that one. You can alter two and have one pristine one to trade or sell when it goes out of print.

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. For example, I have the Robin Wood deck which I really like, but was never able to read with or really connect with. I figured out eventually that it was because there were too many blondes in the deck. No offense to blondes, but 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've never done it, just because I am no artist and I know it would mess up the cards if I tried.

But personally I am a firm believer that your cards are your tool to do what you want with. There are no rules as far as I am concerned. If you get more from a deck by doing something, then by all means do it. Ultimately we are there to do the best readings we can. Whatever helps, go for it.

Again I am no artist, but IF I had a deck out I wouldn't mind in the least if someone changed the hair colour if it helped them read better. Or if they wanted to personalize it. We're all naturally different with different past life experiences. One colour may not suit all. I don't think I'd feel dishonoured anyway. To me the main purpose of a deck is to read with not just to be pretty (although it should serve both purposes). And I'd prefer somone alter a deck I had drawn than continue to use a deck that did not work as well for them as they could. I think that is how I would feel anyway.

Babs