Dame Darcy Mermaid ver. 3

gregory

I shall ask Little Red about the Etsy page. It isn't her fault if yours is sub par; you'd need to contact Dame Darcy on etsy. But I'd be a little surprised if she'd replace it, to be honest. It is a risk one takes with self published decks. My first edition was fine, too.
 

delinfrey

gregory, oops - sorry if I sounded like I'm criticising Little Red. I would never dare do so - she is wonderful and I have never had any bad experiences with her. In fact, I have ordered with her several times, and the packages always come very quickly and well packaged.

My irk is that the first editions DON'T seem so blurry, which makes me think whether the artist just quickly printed out some new cards to escape the infringement topic.

And - I have had the impression that artists who self-publish their decks are always MORE careful as to how the medium treats their art and pay a lot of attention to quality. This is the main reason why I purchase independent decks - they are of high quality and respect the art.

Cheap and pixelated printing of your own carefully crafted art shows a lot about a person, imho.
 

gregory

Infringement. Heigh ho. Look, I asked Lo Scarabeo at the time and they were fine with it all - so I wish people would stop with that. They said they were flattered :)

I meant that I doubted of Dame Darcy would replace it. But give it a try :)
 

Citrin

delinfrey:
Whoa that sounds bad. :eek: I have the first edition and I really like it! The cards are thick, kind of waxy, and in my humble opinion good quality. The only problem is that slight "warp", like the deck bends a little so to speak, but this isn't my only deck that does it...
 

delinfrey

I took some snaps on my work desk. The grain and noise is clearly visible (photos taken in artifical light with iphone)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0871.jpg
    IMG_0871.jpg
    132.6 KB · Views: 406
  • IMG_0872.jpg
    IMG_0872.jpg
    216.4 KB · Views: 387
  • IMG_0869.jpg
    IMG_0869.jpg
    114.6 KB · Views: 370
  • IMG_0874.jpg
    IMG_0874.jpg
    179.2 KB · Views: 355

magicjack

I do not have this deck and I'm always going back and forth on it but there are just too many negatives regarding her and her deck. I'm done with Dame Darcy.
 

lalalibra

I just bought a copy recently as well, ordered about 2 weeks ago...

At the time I bought it, there were two listings for the 3rd edition deck: one was a pre-order, the other wasn't. If you look at the etsy reviews, you'll notice these differences in the title. I bought the one that wasn't a pre-order and there were only two of them left in stock at the time that I purchased (judging from the drop down menu where you select the quantity).

Both listings said that issues with blurriness have been fixed, but the pre-order said something about the borders being more cleaned up (those aren't necessarily the exact words she used; I'm going off memory).

It appears that she just updated the listings for her deck and it doesn't say "pre-order" anymore (there's only one listing for the 3rd edition right now; the pre-order listing isn't available anymore, and the other non pre-order listing seems back in stock)... My guess is that there was another print run (the pre-order) and maybe she replenished her stock? I am really, really not sure though, so please take that as speculation rather than observation... But the fact that the pre-order listing had said something about the borders and the other didn't made me wonder if there were possible quality differences across the 3rd version decks/print-runs. Again, I didn't purchase the pre-order and on mine the borders are not perfect. So if there was indeed an updated run (with some change to this), I don't think that's what I got.

Are any cards particularly more grainy than others? As in, how does the image quality of the unchanged cards compare to the 21 updated cards where she changed the art? On mine, the updated cards are more crisp looking in comparison to the other cards that hadn't been changed (which are definitely way more fuzzy). Because of that, I assumed that this is the way it was meant to be and that this is just how the deck is up-close. Am I wrong? I am quite happy with my deck anyway because I presumed that this was normal. Maybe not!!

I still, however, adore the copy that I have. Although upon receiving it, I did think, "Hey, wait a second..." as I noticed the slight fuzziness across the unchanged cards. My heart nearly sank as I was afraid that maybe there was something wrong with my deck (thinking that perhaps I should have gotten the pre-order)... But as I fanned through the cards and held them in my hands, it started to bother me less and less. Call me crazy, but I started to fall in love with the messiness. At that moment, I felt the imperfections added to the charm, giving it a very magical homemade feel... also making the cards seem much older than they are. I love the slight sepia tone for that as well...

But if there is a quality issue that I'm not aware of, then that would be disappointing considering the higher price she's selling them for now. I don't have any other deck of hers to compare to. If I ever buy another 3rd edition in the future, maybe then I'll be able to say...
 

G6

Just stopping in to say not all artists are business people or printers for that matter, lol! My edition not sure if it was first or second? The borders were printed all wonky and that sort of thing bugs me. Her response though was valid which is that it's a handmade item it's not going to be manufactured perfect. Fair enough. I trimmed off the wonky borders. I like this deck a lot. I wish I had the updated cards in the third version. Honestly, I wish somebody would just pick this deck up and print/publish it better (not Llewellyn!).
 

Mittkait

I have the second edition of this deck. Honestly I don't notice a difference in printing from my copy and the newer copy. It was always a bit blurry and off center. It never really bothered me because I thought the artist was trying to mimic the old cartoon strip printing of newspapers in the past.

Despite all the controversy, I still like the deck and use it from time to time.
 

Retrobangs

I was really keen to get this deck - I love her art style and that alone seems to make it worth while having - I can even get past two of the cards missing the "s" off the end of cups and pentacles but I am gutted to see the grainy quality in pictures further up. I too would be ordering from Little Red Tarot as they are amazing - Beth is so0o0o helpful. However after seeing those pictures I'm not sure I fancy risking it. I don't mind it looking aged - I have the centennial rws for this very reason - but those pics still look blurred and pixelated.

I'd love to see some full card length pics but still close up from anyone who has the third. Obviously there are things I expect with indie decks/and don't expect it's just working out if I can get past it for this one. I love her take on the mermaids, like old tattoo's <3