[darwinia]

If anyone has these I'd be interested in what you think of them. I couldn't find the whole deck online but here are some pictures of the original artwork:

http://www.diaristworkshop.com/cards.html

They could be construed as a tad on the feminine side, but I was thinking the words and phrases might spark you in some way creatively, not necessarily for straight written journals. The cards are big too, and I always like big cards, particularly for working with one at a time for inspiration and imaginative exercises.

It might make a nice little set for working with in some
way anyway, especially if you saw them on sale.

Inner Outings: The Diarist's Deck of 33 Cards and Book of
Exploration
by Charlene Geiss, Claudia Jessup
Paperback: 144 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.39 x 7.34 x 5.22
Publisher: New World Library; Book and Cards edition (September
2002)
ISBN: 1577312201

[yve]

If it speaks to you, and if it allows for personal exploration, it is worthwhile...I believe any deck, even a playing card deck, in the right hands can have value and be valid. It's in the skill of the reader.

[darwinia]

Originally posted by yve
If it speaks to you, and if it allows for personal exploration, it is worthwhile...I believe any deck, even a playing card deck, in the right hands can have value and be valid. It's in the skill of the reader.

True enough!

I was also thinking that pairing it with my Innovative Whack Pack might generate some interesting things too. I often like to use two decks together, or a deck and book, or a card with poetry or song lyrics.

There is something challenging and refreshing about mixing it all up. I remember fondly the poem I did using information about the heart chakra, a picture of the Ace of Wands from the Fey Tarot, and the lyrics to The Beer Barrel Polka.

[Imagemaker]

I have these and love the cards just to redirect my thinking in a writing piece. They're more than cards, they're mini-posters.

[Cerulean]

http://www.turtlearts.com/inspiration.html


Might be fun to develop a scrapbooking/collage & scribble doodle deck along your favorite themes. A handful of favorite postcards and your favorite oracle deck can help inspire 'words' or a magnetic poetry set for 'found words'.

Best wishes. Looks like fun.

Cerulean

[darwinia]

Oh Mari you are a baaaad influence on me!

I am still working in my little Hallowquest journal off and on and my husband bought me a huge 12 x 14 inch scrapbook a couple of months ago, in which I'm attempting to teach myself calligraphy as well as study tarot cards and do collage and watercolour.

I just printed out an art exercise today for printing photographs in black on Epson watercolour paper using your inkjet, and then overdrawing with pastels, which is appealing to me since I bought a little set of 30 half-stick Rembrandt pastels recently.

I've never seen that Tao Box before and having just purchased two decks and four I Ching books it might come in handy. (You live for this don't you Mari?)

I also like the look of The Perfect Calm deck. <g>

Very happy everybody dropped by......"mini posters' sounds very appealing.

Isn't it great we have these vivid choices? I was just checking the Innovative Whack Pack and he has a card that says to Move On and Charlene Geiss has a card called Moving On--neat parallel.

[Cerulean]

What I do look for in used bookstores and abebooks.com is dream books, journals and decks. While I first got the Naomi Epel idea deck because I loved her Writers Dreaming book, I found what works for me is to see what artists have done with dream decks and looking at the prompts and ideas in dream journals. But I thought you were interested in different idea decks for your creative work.

The beautiful 33 card deck is wonderful, I do agree. If you decide to create your own mini-word decks, gathering quotes from favorite poems in your creative journal and then sometimes just paging through and gathering words yield a lovely exercise.

You reminded me, I had meant to page through a favorite book and scribble down little words on natural papers with fibers and leaves in good pads or journals one can find in an art or stationary store. That would be a fun 'mini' deck.

I don't buy new writing books, fiction or dream dictionaries or dream cards, but I do buy used dream-based theme journals and decks because they go to that centered place within me that hopes for more than a pretty face in the art.

Something that might also help is just to check out postcards or snap your own pictures either in black or white or color. I record friend's events and that's there gift from me along with a thank you card. I usually find one or two images to duplicate for my image box or files...my sister and I trade postcards with a matte finish for fun.

Take care,

Mari H.

[darwinia]

Originally posted by Cerulean
I found what works for me is to see what artists have done with dream decks and looking at the prompts and ideas in dream journals. But I thought you were interested in different idea decks for your creative work.

Yes, up to a point, I've never bought one before other than the Innovative Whack Pack. I don't fancy collecting them like tarot cards. They seem to proliferate these days and until you mentioned them I never really thought about buying one. I saw another one called The Relax Deck which had interesting illustrative art, so I might buy the Perfect Calm one or that just for a nudge.

I dream frequently and vividly, but I keep them intact in my mind without analyzing them. For me, the literalness of trying to discern meaning in my dreams, destroys their beauty. I like the way the imagery of old dreams pops in my mind like a burst of colour, but I don't like to overthink it.

I find the way people work creatively, hugely interesting because we all have a slightly different approach.

Going through a book randomly and scribbling odd words down on fine papers sound great. It reminds me of circling words in an altered book and highlighting them within art on the page.

Postcards are interesting. You know the ATCs that abound these days? (Artist Trading Cards--many exhibited on the web) They are postcard size and that might make an interesting project, much like creating a deck.

One of the things I like about your ideas Mari is that you get them down in some concrete form from your hands to paper and then back to your mind--this is fascinating. I've done that with single pictures but the mini deck idea escaped my interest, perhaps because I thought it required extensive planning, which does not appeal to my intellect or imagination. That isn't really your approach though so I'll think about that.

I have no qualms about buying used decks but they don't turn up where I live. My tarot store owner was selling demo decks on chains with holes punched in the corners, but she rarely sells used decks

Single words are quite an impetus to creativity, which was what caught my imagination about the Inner Outings deck as well as her collage work and the size of the cards.


Too many ideas at 6 a.m.! Thanks.

[darwinia]

I just got my deck in the mail yesterday and those cards are BIG, which is what I like. They measure 5 x 7 inches (might be a millimeter short of 7)

They were quite expensive here in Canada ($40 CDN) and I regret spending that much on them for what they are. You can hunt them up cheaper online (which I recommend if you're interested) but I can't buy online.

It's beautifully packaged and the cards are gorgeous, if a bit simplistic. I was disappointed with the book initially, but after looking at it again I could probably do a lot with it. The one thing I did notice and like in the book was that after each chapter's discussion of a card she has a section called "Going Further" which highlights exercises and questions to further make you think about what you want to write. She has an interesting section on writing techniques you might use to freshen things up, including writing with your non-dominant hand--a practice used by Leonardo da Vinci and espoused in the book "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci," a book on creativity and enhancing your intellect which was kind of interesting. They're all interesting! Anyway, several of these techniques we all remember from English class, like changing the point of view from first person to third person; changing the style from funny to serious; timing your writing; writing poems instead of prose; listing things; writing a song or an advertisement; fitting the words into a geometrical shape etc.

Charlene Geiss likes to mix words and art in her journals which is my approach too, and one I find meditative, fun and fruitful. I find a strictly written journal similar to a web log--it's too easy to repeatedly fall into rant mode and pour out diatribes on the minutiae of life. I've seen the pattern in my own and other web logs so I think the world needs to be saved from the negativity of such happenstance. <g> I love random creative exercises, but is ranting about ephemeral political situations and what your Mom said to you on Tuesday really creative or a path to wasting more energy in a passive manner? It's that "armchair critic" thingy, which is maybe not the best showcase for writing skill or resolving problems.

So with something like these cards you get away from that and into writing with more meaning, depth and usefulness. You could pair them up with a tarot or oracle deck. I think many people here already do that with various decks, but for those who don't, you might like these cards as a springboard to something new to do with your cards and mix it up in a fresh way. You can add some artwork or clippings or photographs to the mix, which is what the author of this deck teaches in workshops, and also something many people here do.

The other thing I thought of based on Mari's comments about handmade mini decks and postcards, was creating a twin deck to go with this. For instance, I'm looking at one of the cards here and it has a collage of lovely papers with the inked message "Wish upon a star." That song starts going through my head, Jiminy Cricket. I'm afraid the simplicity of this card kind of bugs me, so I could cut a piece of watercolour paper 5 x 7 inches and tape it down on a masonite board and then discover what comes to mind with "wish upon a star." Make a twin that *does* say what you want, or contains what you want graphically, and then you can paste your own words or poem on the back printed out in calligraphy or with a nice font on the computer. Pulling a tarot card to augment this meaning and exploration would be neat too. I've done this lots of times with decks, it's such a joy to try and match up odd cards and write and draw with them using your own words or the words from others. I think that's why this deck appealed to me, I didn't really need it but I wanted it just to think about what I could do.

I notice on the card "three years from now. . ." she has an image of a calendar--the very 15th century calendar illustration that is painted above a picture of the castle of the Duc de Berry and reproduced in a history book I have. I scanned this image into my computer back in 2000 and used it in a digital image. That's one of the handsomest cards in the Inner Outings deck.

Yeah, there are a couple of really, really neat cards in here. All are pretty simple as collage goes, but pretty. Some deep tones, browns and muted greyed-out colours so they don't appear inherently feminine.

[Cerulean]

some of the tiny decks that I have....thanks for the update. The cards and exercises sound lovely.

Cerulean