The Crystal Tarot is such a beautiful deck. It has an aesthetic which is modelled on the Liberty fabric aesthetic, with a touch of Gustav Klimt, lots of florid surface detail. I have quite traditional tastes in tarot (but feel that changing...) and I find this tarot one of the most beautiful of recent (1995; maybe not so recent!) years. The idea is to duplicate the effects of stained glass, but as a deck I find it so absorbing, it really pulls you in, and despite all the surface detail, I don´t find it at all overly "busy". It has non-scenic pips, which doesnt bother me particularly, but might dissuade some...
However (here comes the but...) I just wish it was published in a larger edition. If it were Thoth-size and without borders it would be such a wonderfully rich and sensuous deck to use. I have it but havent used it yet, though I frequently get it out and pore over the colours. Its published by Lo Scarabeo, and hence has all those subtitles, which clutters things up somewhat. This is a deck I often think of trimming down, but even if I did, it would be a kind of mini-deck as the cards aren´t so big.
Well worth looking closely at. Quite Kaleidoscopic...
