Hello!

[sawasta]

I'm an artist and still somewhat new to the tarot community as a whole. I've been involved with tarot for about two years now and love it so much, I've actually started designing my own deck. I want to try to make some more friends in the community and branch out from my little bubble! It's nice to meet you :)

[sawasta]

Anyone have advice for someone making their own deck for the first time?

 

[DanielJUK]

Welcome @sawasta to our community 🙂 glad you have found us!

 

Congrats on starting your designing your own deck journey I know you have found the card printer info thread but I just wanted to point you over to the Deck Creator section of the forum because it's really the best place to post for your enquires. Key areas there that might help you, post any questions or requests for advice in the Deck Creators Chat section there and also some people start threads in the Deck Creations area to show their new cards as they make them and to update us on their creation process. Finally if you finish the deck, you are welcome to promote it with links in our Self-Promotional Section here. You need to have 5 posts before posting there and also at 5 posts you can include it in a signature on your posts. Hopefully this can all be useful in your creation process and also make new friends around here 🙂

[joy]

Hello @sawastawelcome to the TT&M Family

[katrinka]

16 hours ago, sawasta said:

Anyone have advice for someone making their own deck for the first time?

 

 

Hello and welcome. 🙂
The main thing is a good, deep, solid understanding of the cards. And to be perfectly blunt, the best ones were done by people who have been reading much longer than two years and have a comprehensive knowledge of the cards. That doesn't mean that you won't be successful - I've seen decks by people who don't even read at all sell a lot. When people like the art, they buy. But such decks are a lot less usable, IME.

Of course, if it's for your personal use, the above doesn't apply. 😉

[sawasta]

23 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

Hello and welcome. 🙂
The main thing is a good, deep, solid understanding of the cards. And to be perfectly blunt, the best ones were done by people who have been reading much longer than two years and have a comprehensive knowledge of the cards. That doesn't mean that you won't be successful - I've seen decks by people who don't even read at all sell a lot. When people like the art, they buy. But such decks are a lot less usable, IME.

Of course, if it's for your personal use, the above doesn't apply. 😉

Thank you for the advice! I've been doing a lot of research for each individual card as I go, mainly from the rider waite deck and forums, plus my personal decks and their guides. It's been a really great project to build a deeper understanding of the cards honestly, so I definitely understand what you mean. I'm hoping the deck does come across as usable, but either way it is still an art deck 🙂

[sawasta]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:50 PM, DanielJUK said:

Welcome @sawasta to our community 🙂 glad you have found us!

 

Congrats on starting your designing your own deck journey I know you have found the card printer info thread but I just wanted to point you over to the Deck Creator section of the forum because it's really the best place to post for your enquires. Key areas there that might help you, post any questions or requests for advice in the Deck Creators Chat section there and also some people start threads in the Deck Creations area to show their new cards as they make them and to update us on their creation process. Finally if you finish the deck, you are welcome to promote it with links in our Self-Promotional Section here. You need to have 5 posts before posting there and also at 5 posts you can include it in a signature on your posts. Hopefully this can all be useful in your creation process and also make new friends around here 🙂

thank you! I'll definitely do that

[gregory]

1 hour ago, sawasta said:

Thank you for the advice! I've been doing a lot of research for each individual card as I go, mainly from the rider waite deck and forums, plus my personal decks and their guides. It's been a really great project to build a deeper understanding of the cards honestly, so I definitely understand what you mean. I'm hoping the deck does come across as usable, but either way it is still an art deck 🙂

 

While I do agree with katrinka, I have to say that when I made my own it was to achieve exactly that - a better understanding of each card. I think it worked. It felt like it worked... I never EVER intended it to go public.

[katrinka]

3 hours ago, gregory said:

 

While I do agree with katrinka, I have to say that when I made my own it was to achieve exactly that - a better understanding of each card. I think it worked. It felt like it worked... I never EVER intended it to go public.

 

On 9/3/2021 at 10:32 AM, katrinka said:

Of course, if it's for your personal use, the above doesn't apply. 😉

 

A personal deck is a completely different ball of wax. 🙂

[gregory]

Yeah - but mine went public after I was harassed by tarotista friends who saw it. I decided I was fed up wit the phone calls and that would put a stop to them - which it actually did.

 

sorry.

[katrinka]

"Spiritual" people can be horrible, I agree.

I had a long explanatory post typed out for the OP but the forum softwre went temporoarily insane and I lost it. Will rewrite in the morning after work - and contact tech help as well!

[katrinka]

On 9/4/2021 at 9:55 AM, sawasta said:

Thank you for the advice! I've been doing a lot of research for each individual card as I go, mainly from the rider waite deck and forums, plus my personal decks and their guides. It's been a really great project to build a deeper understanding of the cards honestly, so I definitely understand what you mean. I'm hoping the deck does come across as usable, but either way it is still an art deck 🙂

 

OK, I'm going to try to clarify. Please don't take this wrongly, I'm not saying it to be discouraging. It's a problem I'm seeing a LOT.
Research, at least the way that people seem to be doing it, kind of IS the problem. I see things repeated endlessly across the internet and it even makes its way into both books and guidebooks, but it isn't correct - it's people repeating other peoples' mistakes. We were talking about a little of it here:
 

 

The big trick is to check the source material. The Pictorial Key To The Tarot is VITAL for RWS. I know, it's boring and Waite's writing is pompous and he was probably no fun at parties. People don't like it, they prefer fun, chatty books. But it has the intended meanings. I'd advise always checking RWS literature to see if it aligns with the PKT. Don't just take the word of some lady with a big website without doing that - you could end up drawing the 8 of Pentacles guy as an apprentice. 😉

Things by other people who were in the GD are helpful as well: Book T, Crowley's Book of Thoth, etc. Not all of those meanings will match perfectly - Waite shifted the focus of some of the cards - but it will give you a good idea of where the cards are coming from.
 

Edited September 5, 2021 by katrinka

[Sar]

Welcome, hope you will enjoy it here with us.

[sawasta]

14 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

OK, I'm going to try to clarify. Please don't take this wrongly, I'm not saying it to be discouraging. It's a problem I'm seeing a LOT.
Research, at least the way that people seem to be doing it, kind of IS the problem. I see things repeated endlessly across the internet and it even makes its way into both books and guidebooks, but it isn't correct - it's people repeating other peoples' mistakes. We were talking about a little of it here:
 

 

The big trick is to check the source material. The Pictorial Key To The Tarot is VITAL for RWS. I know, it's boring and Waite's writing is pompous and he was probably no fun at parties. People don't like it, they prefer fun, chatty books. But it has the intended meanings. I'd advise always checking RWS literature to see if it aligns with the PKT. Don't just take the word of some lady with a big website without doing that - you could end up drawing the 8 of Pentacles guy as an apprentice. 😉

Things by other people who were in the GD are helpful as well: Book T, Crowley's Book of Thoth, etc. Not all of those meanings will match perfectly - Waite shifted the focus of some of the cards - but it will give you a good idea of where the cards are coming from.
 

Thank you! I appreciate the source suggestion, that will be really helpful, and I'll take a look at that forum page too!