Time Capsule: You’re Nothing But a Pack of Cards (Week 2)
A time capsule for me is about nostalgia, but when I became nostalgic about the items I selected for this project, I realized how important it was for me to reclaim my narrative and control the narrative.
That led me to a three-part plan for my vessel:
- A deck of 78 tarot cards that held significant pieces of my story
- A guidebook that not only provides context for the cards but also cross-references them with cards along the same vein.
- A box that served as the skin for both the deck and the guidebook.
This was the most labor-intensive project I think I’ve done so far, it’s also the first time I’ve used some new adhesives and some new settings on computer software.
In the end, it proved to be too much to construct all of these parts as a vessel, but I made enough headway that I think I can improve upon this over time.
The Original Idea
I’ve loved witchcraft since I was a child. I was obsessed with Halloweentown, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Bewitched.
I was never exposed to tarot cards until I bought my first deck in January 2019, and started teaching myself about the card meanings and their history.
For this project, they proved to be the perfect vehicle for correspondences outside of objects and material things. As I was curating my objects I realized that not only did I not want to put a bunch of these items together in a box, but I also wanted to include elements from my digital life.
The structure of tarot cards has been around for a while, and they actually weren’t designed with mysticism and divination in mind.
They were meant to play a game similar to bridge. More than that, they were also used to catalog the world in which people lived through art and imagery. There are cards with Christian iconography, and expensive cards commissioned by Italian families.
For that reason, they felt like the perfect vehicle to tell my story.
Moving Forward (or How Can This Come Together in a Week)
When I started to think about the most economical way to structure this project I knew that first and foremost, I had to decide on what my cards would look like.
After that, came the guidebook. This would provide a deeper meaning to what was on the cards and cross-reference different cards that were connected.
Last, but not least, was the box. I pictured both of these items in a carved wooden box that had elements of witchcraft but also melded it together with my name, where I was living, current roles, and a date.
The box, despite being left to last, is one of the most important elements in this project, because it’s the first impression.
With that set, I proceeded to start working on my deck.
Designing the Cards
Ideally, I would have liked to sketch each card, but since the idea was to capture 2020, I let myself yield to photographs for now.
Before I opened Adobe Illustrator, I started writing down associations. I had some keywords based on the major arcana and the four suits (wands, pentacles, cups, and swords) and made lists of whatever came to mind: an event, an object, a song, a fictional character.
Going into the design I knew one thing. I needed to be cast as The Fool.
This card is the first card in the Major Arcana, a series of cards that is sometimes interpreted as The Journey of the Fool. The idea is that a person on the path starts out innocent and naive and ends on the last card The World, which signifies completion. Since the narrative I was trying to convey was that of a person who had lost herself and was attempting to find herself.
From there, the cards could be just about anything as long as it tied into that journey.
As a result, I ended up with a mix of pop culture cards and personal cards. Some of which featured the objects from Week 1 and some that were completely new.
When I incorporated a song, I selected a couplet or two of lyrics that I felt evoked the energy of the card. Similarly, if I was looking at a pop culture reference, I chose a quote by the character.
Some of the cards were a challenge to place. I had a hard time coming up with a depiction for The World because in so many ways the story I am writing doesn’t feel finished, but what I opted to depict was what would make it feel finished.
Similarly, The Hanged Man was a hard card to place about accepting responsibility. I ended up leaning on pop culture for that one and going with Missy.
The suit of swords also proved interesting providing a space for cultural context including an appearance by COVID-19. (Hey, this whole project is about context right?)
How Do You Design a Card Deck?
I knew that with a week I had to move somewhat quickly, so I began working on deck production from two angles: the first was the design of the cards, and the second was fabricating and prototyping.
To fabricate the deck I headed to YouTube to get answers to the following questions:
- Paper stock: was my copy paper heavy enough? Would cardstock I might find in a story work?
- Glue or Print? How were the backs and fronts of cards attached?
- Anything else I should take into consideration about the design of the cards.
I came across several videos that framed the subject in different ways. The first was Pretty Fabulous Designs. I took her advice about the rounded corners and used the 3.5" by 5" schematic for the cards. However, while the video was about DIY tarot cards, it was pretty clear that the cards she was talking about were meant to be massed produced.
So I started looking for artists who were creating their own handmade oracle or tarot decks to see what their process was like. A few that stuck out:
- Boho Tarot: Her homemade oracle has a very interesting style to her oracle deck and gave me some food for thought for how I might move forward with some of the skills I learned to make a deck that feels a little warmer. I also liked her use of contact paper to seal her cards.
- Molly Roberts: She talks about how to create an oracle deck that is unique to you, from the perspective of using it to deepen your divination practice.
Ultimately, Justin Michael’s tutorial on how he printed a tarot deck using some public domain images was what I ended up going with regarding how I would ultimately affix the cards together.
With that in mind, I made a trip to Michael’s for Krylon Low-Odor Spray Glue, and colorful cardstock while I continued to work on the deck design.
Fabricating the Cards
When I had enough cards, I printed out a few pages on vellum cardstock that I bought from Staples.
I went out into my garage on a cold morning and set up a piece of wood with plastic wrap, and proceeded to spray them with UV-Resistant Gloss Coating to set the printer ink.
Then I attempted to attach the printed cards to an 8.5" by 11" piece of seafoam cardstock. This is where the spray adhesive came in and this is where my day got interesting.
And here is where the spray glue made things interesting.
I uncapped and followed the instructions on the Krylon Low-Order Spray Glue, expecting a white mist to come out and coat both sheets of paper. What I got instead was a white foam somewhere between the consistency of shaving cream with the lightness of whipped cream.
I assumed this was normal and proceeded to go follow the appropriate wait times, but something was really nagging me about it, so I decided to look online for answers.
Come to find out it is in fact, not normal for spray glue to emerge from being under pressure as a foam. I have no idea what is happening there, although I did find a response to a question on Krylon’s site with what I originally first read as “Hell no!”
The good news is that the glue did seem to be forming bonds with paper so I proceeded to use it for the project and then make a note to email Krylon this week.
So, while the glue remains a mystery, I proceeded to work on my cards.
After letting the cards sit overnight I started cutting them out with a pair of sharp scissors and found the rounded corners tricky, but overall, I have been very happy with the size and weight of my cards.
Onto the Guidebook
While this isn’t a mass-produced tarot deck, I am producing it with the intention that someone in the future is going to look at it, so it made sense to include a guidebook.
Writing anecdotes about 78 cards proved taxing, especially when some of the events I was depicting were very emotional. For the prototype, I settled on just the Major Arcana for the guidebook with the intent of adding additional books by suits or printing something larger in the future.
This is where I went down the second YouTube rabbit hole of the project: bookmaking!
I didn’t end up able to use a lot of the knowledge I gained but one source that proved very useful in terms of how to bind a book and what glue and stock to select was Sea Lemon who has done a lot of bookbinding tutorials.
Between those videos and some exposure, I’d had to the craft in the past when I was at a writing retreat a couple of years ago I felt confident that I could produce my own book with a simple beginning stitch.
That’s what I set out to do and began laying out the pages in InDesign.
I kept the layout simple in the interests of time because what I was really interested in was the Print Booklet command. This command allows you to print a book depending on how you’ll bind it. Since I was hoping to use Saddle Stitch that’s what I set the preferences to.
And then my printer decided to get in on the fun.
At first, it decided that it would print the pages in portrait mode. (That one was on me, I should have checked the setup menu.)
Then it decided I clearly wanted this book to be printed double-sided. This would have been fine, except that the way my computer prints things double-side resulted in every other page spread being upside down.
When I noticed this I started further tinkering with the settings and was eventually able to turn double-sided off. But then I had a book that I had to layout in a certain order so I could properly saddle stitch it together.
I had to place the right sides facing each layout so that the pages faced the right way and were in sequence. This left me with blanks in between pages with content.
So, you guessed it, the malfunctioning spray glue came out to play again.
After finding the correct order for the book, I glued corresponding pages together and then set them under a heavy book to rest.
The good about the spray glue I used is that it is actually very effective in forming a bond, and if placed under heavy objects, usually dries flat.
That, however, is not the case with copy paper, this guidebook is really warped and wrinkled.
The next steps for these pages are to trim them down to 10" by 7" and then use a bookbinding kit that I purchased for $6 off Amazon to create some holes and thread a binding through.
Now to Contain the Vessels Within a Vessel
I didn’t get to prototype the box that will ultimately contain the guidebook(s) and cards for the simple reason of fit.
I knew from the outset that the book and the cards would need to be compatible with each other to fit nicely into a box, and I knew that there would probably be something else in the box.
This led to a split box design with an empty space that I imagine would be for a protection charm or something to keep the contents safe.
What stopped me from executing this was that I didn’t have all the information I needed to accurately estimate the height of the box.
I purposefully designed mt cards and guidebook to have a side that was the same length. The cards are 5" tall and my book is 5" wide, so they could nest well. But between paper and the cards, it’s a bit of a gamble as to how tall this box should ultimately be.
While I could effectively model the top and the bottom the two sides would remain a mystery until a complete guidebook and a completed tarot deck were finished.
Since this was the first impression someone would have of my time capsule, I wanted it to evoke me and my sense of humor as well as have a bit of a leaning to the occult associations with tarot cards.
I imagined the box would have engravings of a moon and stars on top and the bottom would have a sarcastic “you’re holding it wrong!” comment. The sides would be outfitted with quotes, the date, my name, where I’m living, and maybe my astrological sign(s).
I also included the quote from Alice in Wonderland where she says to the Queen’s deck of cards, “You’re nothing but a pack of cards,” to amp up the humor.
I do fully intend to create this box, but I know the guidebook has to be my first priority. Once I get there, I look forward to actually seeing all the parts of this together.
Things I Learned
- Spray glue should not look like shaving cream
- Copy paper and spray adhesive don’t mix (might amend this lesson got to get some non-malfunctioning spray adhesive)
- Dependent parts take a lot of logistical calculations
- The printer I bought earlier this year was a good investment and does actually work.
Improvements I Wish to Make
- The layout of the guidebook leaves something to be desired. I would like to spend more time creating a template and laying out the book. Concurrently, I also need better paper, and preferably a way of printing that doesn’t require glue.
- The font I chose for the small text on my tarot cards is very faint. Would probably pick a bold font next time, and I’m honestly thinking of changing the overall look of the cards to a white background with black text and more of a box model.
- I think I prefer art to photography on tarot cards, and I want to push the cards that I don’t feel I have a good match for photography wise with some art or digital collage to be a little more aspirational.
I am not where I wanted to be with this prototype this week, but overall I am happy with what I’ve done so far and I look forward to iterating on a card deck design.
