I’m designing a deck of Appalachian themed divination cards for Wyrd Mountain Gals. I’ve thought about it for a while and made a list of images that might work. It’s a 24 card deck of four suits. The images are familiar ones and I’m already thinking of how to interpret them. There will be a booklet to go with the deck, too.
Today I dug out my sketchpad and got out some of my favorite sketching pencils–they’re never far away because I also like to write with them. I sharpened them with a little silver sharpener that is super sharp, as the pencils are now.
I started by sketching some things on the table–a glass, a spoon and a crumpled up piece of paper. Then I played around with one of the botanical images–a fruiting ginseng plant. Didn’t draw it from memory exactly–I pulled up some pictures of the leaves on the Internet. It’s…not bad.
I used to draw and doodle all the time when I was in school but I don’t do it so much anymore. I did a series of sheela-na-gigs as gifts several years back. After that I really enjoyed drawing animals that I love–fox, cougar, pony, hare. Those went away as gifts, too.
This will be a challenge for me–not just the designing but the execution. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can do something memorable. It isn’t a tarot deck and it isn’t a standard playing card deck–whew! Twenty-four cards and then a design for the back.