Cards: Playing, Tarot and Greeting

Playing Cards have always fascinated me. They have a long and interesting history, which I am not going to detail here, but if you are interested here is a resource. The development and evolution of the imagery used on playing cards is another interesting topic. Early playing cards often depicted images of animals, plants, birds and flowers. This clearly shows how humans are drawn to some universal imagery used not only on cards, but other forms of expression including photography, arts, crafts and even home decor.

Playing cards also proved to have other uses, due in part to their size and their relative cost when other paper sources were more expensive. In past times when a mother was left with little choice during difficult times she would sometimes abandon her baby outside a church or orphanage. Some babies were left with a playing card which might include their name and sometimes a few basic details like date of birth. It is believed that when the card was torn in half that would signify the mothers’ intention to return and collect her baby by matching up the torn cards when times improved for her. A romantic yet very tragic notion of a reunited family. I think this took place in European countries more than elsewhere. Playing cards were also used to help stiffen and reinforce covers of books in past times and this appears to be one the main reasons that many older examples of playing cards and their designs have survived. Everyone also knows how they have enhanced the magicians’ repertoire.

Playing cards are not without their controversy. There are numerous songs written and performed which include dire warnings about playing cards in churches, on Sundays, with the Devil or just playing certain card games in general. Even handling playing cards are considered by some to be dangerous, a belief which has been handed down through the ages. Then of course there are certain cards or suits which have acquired their own symbolism or meanings like the Ace of Spades (listen to Motorhead’s song about that one if you want to know more). Playing cards were also sometimes referred to as “The Devil's Bible or the The Devil's Picture Book”.

Tarot cards are thought to have derived from playing cards. They were originally intended to be used to play another type of card game, but they evolved and soon become embroiled with mysticism and fortune telling. This has led to a very jaded history. However, Tarot cards like playing cards have a wonderful history of how the imagery developed and there are some decks which have exquisite art depicted on them.

That brings me to one of my other passions. Greeting cards. They also have a long and varied history, but slightly less jaded than that of playing or Tarot Cards. Supposedly they date back to the ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures and their popularity has grown.

Greeting cards express so much about humanity. Our need to communicate, reach out to people in time of need. Sending wishes to people when they are ill, as condolences, for birthdays, anniversaries or other special events. Recently there has been a surge in sending cards just to stay in touch or share a sentiment with someone. Then of course there is the explosion of e-card sites. I love some of the funny interactive ones.

However, as I have said before I love paper. I love the tactile feel of it. I love its’ relative permanence. I love that is can be manipulated and enhanced. I love that you can use it to create and record memories and visions of life. I do love the resurgence in hand made crafting of greeting cards and I am well pleased that the web has provided crafters and artists a resource to share their creations. It is inspiring and pleasing to see so much beautiful handiwork.

I don’t send many greeting cards personally, but I do create a few. Mostly I send them in parcels to my Mom and sister (Judith), who either use them for scrapbooking or to send to family and friends. Judith has sold a few in aid of charity at her school for various fund raising and has told me that she has a raised a few pennies to go to their various causes. I am including a few examples of recent cards I have made.

Miniatures

Have you ever noticed how time seems to whizz by as you get older? I wonder what Einstein would have to say about that. I am sure his theories will probably shed some light. Maybe I should do some research on it one day. It seems though that the older you get the more time speeds up. If you live a fairly modern capitalist lifestyle in the 21st century you pretty much know the routine. You spend way too many hours at work (notice how mostly overtime payments don’t exist in companies these days?), or you spend hours looking for a job. You take care of the family and do the run around: shopping, cleaning, cooking, organising and try to find some time for socialising. Mostly you get left with very little time for yourself. What do I mean about time for oneself? Well time when you get to relax, pursue hobbies and interests that appeal to you. Time to be alone, contemplate, think, pause and wonder at life and the world. The “de-stressors” of modern life. You have to work at making this time.

Now if you are like me then you probably would love to be paid for your hobby. Very few of us are that lucky. You have to be really good at your hobby to get paid well enough from it to make a decent living and then you have to be prepared to compromise so that it is marketable. I would like to be paid to read! Here is the catch though. I don’t want to read what is prescribed to me, I want to choose. I don’t want to edit it or critique it. I don’t want deadlines or pressures around reading. So there is the rub. No-one is going to pay you to read and then do nothing with it. It is solely and totally for your own enjoyment. It is completely selfish. It is pure pleasure. There are few pure pleasures in life that you can pursue without some strings attached. There is always a cost. So I will rather continue paying the cost of books than loose my freedom of choice. Yes I still love the printed media versions rather than the new digital versions. There is a romance about paper that is not replicated in the digital world. There is also a permanence that comes with printed books and to have a copy of beautiful artworks and images to look at and inspect on paper is a real pleasure that cannot be replicated on digital media (yet!).

In those moments when you want to contemplate and wonder at the world you also sometimes want to feel that you are in control. There is no real control. You merely find spaces and times where you feel more at peace with the out of control nature of life. It is in that space and time that I escape when I want to de-stress. For me that includes arts and crafts. One of my interests involves miniatures. I have a Dolls House, but as my home is a continuous state of being renovated there is no space for it. It currently lives safely boxed up in the loft. There are moments when I have sheer panic about what state it will be in when I am finally able to bring it out and play with it. Build it, decorate it, furnish it & alter it. It will be an on-going “Altered Art” project.
I do however have other projects to keep me busy. One of them that took my fancy was to create some miniature dance skirts.

Now the thing to know is that I cannot sew. In fact I am not really great at most domestic skills. I am probably pretty good at cleaning as it is pretty basic and doesn’t involve much skill. I still hate it though. I do it when I have to. I don’t know if that means I am lazy, but actually I am easily distracted from the household tasks. One minute I can be doing the dishes or washing and then I suddenly have a thought about something I want to try, like painting, card making or a planting scheme for my garden I want to research or try out. Even without the aforementioned sewing skills I still had this urge to create these skirts and they were burning in my mind. I had to get them created. In fact I am pretty pleased with how they turned out, so here they are.