Do you remember when I first posted about creating this deck?
Probably not... It was that long ago and because I'm actually a bit shite at blog posting on a regular basis, most of you probably even forgot I had a blog!
But here we are! And here is the prototype for the Mandala Sigil Magick deck! After years of drawing up the designs, and running into constant hurdles with direction, how to do the backgrounds, how I was going to get it printed and what kind of packaging I would do, things finally started falling into place towards the end of last year. Once I got my iPad, I began to transfer my designs into Procreate and edited them on my own computer in Photoshop. I still ran into the problem of what kind of backgrounds the images should have. But even after I tried many different options, I finally decided to just keep them basic. I then tried to determine how I would go about printing the deck. I was absolutely adamant that I wanted to be as hands on and diy with my deck as possible. I would design the deck myself, I would print the deck myself, I would cut all the cards myself and I would create the packaging for the decks myself. This was a task I was 100% happy to take on, but when I actually started to think about the cost of a new printer that would be able to withstand however many sheets of 350+gsm cardstock going through it, all the ink to print the cards, and THEN the time it would take to actually cut all the cards and round the corners with a corner cutter. Then organise them into decks, then organise the packaging... Not only was this going to cost me an absolute fortune, but it was also going to take an incredibly long time as far as manual labour goes. I did not have all the cash to buy a new kickass printer, and even if I did, thanks to global pandemics, none of the printers I wanted were available. So it seemed, after so many hurdles, I was going to be faced with a few more. And I was ok with that. I knew the deck would be finished when the time was right.
Then one night, a friend messaged me with the suggestion of getting it printed through a local printing company. I had never really considered getting them printed professionally. I just thought it would be too expensive. She and her husband did some rough math on costs through the printers and I realised that getting them professionally printed was going to cost me a heck of a lot less than buying a whole new printer, ink and packaging AND was going to take a lot less time! The decks would be printed, cut and collated and packaged and I just had to sit back and wait! And just like that, it all started to fall into place.
I ordered a sample deck of cardstock through the printer and after I decided on the cardstock and finish on the cards, I uploaded my designs and ordered a sample of the actual deck. I decided to add a coloured backing to the cards as well. Something that I wouldn't have been able to do successfully, had I decided to print it all on my own. And this is it! I am SO happy with the quality and I can't wait for you all to see it for yourselves!
And as I was planning on how many decks to get printed, I decided I would do a Limited Edition card addition. So a limited number of decks will get a special coloured card included in their deck. All I have to do now is wait for the decks to be printed and sent!
I still wanted to keep a handmade element to the deck, so the packaging will not be your glossy box and guidebook. That will be revealed shortly in another post. But in the meantime, I hope you are all as excited as I am to finally see this deck coming into fruition. I am hoping that the deck will be ready for release in February 2021 and will be available through my Etsy store.
Watch this space!
Comments