ABOUT US
With every project we work on, we always ask ourselves "is it the kind of deck we ourselves would be interested in?" We feel it's important because you want to feel good about the final product, especially if or when a project doesn't do as well as you thought it would, in terms of sales. If there is not much monetary reward, you still want to be left with something that you personally are proud of, even if it's potential wasn't realized.
We created the Twisted Tarot Tales during a particularly difficult time for us because we were artists who actually didn't know anything about selling art. We didn't know how to promote our products (and I suppose I still don't!) and the sad reality is that you need funds to be able to publish your work. Yet, it wasn't all bad, and in fact these were some of our happier memories. We had great supporters and it was with their support that we managed to get where we are today.
From our humble beginnings, we've come a long way in creating the decks of cards we're now known for. It has been a long, tough, yet wonderful journey to get to where we are today, but we're thankful for the challenges that we've faced. It has encouraged us to always keep striving to create even better decks than we've created previously.
We've been creating decks for more than a decade now, and we've finally come into our own, but it wasn't always that way! We started out with controversial decks, including gory, horror themed cards like Twisted Tarot Tales, but then made our way into whimsical decks like the Kiddy Katz Tarot and Spooky Cats Tarot, each being attempts to land on something that would really resonate with our customers and supporters.
It wasn't until the next year when Christine created the Winter Waite Tarot, released in December 2018, that we started to make a little more money; so it was roughly four years before we “got on our feet” so to speak. Ask any artist, and you'll quickly see that making money is not the ultimate goal, yet to survive as a full time artist, you must make money; you have no other choice. With Winter Waite, we were starting to see that it had potential to do just that.
It was around this time that we began to produce work under the name Tarot Collectibles. We put a lot of care into our illustrations, taking pride in our decks with the hope it would easily be seen in the quality of the artwork and design concepts of our cards.
At this point we were on a roll and created the Groovy Waite, taking what we felt worked in the Trippin' Waite and going further with it.
Keeping with the determination to always create better decks and eager to outdo ourselves, we began experimenting with neon inks, UV reactive inks, along with even more psychedelic artwork resulting in the Black Light Tarot. This was a big achievement for us. We were probably not the first to create a UV reactive deck, it's really hard to say, but I think we were the first to create a UV deck with neon colors. We had a total of seven neon colors in our deck, which we've never seen done before by anyone else.
With the exception of Simply Deep, published by Schiffer years before Tarot Collectibles, we still to this day self publish all of our own work. This was especially important to us in our early projects because it allowed us to create the kind of decks we wanted to without any other editorial input. For the Twisted Tarot Tales and the Dead Waite (zombie tarot), it was important to allow the horror to really stand out and I think it worked.
The Winter Waite Tarot was followed up with The Trippin' Waite, another great seller, allowing us to pay rent, buy groceries and generally live without too much fear. Of course, in the back of our minds we knew that at any moment, this could all disappear; there are no guarantees in the world of the self employed.
We subsequently created the Psychedelic Space Tarot and the Neon Pam, all with fully UV reactive neon inks. It was a really big deal to us at the time, and we were very impressed with, not only how the printer managed to print our decks just right, but also impressed with the support we have received by our customers and supporters.
We went from strength to strength with these decks, finally getting the recognition for our art that we had been seeking over the years.
While we are known for our psychedelic imagery, we are probably equally known for our winter themed decks too, with the original Winter Waite, then the 2019 revision, and then the Glitter edition. We produced a more whimsical deck called Santa's Helpers, and it did really well for us. Our latest winter deck the Winter Waite Redux revisited the themes of the original Winter Waite of 2018, the one that really helped us during our more lean years. We gave it a more pastel look with completely redrawn artwork. What started out as an updated Winter Waite turned into a whole completely new winter deck.
Having successfully created neon decks using UV reactive inks similar to that of the “black light” posters of the late 60's, we went on to create the very first (we think) deck of Tarot cards coated in actual glitter called the Winter Waite: Glitter Edition.
With that, we gave ourselves another challenge. We wanted to create a deck of cards that would sparkle with multi colored stars or dots under light, and our very first deck using this technique was created. Based on our earlier Trippin' Waite Tarot, we released the Trippin' Waite Stars Edition, and it was very successful. We followed this up with the Groovy Waite Stars Edition.
With the Winter Waite Redux, we initially intended to go back to producing a "non effect" deck and by that we mean a deck that has no glitter, no neon inks etc, but simply a regular 350gsm standard, but laminated, deck of cards; no "bling" so to speak. Yet, we couldn't deny it; the starry effect had grown in popularity amongst our decks and our backers liked the idea of having a starry version and so we produced two versions of the Winter Redux; starry and non starry.
We then picked up on a project that had been started earlier that year, which became the Spring Waite Tarot, complete with all the butterflies and flowers you would expect to be in a spring themed deck of cards. This was produced as a starry effect version, and also one that has sparkling dots instead of stars. The Spring Waite has gone on to become another great success for us.
Our latest deck, the Halloween Waite Tarot, has recently been produced, our very first deck of 2024. Released as a starry version and also an original non-starry version, it has so far proved popular for us, even in the early stages of it being released.
Finally, as of the time of writing we're working on a new Psychedelic style deck of cards which we don't have a title for yet. For now we're calling it the "Hippy Tarot” but as we work on the deck the official name will come to us.
These are the first six cards we've created for this deck. We're also working on the Singers' Tarot which all being well will be released later in the year. This is a deck consisting of mainly 60's and 70's era singers and bands. When we create cards, we tend to share them on instagram first, so if you'd like to keep up with the new art, follow us here.
