https://www.stretchtarot.com/
The Kickstarter page is interesting as well, with lots of pictures:
I have a few collage decks, and each of them is special and uses the medium in its very own way.
The Stretch Tarot borderless, always a plus in my mind, the card titles are traditional and the iconography obviously RWS – but the cards look unusual and unique. They are multi media collages with lots of layers and elements you can use as jumping-boards for your intuition while reading.
The artist uses old photos and illustrations, found objects like matchsticks or keys, and graphic elements in a sombre colour scheme that I find quite irresistible. The artificially aged look of the deck works well for me.
There is always the card title on the bottom of the card, like a sticker that has slightly yellowed over time, in a nice capitalis font. On the top of the card, you see the Roman numerals for the majors, and a keyword for the minors. I’m not too keen on keywords but they were chosen well here and are unobtrusive enough to leave room for other interpretations. They’re more a gentle nudge than a prescription.
Each card looks more like an assemblage than a collage – there is a three-dimensional element, each card works like a little box or shrine with an assortment of clues.
The card backs are simple – a star pattern that looks woven or embroidered. The card stock is smooth and more paper-y than plastic-y, another plus. It’s quite thick and heavy, easy to shuffle and feels nice and buttery in my hands. I guess it will age well. I may edge the deck in dark brown to unify it visually; the cut white borders disturb my sense of “old”.
The images on the cards are well chosen. Some are immediately recognizable. The beautiful Juliette de Recamier from J.L. David’s famous portrait is the Empress (and I’m glad she’s less maternal and more majestic-seductive than many other Empresses), Guillaume Duchenne’s experiments with electrical stimulation of facial muscles from the middle of the 19th century can be found on the 5 of Swords, and Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch of an open uterus with fetus is on the 10 of Pentacles (keyword Home – the home as womb, the womb as home).
Ingres’ portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor is the basis for the Emperor card, with an added stag’s head.
Andreas Pavley dances on the beach for the Fool, a Mata-Hari-like figure smiles on the Sun, and Michelangelo’s Adam is part of a collage for the Ace of Wands (keyword Creation – different images are sewn together, dripped with red color and cut open).
John Collier’s Lady Godiva appears on the 6 of Wands (Recognition) , and the image is echoed in the background, overlaid with colour and wands – it’s recognizable, but changed.
Each of these compositions makes you think, none of the well-known images is just taken “as is”, they’re all enriched, alienated, worked upon, and the same is true for the cards with unknown images.
The court cards are wonderful, too. The King of Pentacles is a beautiful photo of a Blackfoot chief with ceremonial headdress – dignified, wise and melancholic. And very powerful. One of Waterhouses’ beautiful mermaids is the Queen of Cups, keyword Emotion. She is wistful, tempting and totally focused on herself.
There is an unobtrusive colour scheme to the minors. The Cups are mostly blue, the Wands red-brownish, Swords grey with yellow accents, and Pentacles green. But the artist is not pedantic about the colours, and red can appear on the Swords if necessary. You can recognize though that he is attuned to the elemental associations used by a majority of tarot decks: Wands-Fire, Cups-Water, Swords-Air and Pentacles-Earth. There are no kabbalistic, astrological or alchemical sigils or symbols on the cards.
The deck is atmospheric dense, intimate, quiet and searching. It looks like the private deck a slightly Bohemian Victorian might have assembled over time. It gave me multi-layered readings. If you know the RWS system, you can read with this deck very easily.
The lwb is one double-sided page with general information about the deck and card meanings (upright and reversed). They won’t replace an in-depth study course but if you’re stuck, they may be helpful. I always like referring to the lwb when getting to know a new deck, even now when I have the card meanings well established after years of experience. It gives me an idea how the artist approached his deck and the associations he had in mind.
At the moment, the deck is out of print, but the website states that a second edition is on its way.
My one regret is that the artist didn't give us any information about his source material. I personally love the generosity of the Cult of Weimar website and Kat Black's lwb's that let us retro-engineer the artist's mind by telling us more about the original photos, illustrations and ready mades used in making the deck. I look at that Knight of Swords and I KNOW that I've seen him before. Often. But where? when? I always like to know more about the material used to make art.
