How I moved into The Gypsy Palace

I am Nora Huszka, the creator of the Gypsy Palace Tarot and this article is made to share my experiences about this special project with You!

First of all, I would claim myself more as an artist, than a card reader. I met the tarot cards about 4 years ago- I found a deck in my dormitory room, left behind from a flatmate. It was a cheap version, not really a high quality art, but the idea of the magic and meaning behind them fulfilled me with excitement. I started to read about them, practice some spreads and of course, there was always somebody who asked for a reading: in clearly showed me, that this is a very intimate way to interact with people, to talk with them without wearing their masks.

During these times I started with practicing drawing or so to say, to take it more seriously. My art was always something completely personal for me, I did not join art schools. I wanted to create and experience my own style by myself, to choose the influences and the atmosphere, I wanted to set my aims, not to be one of hundreds of art students, with competitive pressure of the outside, whoｴs aim is to be professional artist: I used my art as a language to express myself, to give birth to visions which can not be told in another way, but wanted to have their way out. I knew that my art can just grow together with me, it is not a simple skill what I can just practice until I go professional. I believe that for an artist art must be a language, not a skill. I found also the techniques which are the most fitting to me: felt-tip pens, aquarell, chalk and pens.

I appreciate this way of creation the most, because this makes it possible, that sometimes I could draw something, which was never seen before, which is unique. And most of all, has a deep personal meaning.

We can say that this is almost like a therapy, a letter from my unconscious, a mirror, that shows me, like I have never seen myself before: this is what a picture means to me. Going with the flow of colours, shapes and unknown (still so familiar) figures. Never know what comes! To fill a blank page with me, to let myself fill that page whatever may appear, and take a look when it is done: what is going on on this paper?

As I said, this is like an adventure and I could benefit a lot from observing them. Who are these characters there? I tell you a secret, almost all of them is me.

And I think this is also what Tarot is about: you are all of the cards. The Hanged man, The Empress, The Devil is all in you. The art of getting to know yourself, challenge yourself with 78 different questions (or answers?) and the endless combination of their meaning. Your experiences are coming from yourself and returning to yourself in a way that is different for each of us. But we can only work with them, if we accept them or at least notice them. And I talk about our hidden wishes, fears, what we may keep under the control of our mind.

These ideas were growing in me for years, and drawing and the interest in tarot went parallel. If I look back, it is very possible that they “secretly” influenced each other, because some months ago I suddenly I saw it clearly: they fit together. I wanted to keep the traditional meaning I used before in my readings and I actually did find a picture of The Hieorophant, The Wheel, or others symbolizing a 7 of Cups experience, a 6 of Swords experience and so on… until all of them was there.

I did not know how will they be a tarot card deck one day, but I can tell you, at that moment I felt this is the right thing to do.

To be honest, I was always a bit lost in the art scene of nowadays and I could not make myself comfy in that. My art just did not fit to any kinds and I had no motivation to create a big circus of advertising around me, to sell my pictures in galleries and pretend to be high class artist or to be one of the artists who actually makes overcomplicated or sterilized pictures to the high class audience. But I truly hoped there are people over there, with whom I can share my handmade art.

My pictures are understandable. You don’t need to be over sophisticated to get the meaning (although there are many more depths you may find), you just need to pay attention, to open yourself, to enjoy. Feel and think.

I think that is the best thing you can do, when you have a tarot card in your hand. The communication is successful, the message is on the way.

I show You the steps which lead me actually to finish the Gypsy Palace Tarot.

First of all, I selected pictures which may fit to the meanings of the Rider Waite Tarot, and other traditional tarot card decks. I had a wide variety of my pictures and I found a lot of them just perfectly fitting, but I also had to change a lot. I also produced a lot new pictures, it was very inspiring project. On the other hand, my case was not easy, because I travelled a lot and some of my pictures were in Germany, some in Hungary, while I lived in Italy. Lucky enough, I had a lot of them photographed, scanned, and I got help from both places. That made it possible to work with them. In some cases I had to print the scan, draw on it or to make some necessary changes, scan it again, and put it over the first scan to keep the good quality. I had to be creative in these things also!

The idea for the title of the deck came easily. I choose the name The Gypsy Palace for this deck, for two reasons: first, because the colours, the atmosphere of my pictures has a flavour of indian and gypsy art, and secondly, because card reading has a great tradition in gypsy culture. As travelers, their palace was not a building, but their well kept tradition: fortune telling and card reading.

To design the cards was also a great big job: I tried to make everything handmade, because I do believe in the positive energies from handmade things. So I draw the frame around them and I also made an own font, which is basically my handwriting. I wanted to give the whole deck a bit of royalty, because a tarot deck has a big importance, it needs to have a special atmosphere. I choose the colours carefully, also to fit the pictures.

To have computer skills is somehow essential. I will be honest with you, computer skills are something I don’t have on this level… so we did a great cooperation with my biggest help in this case, my boyfriend, who is a photographer and graphic designer. He worked in Photoshop and InDesign to convert the colours to printable versions, because otherwise the quality can lower very much. My original pictures are very vivid, bright colours, so it was very important. We had to make the perfect crop for each and pay attention to every detail.

The printing is very important as well, depends a lot on your budget and how far do you want to go with it. I think to high quality pictures it is necessary to have high quality print for some very obvious reasons: the cards can last longer in use. I choose a company which is specialized to playing cards in Germany and works with high quality standards, like round corners, enameled surface, playing card standard paper. I give you the details I found the best: 410g paper, 70 x 120 mm in size.

And the budget. I absolutely didn’t have the money to print it by myself. I could have gone to a publisher to get published, and maybe it could have worked, but I decided to choose a way, how I can actually get a contact with the people I am selling my tarot cards to: through crowdfunding on Indiegogo.com.

It is a risky way, you need a lot of contacts, trust and luck!

And it is also a lot of energy to set up a campaign, shooting a video, cutting it, making animations for it… and that is just the beginning!

At this moment the campaign already ended, successfully. I believe that handmade arts still has a value in the world of the computer made “artificial” pictures and a project for good reasons will find its way.

If I may tell you what I found the most important in this project, I would say to be honest to yourself and faithful for the traditions. If you decide to create an own deck, know why you do it and listen to your intuition. Believe in what you do! I can not give you business tips, but I can tell you, business advices are not good influence in the creating process, because you are actually creating something magical to connect people with something more important than money or right business connections. After all, this is magic, isn’t it? :)

Love,

Find me and more details, contacts, links here:

• 28 February 2013
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