Sigil Arcanum Tarot: A Symbolic Journey

Working on the Handmade boxes!
over 5 years ago – Sat, May 25, 2019 at 02:31:12 AM

Hello folks! Thanks again for following along with this incredible journey. Today I wanted to share what I was working on yesterday, something I've been looking forward to for a while! I am making 5 boxes from scratch, and I wanted to share some of the photos of the process. This may only be exciting for myself and the 4 people who pledged for the boxes, two of whom I know personally, but I wanted to share it nonetheless!

Schematics:

"Measure twice, cut once."

Most of the pieces for the first box sitting on a different box which was the inspiration:

The first box! Glued together and clamped for drying:

The first box, all dried and ready for sanding and decorating!

(Most of) the first box from the inside! I still need to fasten in the walls of the deck area, otherwise this wouldn't close properly, it would just be two shapes sliding against each other...

And all the pieces for the other 4 boxes, ready to go!

A very special thank you to my dad, Robert, for letting me take up his time and use his shop (and his muscle) to produce these beautiful boxes! Of course, they aren't beautiful yet, but I can see the possibility creeping out of the vague shape of the idea, and I know that next week when I get the chance to sand the first box down, do all the wood burning, (more) sanding, and then staining (and staining (and staining)), it will look amazing!

The plan is to head back to my dad's shop next week to finish assembling the other boxes and get them clamped for drying, then I'll finish the first box, and get some more photos with the deck in the box.

Thanks again for sticking around!

-Taylor

Another timely update on BackerKit
over 5 years ago – Thu, May 23, 2019 at 01:30:10 AM

It turns out that I can't actually send the surveys until after I receive the funds anyway, so we will need to wait until after Saturday, May 25th to send out any surveys. Just to clarify, no surveys have been sent out yet, so you have not missed anything. Several people have written to me today asking about this or telling me their preferences.

As my dad always says, "Patience is a virtue." I thought I could do this quicker than I actually can. I have to wait, and thus we all have to wait. But do not fret! In the meantime I have updated the Sigil Arcanum website to include images of all cards in the deck, so that you may check them out and begin to study / understand the system at play.

Yesterday I got some card stock samples and even a sample of the "Little White Booklet" that my printer Midland Paper will be able to produce. Without further ado, here is a photo:

The booklet is the same size as the cards, 2.75" x 4.75" and fits snug with the deck inside a box. We are still waiting on sample boxes, and of course non of these are printed yet, but progress is being made. Midland is a different company from the folks who I have been working with so far, and the main difference is that Midland is able to produce the entire deck in-house, and source all of the components locally (within the Minnesota and Wisconsin area), but they require minimum quantity orders (MQOs). This means that my other local printer - who don't have MQOs - can sell me a single deck, or ten decks, or a thousand decks, but they're all going to be the same price. Midland is able to do bulk pricing, so I may be able to get a lower price per deck, but I have to order 2,000 decks. This is a bit tricky, but I'm working closely with the printers to make sure we produce the highest quality deck with the funds we have raised - which by the way, is the reason I'm able to pursue the MQO route.

I'm very excited about the quality of the booklet. It's a bit larger than the standard LWB that you might find in a USGS pack of cards, and it is saddle stitched like those booklets. I noticed that the paper is a tad bit thicker than the booklets I was using for comparison, and I cannot wait to see what it looks like printed!

So here is an updated Timeline:

- Kickstarter transfers the funds on May 25th (this Saturday)

- I will then begin the process of sending out BackerKit surveys (once I'm able to pay BackerKit)

- I should have finalized pricing for the deck by the beginning of next week, probably Tuesday the 28th

- BackerKit surveys will run until Friday, June 7th, giving everybody two weeks to fill out the survey.

- Once all surveys are in and everything is counted up, production will begin, hopefully by the 13th of June.

- Production will probably take 3 to 4 weeks. Once everything is done I will begin transporting the decks and posters to my house. Hopefully this will be done by the middle of July, say the 12th.

- The next step is shipping, which I will do in batches. I am still working out all the details with shipping, but I would expect this process to start by the middle of July. Most people that I have consulted about this Kickstarter have told me that most Kickstarters take longer than expected to fulfill everything. Hiccups happen, but so far we are mostly on schedule.

Thanks again for being apart of this amazing adventure, and here's to a smooth and excellent summer of the Sigil Arcanum.

If you'd like to follow along with the Newsletter, please click here. I am still preparing the content for it, but once it starts rolling I think you'll all love it. My plan is to send it out every couple of weeks with fun behind the scenes stuff. Images of early prototypes, videos, designs, and a lot more!

An Update on the BackerKit Survey
over 5 years ago – Wed, May 22, 2019 at 04:33:09 PM

I believe I have everything set up, but some friends of mine who have done this Kickstarter thing before have recommended I wait until this Friday to send it out. This is my first time doing any of this, so I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to send them ALL out at once, or if I will send out batches, but either way, expect to see them starting on Friday. I apologize about the delay, my life has been turned upside down in the last two weeks and I'm playing catch up.

Minor Arcana Cards (and a cool new project to check out)
over 5 years ago – Tue, May 14, 2019 at 08:58:59 PM

Hey folks,

Thank you for following along, and of course thank you once again for helping me reach this incredible goal and bring this deck to life. Just a reminder, there is a Newsletter that I am setting up, I will be posting every couple weeks with TONS of new info, videos, pictures, etc. exclusively for Newsletter subscribers. Of course, it is free: Sign Up Here.

While I'm still getting production stuff taken care of I wanted to share some info about these Minor Arcana cards that I've posted, since they make up about half of the deck.

As you can see, each one has a unique sigil that is made up of the planet and zodiac of the card. Some of them require a closer look to figure out, but give it a shot with these and you'll see how it works. You may also notice that each sigil is like a Mandala, rotated at specific angles that relate to the number of the card. 2 is 180, 3 is 120, 4 is 90, etc. so that at a glance you can tell if it's a high or low number, and if you're especially good with geometry you will notice which number a card is very quickly. I've found that some people have a hard time deciphering these patterns, but they are certainly there and I encourage everyone to spend some time understanding how they work.

The really cool thing about making Sigils this way is that there is no wrong way to do it as long as it contains all the required pieces (the planet, zodiac, and number). This means that I (or anyone) could make a bunch of alternative sigils for each card and they would work just the same.

Here's some in Black:

I'd also like to mention a cool project that I found not too long ago, the Möbius Strip:

Möbius Strip: A single sided, continuous surface reimagined

Meet the world's first fully CNC machined Möbius Strip! 

If you are a math or science lover, visit AltDynamic’s campaign page to learn all about it! CLICK HERE 

Keeping up to date! (The Sigil Arcanum Newsletter)
over 5 years ago – Sun, May 12, 2019 at 10:14:14 PM

Hello everyone,

I am working on setting everything up with the website, and as part of this I wanted to introduce everyone to the Newsletter! This is something I will send out every other week as the project is put together piece by piece, offering updates on scheduling, pictures, videos, and much more! I will also still update here on Kickstarter of course, but if you want to get in on the extra behind-the-scenes Sigil Arcanum fun, go ahead and click this link and sign up for the Newsletter!

Thanks again,

-Taylor