What we are working on

Overview of current work


We are currently working on some reprints (including The Victorian Romantic Tarot which will be published in early 2021) and three new decks, one of which is a tarot, while the others are fortune-telling cards:

- A completely new Bohemian Cats' Tarot.
- Our own, Victorian-style Bohemian Fortune-telling cards,
- A re-imagination of antique Bohemian Fortune-telling cards (yet to be named).

and... here is a first sample image (not final) from our planned Bohemian Cats book. We will also be making a large-format book (for adults who love cats, costumes and more than a touch of surrealism) that will relate to the deck.

The Victorian Romantic Tarot


We decided some months ago to make the new Victorian Romantic Tarot more diverse if possible - partly because going through the original portfolio books used, we rediscovered an image of a woman and child of colour marked as a possible Queen of Pentacles - it's an idea that's been around for a long time.

The original deck had some diversity (our Hierophant card is a good instance), but we now feel it's important to try once again to look for ways to emphasise this. However, the fact is that the European etchings of the time, on which the deck is based, unfortunately tend to show anyone of colour as an "exotic" and we didn't want to perpetuate this. Hence the long process of finding ways of making this work. We're getting there, but please bear with us, as it's turning out to be a challenge to get it right.

We are also making a large-format version of the deck for the first - and last - time. This means quite a lot of reworking of images so that they stay crisp and detailed.

The Bohemian Fortune-telling cards


We are near to finishing our two decks of "Bohemian Fortune-telling cards". These follow the system, which we were very familiar with during our time in Prague, often called "gypsy cards" and in Czech known usually just as "vykladaci karty", which can be loosely translated as "cards for doing readings". In the companion book for these decks, we will outline the history, how to read with them and, of course, we will explain why we chose not to use the term "gypsy cards".

Here are two of the cards that we have already completed and printed (as first samples). You may find that you get a small present in an order! Of course, the final cards will have our usual cold-stamped - and we hope beautiful - backs.

You can see some of the original Victorian photos that we will (probably) be incorporating in the designs. We base everything on original photos, often changed, added to and even remade in part, so that we end up with the image we feel will work best. On the far right are some of the latest samples of the developing cards.

The Bohemian Fortune-telling cards - re-imagining an antique deck


We are also close to completing our re-imagining (with cold-stamping we hope!) of an antique deck in this Bohemian style. It's always been one of our favourites of these antique decks and has some wonderful cards. It's been a pleasure to work on cleaning and enhancing the images.

We've decided to call it a "re-imagining" rather than a reproduction because we're adding cold-stamping and this does make it clear that's it's a recently produced deck. We feel it adds beautifully to the original images.



 FAQs

I've heard you are leaving tarot design. Is this right?
Yes, we plan the new Bohemian Cats' Tarot to be the last new deck of tarot we'll design. As mentioned, it will be published in 2022/3. However, while we are working on it, and while it's available, we will try to do some reprints of our other decks. The Victorian Romantic Tarot reprint is planned for 2021, but no other schedule is agreed as yet.
Why did you decide to do the new cards in the "Bohemian" style?

We've worked with these cards since first going to Prague (actually, a reading with a set of these helped to persuade Karen to move to Prague). We decided to make a deck in this style some years ago, but never got very far with it. Recently, however, we decided that it's now or never!

When will pre-orders open? Will there be pre-order offers?

Yes, there will be a pre-order discount as usual for all decks.

The Victorian Romantic Tarot 4th edition is currently open for pre-orders. Pre-orders for the Bohemian Fortune-telling cards and our as-yet untitled reimagining of the antique cards will open sometime in 2022. Originally we planned for late 2020, but with lockdowns, issues with print companies and lots of other things happening, sadly we think mid-2022 is now more realistic!

The proposed wooden box for The Victorian Romantic Tarot Limited Edition
      The proposed Victorian Romantic Tarot Limited Edition wooden box design (draft, March 2021)

Will there be other reprints?

We do hope to reprint some of our other decks - we know there is a lot of demand which we very much appreciate. We'll be scheduling reprints as and when we can.

The position right now (October 2021) is:

  • The Victorian Flower Oracle - a reprint is very unlikely.
  • The Fairytale Tarot - unlikely. We will consider it, but we doubt it will happen.
  • The Mythical Creatures Tarot - reprint is possible but could be years off.
  • The Tarot of Prague - reprint is possible but could be years off.
  • The Alice Tarot - we hope to reprint in 2023.
  • The Bohemian Gothic Tarot - we hope to reprint in 2022/23.

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