Friends
To continue onto the process of mine I'd like to tell you about how I'm carving and printing the cards up.

3. CARVING
After the tracing is put onto the block via permanent marker it's time to carve it out. When I carve I try to think about the line I'm trying to create and also the way that I can make the block endure time the longest. What goods a block print if you can only use it a couple hundred times before deteriorating, right? What's been working for me is instead of a harsh line carved right up next to my mark I try to create a bevel or plateau to the assumed printed summit. This way I won't be compounding on a cube but a triangle which should hold up longer...

This is too much isn't it?

Okay I take about three to five hours to carve a block. This is much faster than my first day of carving; I did the back of the cards, which took me 12 hours! (18 with drawing time...and all in one sitting to boot!) I'm only giving myself ONE SHOT to carve each block and all mistakes HAVE to be left in (example: on the back of the cards the last thing I carved on it was my name...BACKWARDS!!...argh! You don't know how frustrating to see that printed hundreds of times! But this life is it is what it is, mistakes and all we can do is move on and attempt to correct them in the future.) Also remember rule #2 nothing automated can touch the blocks. (This one SCREWED me this week, when I ran into a problem getting registration (lined up front to back) while printing and could of easily solved it by cutting the blocks to fit the sheet better I even called up my good friend Lucas and left a message asking him to cut them on his table saw for me‚ but by the time he called back I remembered rule #2. ‚again, argh! It could be fixed so easily‚but my backwards logic is the card need to be the closest reflection of me completely and convenient gadgets and computers can only save time they cannot show you my heart...just the same, it is still frustrating!)
‚anyways, I could get real descriptive about how carving them but it's not all that exciting to read (not even to me) and honestly I'm not sure if I'm doing it right anyways‚it's not like I took an art, or carving class or anything‚I'm just giving you the best that this bucket between my ears can do.
‚but printing well that's a different story...

4. PRINTING

I've been printing for going on 11 years now and I've done a little bit of everything

(sorry about this it just popped into my head but, I remember as a kid making 25-30 cards with a drawing of the same 3 hammerhead sharks in pencil on typing paper for my birthday party. I remember going to school and not giving them out and later throwing them away because I was afraid my classmates wouldn't appreciate them...huh...wow! I totally forgot about that! )

...ANYWAYS‚...as I was saying, I've been printing for 11 years now. And I pride myself on my craft. So when this project begin to evolve I tried to set it up as best I could to run smoothly on the printing side of it. I tried to open up my images as much as possible to accommodate this step. Okay, here are my steps:
first off I print all of the backs on the full back of the 9x5 sheet and let dry for a day
Next because of the variance there location on the paper (even with my jig in place.)I hand cut each card down to the size it needs to be. ( about 6/34 x 4")
Then I set-up individual jigs and print the fronts. Wait a day.
Apply color ( I will have hand painted versions but on the most part colored pencil does the trick.) and wood stain. Wait a day.
Clear coat wait until dry and then flatten and smooth (I use a Chap Stick lid on my finger‚ although I might need to revise that...) and then shape for strength (adding a nice length-wise curve to them so they don't flop around.)
The smell of the wood stain passes in about a week...and BAM! See it's just that easy!!
Add an impossible deadline, a job and more drama then any one man can bear in a lifetime (Whine, whine, whine...) and you can be just like me in no time flat!

No really, I'm doing all of THIS (my time effort and a price that even I could afford) so you can get a little piece of my heart to have, hold and share with others. I really try hard to make my art, my thanks. Thank you all.
...alright it's back pushing this bitch of a boulder up this hill... again. I hope to see you at the top!
Your Sisyphus,
Abe

Good Morning My Friends!
Today I want to talk about my process, kinda a like an” exclusive inside look" thing.
Alright!

1. The Conception

First I read. I read a number of books I check out my "companion books" these books usually come with a specific deck there small and usually give you an overview of the card and you can sometimes gain a little insight on why they made there cards the way they did. I own four decks myself; Rider-Waite (By A E Waite & Pamela Colman-Smith A go-to classic), The Golden Dawn Magical (by the Sandra Tabitha Cicero and Chic Cicero), The Classic Tarot (18 century woodcut prints by Caude Burdel) and The Golden Dawn (Illustrated by Robert Wang under the direction of Israel Regardie) I read all of them and cross reference them. I try not to focus on the pictures too much I might look it over real quick for the general idea of things but most of it comes from the text (I want this to be MY deck after all) I also try to weed out certain thing that don’t make sense to me or that I think will put the cards in a "narrower field of perspective". Anything that "assigned" to the cards or that I think will away from the basic idea of the card (i.e. astrological signs, Hebrew alphabet...ect.ect.). The things I do keep in are basic ideas, feelings and emotions any body stance or pose and objects needed to help get the feeling/idea across. Usually I make a couple of quick thumbnail sketches before I get too cluttered up with information at this point. Then I get into the bigger things Garden Of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie How to understand the Tarot by Frank Linn and a couple of others that I have floating around here (I think I left them in the basement and feel too lazy to go look...is that bad?) basically I'm looking for flaws in my interpretations of the cards ,which is why I try and do that thumbnail sketch oh and also I've been going http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/ a lot too (my deck will be reviewed and posted there soon.)If I think I understand it I start sketching if not I meditate re-read and try it again (and sometimes ...try it AGAIN.)

2. Lay out

This is very important to me ...how the card looks and how it comes across. I cant just draw any-old way I like since I have to be carving and printing them. I have a look that I'm going for that’s not too basic but also isn’t too cluttered up either. I can’t just "let loose" on these. Each card needs to translate into exactly what I have in mind that takes a lot of my self-control and focus. Also I have to think about the parameters of the material I'm carving them out of because one of my rules for carving is "mistakes are left in". That means if I screw up while carving I cant go back and re-carve it until NEXT YEAR...that means I have to get it as right as I can the FIRST time which means my drawing has to be as good as I can make it before it hits the block.(here’s some sketches I did for card 12 the Hanged Man) after I think I have everything right where I want it and it's the right size (cant shrink it on a copier.) I make a tracing of it ( couldnt find the Hanged man but here's a tracing of the SUN) then I turn it over and retrace it onto the block. Then to fix it onto the block I go over it again in permanent marker (if you’re counting I have now drawn and re-drawn the same image at least four times.)...NOW I'M READY TO CARVE!

Hey Folks!

Welcome back to my tarot site!
Tonight I thought I’d take a pause from carving and tell you exactly why I’m doing this, and why I’m going about it “the hard way”. Later this week I’ll start writing about each card the meanings, symbols and how I choose that particular way to draw them. …Okay, ready…let’s do it! Alright first things first lets start with the “why”. A few years back I read a biography on Aleister Crowley (pix below right) and although he particularly had no effect on me I started thinking about magic, alchemy, and the secret societies of England during the forties and fifties. I then went out and started reading other books on magic particularly on the history of the Order of the Golden Dawn (which Crowley was a member) . As I read I found out that the Golden Dawn had it’s initiates hand make there own decks before passing onto the next Grade of the Order. And I remember looking at the deck I just bought , flipping through it and thinking about those people that couldn’t draw, drawing out and hand painting 22 (Major arcana...I'll explain a little later.) very difficult pictures of people, animals, monsters, feelings and over-all ideas, and what hell they must of gone through to get those drawn out. After flipping through my deck that I specifically remember thinking “you should do that” followed by me saying out loud “F**k that!”
After I dabbled into magic and found that my imagination and paintings ran wild, I felt like there was finally a reason to paint …like I finally had something to say to people besides the same generic B.S. or some sappy reach at my lost teen angst , here’s a chance to really get to a viewer and effect a change in his/her life. And I decided to commit myself to the alchemy and magic and spiritual purpose of art (Alex Grey’s book Mission of Art is great book about this check his site http://www.alexgrey.com/).
The whole while a little voice kept poking at the back of my head it kept saying “tarot, tarot, TAROT! What are you chicken? Can’t do it eh? What type of artist are you, can’t draw 22 little pictures?”, and by the time of last years Grendel’s show it was just plain screaming, “DO IT!”.I started studying book after book after book (too many to list…I’ll look them up and give you a basic list later.)And soon the first rough sketches started to flesh themselves out and I felt pretty good about them. But then I wasn’t sure what to do with them. (I drew them out at 8x11) Do I paint them? Do I scan them into the computer? Screens print them? Or block print? (which I knew nothing about and was dreading having to do.) I was stuck, I didn’t want to put my efforts into a dead end or some thing that I felt didn’t give it that “personal touch” that will make the deck unique… paintings were my first pick but then once there gone that’s it and what if someone wants all of them or a few people wanted the same card, it just was a little too exclusive …I cut computers out pretty early on I find them a great tool but its too easy to hide behind them and you could end up with a “cool design” that looks like a million other “cool designs” also I figured the more “hands on” they were the better they would work. Screen printing was too easy …plain and simple. That left Linoleum blocks…and so here I am…in hell (just kiddin’, I love it)
So, here are my basic rules for carving the deck :
1-It has to be as hands on as possible.
2-Nothing automated can be used to carve (no dremels!)
3-I can only print in black (no multicolored block prints)
4-I have to stand 100% behind EVERY CARD I do from concept on ( so if I think I’m copping –out or half-assing it, it doesn’t count…by the way, side note… that’s me judging me not you judging me, which leads me to my next one…)
5-Advice is weighed…not taken.
And last but not least…
6 The process is the process…the minor things can change (type of paper or type of ink roller) bitch all you want (which I do …often) but the system is the system.

Okay Kids I’m tired and still have a lot of carving to do so more stories on the process tomm eh? Oh hey Im doing t-shirts soon any cards you'd like to ware let me know soon?(my votes on the devil below)…Love you all…goodnight you (kiss to forehead)

posting

Thank you for all of you trying to post comments People were having problems posting here (they wanted you to sign up) but I fixed it... if there is any other problems let me know .thanks again.
abe

The Grendel Show

Grendel's Coffee House Presents:
Abe Nelson's
"The Tarot" (major arcana)
On: September 1stAt: six-o-clock pm
Located at: 729 E. Burnside
Portland, OR 97214 (...or maybe you already knew that.)
For more information about Grendel’s, call (503-595-9550)

Please check this site often as I will be bringing you up to date information on what card I'm on . Read about why I'm using the symbols I'm using and see raw rough drafts and sketches of each design as I take them from idea, to carving, to print, working on them all the way up until the day of the show.