On January 1st this year I started working on ideas and images for ‘If Wishes Were Horses Tarot!’ Yesterday, I signed off the artwork and placed my order.
I’ve put my heart and soul into this project and it’s taken almost a year!
It’s just as well it rained a lot in 2024 as I didn’t feel guilty being inside drawing the 78 individual artworks that take you through the major and minor arcana – the Fool’s Journey.
Creating a tarot deck has been a way to bring many of my images and ideas together into one place and explore my love of symbolism. It’s definitely the hardest art project I’ve ever undertaken! It’s been a bit like herding cats trying to get the 78 images into order, to get them to relate to each other and have every card featuring horses in all their magnificence, differences and glory as well as the images being relatable to the classic Ryder Waite Tarot deck and readable. A major challenge – A Fool’s Journey indeed!
Inspired by the iconic artwork by Pamela Coleman’s Smith, her portrait is the only human featured in my deck – a homage to that fact that she was unrecognised in the Ryder Waite Tarot deck, named after the publisher and author of the booklet. Drawing her portrait on the Wheel of Fortune card is a ‘thank you’ from one artist to another. I am still in awe at the brilliance of her artwork.
I showed a horsy, tarot loving friend my sample deck a couple of days ago and she said ‘Each card is a story in itself.’ That made me very happy. She also said ‘awesome’ so many times that I both wanted to cry and invented a new word ‘horsesome!’
It was also lovely to hear one of the the designers at the card company telling me she ‘absolutely loved the deck, even more so that it’s hand drawn as they are being overwhelmed with AI’, which she is not a fan of! During this year sitting with black ink in hand AI has emerged in a way that would make a years work achievable in minutes. For me, the journey is in the doing, the creating, the process, the actual physical act of drawing and drawing down inspiration and ideas. I am glad to have done it the old fashioned way!
Right now, I feel as though I am sitting in a doorway between producing the artwork and sharing with the world. I feel a little like a rabbit or hare caught in the headlights! I’ve spent four days mainly staring at the sample deck! It’s arrived and I can’t quite believe it!
I am very grateful to Ivory Graphics for the high quality of the production. The box and cards feel lovely in the hand.
If Wishes Were Horses Tarot Deck won’t be available until mid to late January 2025 as Xmas and New Year have now got in the way, however they are available to pre-order! If you would like to pre-order I have added a link below, so you can be one of the first to own and use this new tarot deck. Initial stocks are limited!
So, today on a frosty December morning I am once again ‘The Fool’ stepping off into the next part of the journey and releasing my tarot deck into the world. It’s both exciting and scary! It’s amazing how those two feelings are so similar.
I look forward to sharing more about the cards, the inspiration, the symbolism and The Fool’s Journey over the next few weeks.
Meantime, links below
Sending love and best wishes
Kirsten
I’ve added 2 product listings to my website to account for the difference in postage costs between UK and USA. I’ve added the extra postage onto the price of the cards as my website charges a flat rate. Postage has been added at cost.
UK and Europe horse and tarot lovers click here
USA/ Canada/ Australia horse and tarot lovers click here –
