I spent yesterday performing my first borderectomy…
I know it’s a practice that is fairly common but I’ve never really felt the urge to take blade to border with my decks as… well… it takes me a long time to actually decide I like something enough to buy it… and I’m not likely to buy something that I find visually unappealing and thus feel the need to butcher…
I’m quite partial to a borderless deck and I have several that I have bought for that purpose… and I know it gives a different feel to reading…
Also… I do enjoy a good border… one that has been carefully constructed and adds to the overall image…
I came very close to cutting up a deck a few days ago as I don’t like the key words that are placed on there… but as I looked more and more at the deck, it felt preferable to leave them rather than lose the gilt edges and also destroy the symmetry of the backs which I find particularly pleasant… and really… when you read cards a lot, you do spend huge amounts of time looking at the backs…
But yesterday, I’m sorting through my stash and I find a deck that was given to me sometime back and that I very seldom use…
So… like I say… I very seldom use these… I very much have a preferred weapon of choice that strikes like a well worn nib on a favourite fountain pen that’s been bent and shaped to hit every stroke just so through hours and hours of handling…
But… I read for all kinds of folks, so often I will have a couple or so other decks sat there and every so often, someone’s fancy will be taken by one of those… And when this deck has been chosen, it’s read well enough and delivered… but still it doesn’t fully endear itself to me…
I sat and looked at it and wondered why… It feels clunky but it’s not the size… It’s big but then so is my favourite deck…
I spread them out and looked at them and … A-HA!!! It’s those borders… loud and shouty and not quite matching yet not quite clashing… and what particularly offends my eye is that strange white pattern that looks like stylized bamboo…
So… out came the metal ruler, scalpel, and corner cutter…
And I’m pleasantly surprised by the results… They are now about the same size as a deck of playing cards and sit snuggly into the palm of my hand… And the backs retained a look that I can live with… Also, I got a rather delicious finish on them by running a metallic sharpie around the edges…
So… I doubt that I will use them any more frequently than seldom… though I do know that when I do use them, it will be with a bit more pleasure…
All in all… not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon 😉
The pure and blessed way 
Well, that answers it. I gave away my copy of this deck because it didn’t speak to me, but also there was something I didn’t like about the presentation but couldn’t put my finger on it. And there it is! They look so much better without all that busy border stuff. Well done, Karen!
LikeLike
I felt the borders had been put on by someone trying to pull together all the images by different artists to make them look like a set… Yet I felt those borders made them feel more like a bunch of orphans in badly fitting school uniforms… The deck feels much more cohesive sans borders and now you can actually see the art…
As I went through the deck, I imagined that every artist who had worked on it had seen the end result and silently despaired… OMG… You’ve ruined my picture… Though… I may be wrong… 😀
LikeLike