Deck of the Week

-
A Handful of the Collection


I've added a new section to the blog: Deck of the Week,  which as the title implies *ahem* will feature one deck out of my slightly large collection of playing cards per week; just follow the link on the home page or in the sidebar to view the featured deck(s). This weeks offering is the Bicycle deck in the picture above.

I started collecting playing cards sometime in the mid nineteen-seventies, although not deliberately and my purchases were sporadic until I started travelling. I always try to buy something local to the country or area I'm in, and have asked friends to bring cards back from their travels. The first I bought abroad was a small deck for playing the game of Scopa I picked up in Sicily. I also buy new decks occasionally from various online sources, including the excellent JP Games - one of the small businesses I like to support.

I hope this will be of interest to someone - I find the old pasteboards fascinating and love the variety of types and graphic styles to be found. At least posting pictures of the things online, other people get to see them; they're not displayed anywhere particularly at the moment.

Comments

  1. Phil.12 August 2020 at 21:19

    Nice idea Kel. As you can see from my Instagram feed, I am very interested in graphics and typography.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways12 August 2020 at 22:15

      Thanks for the feedback - you wouldn't believe how many decks I've accumulated over the years - at some point we ought to join forces on the visuals front!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more