My mother's family is gigantic (she has 16 living siblings), so there is always someone around for a game of cards. Whenever at least three Wagners gather there will be at least one game of Shanghai. Summers with my cousins were filled with games of Bulls*** and Egyptian Rat Screw. Everyone learned to bridge shuffle as soon as their hands were large enough. No one ever bets on family card games, but the winner is always the one who has to sort cards back into their respective decks and put them away.

My mom always buys a new deck when on vacation, but we still have playing cards from back when Delta dispensed them to passengers for free. (And little soaps! I miss them.)

So, I associate ordinary playing cards with warm family memories, the times when we weren't breaking up fist fights or calming grandpa down. I've always wanted to take the time to design my own deck. I had the snappy idea to make my own deck based on birds, which is a motif that I never get tired of.

I started with the clubs suit, which is represented by flightless birds. Most of the illustrations came from my own sketches, but I did get help from photographs for a few. You can probably tell which is which my the wonky feet. Somehow, I still draw them the same way as when I was 8 years old. Man, bird feet are hard.

A: Ostrich, 2: Kakapo, 3: Weka, 4: Wild Turkey, 5: Kiwi, 6: Lesser Rhea, 7: Kagu, 8: Emu


9: Greater Auk, 10: Takahe, J: Dodo, Q: Cassowary, K: Emperor Penguin, A: Ostrich, again

Labels: projects

posted by Alison 4/01/2009 08:51:00 AM : (0) comments : splink