A Look into the Houses of Lenormand Cloth
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Sep 21, 2019 at 11:13:49 PM
I wish that I had this cloth when I first learned Lenormand.
Studying the order of the Houses was easy up through the first 14 cards or so but then I started to forget what came after. So I decided to make a Grand Tableau cloth back in April. I took the line work from the Green Glyphs deck and designed something large that would fit all 36 cards and still give them room to breathe. When I first started using the cloth it was like magic being able to read the Houses at the same time as the cards and not get bogged down by the imagery of a second deck underneath.
So I decided to try and get these made in the studio and my special projects team member Allison took on the project. We went to the fashion district in Downtown Los Angeles in search of a cloth that would match the Green Glyphs deck's cream-like background. It was hard- a natural tan lightweight muslin cloth is nearly impossible to find it turns out. So I bought the closest color I could find, and decided to hand dye them in black tea.
The project began by measuring out the roll of fabric and ripping it down into more manageable size pieces. Once the pieces were torn down, vats of black tea were boiled and then each cloth was soaked for an hour to absorb the maximum color. After the dying the cloths were rung out to give them a textured surface. They were then hung to dry in the sun. Then each cloth was hand ironed and torn a second time to actual size (we found that the size of the cloth would change when wet so they had to be trimmed twice).
Next Allison exposed an extra large screen with the Grand Tableau design and set it up for registration and printing.
Then she mixed the Green Glyphs Green Hue and proceeded to print the design.
Once all the printed cloths dried they were stacked and checked for quality.
The last step is the stitched edges, which will protect the natural tear of the cloth from fraying more.
(We haven't gotten here yet) :)
Since the first round of cloths have sold out and due to unexpected popularity, I've put up a new tier that includes Houses of Lenormand cloths and we will be making a second batch. The whole process takes extremely long so it is unlikely we will be making them here in the studio again after the campaign. If/when they are available in the future they will likely be outsourced and produced by a large company, so don't wait on it, this limited version won't last long!
