According to the ol' Instagram, looks like Blaine has a new deck coming out sometime soon. I really admire Stutzman's work, so whatever this ends up being I'm sure I'll grab a few. Lately I've been rather disillusioned by the releases of any of the big names, but this type of thing catches my eye.

Last chance for some of these one-of-a-kind Encarded things! Don’t miss them, as I certainly don’t have any more of these and the auctions are closing soon.

Tendril: Nightfall prototype deck:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161858941890?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Tendril: Ascendant Sealed Prototype Tuck & Deck:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161858941159?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Encarded "Prime Back" Prototype Deck:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161858940727?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Tendril: Ascendant Proof Set & Signed Deck
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161857927108?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Tendril: Nightfall Proof Set & Signed Deck:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161857925417?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Aurum Prototype Tuck Box Set:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161857924988?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Imagine, a deck release that DOESN'T USE KICKSTARTER! The horror!  The insanity! 

In an effort to try new things, I have a new project that you can read a little bit about on my updated site. http://encarded.com/pages/encarded-signature-series

The collectors out there will probably find it interesting that this will be the first independently designed deck to use the Expert Playing Card Company for the printing. The CARC Exquisite deck came out amazing, IMO, and Zenith will use the same magic formula (but of course with all the design and luxury features I love to explore). Using EPCC means I can do small runs of unique ideas and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

Discuss away!

When I was at the 52PlusJoker convention in Vegas, I talked with a serious collector that was looking for something unique. Along with a wide variety of other decks, he had a particular passion to collect items with a camel motif on them and after seeing my Aurum decks and the Deco Personal Edition he wondered if we could design something special for him.

After a few discussions, we arrived at a design that I felt was possible to produce and he commissioned me to make about 40 decks for him. We picked a few custom paper colors for the tucks and decided that the Bee Diamond Back was a great choice for the interior. The Bee has a simple pattern that would make the die cut pop, and came in two colors to nicely contrast with the boxes and provide the option for a "poker set". While I don't think these decks will get played with, it was a nice little design option to include.

To produce these, I started with some camel clipart and redrew it completely, simplifying the curves and arriving at a form that was possible to cut out. Even with the simplifications it proved to be a great challenge to produce cleanly. At the size of a tuck box, almost any details become quite small. My cutting machine struggled a bit until I came across the perfect combination of settings, and while I did have a high percentage of rejects the final decks came out wonderfully.

The production process is actually quite involved. I first had to create the art and lay that out on my existing cutting template for the USPCC standard tuck box. This was printed through my laser printer, including special alignment marks that the cutter's optical scanner would use to align the cuts.

After mounting this print to the cutting board, I first ran a pass that cut all the score lines for the tuck and made a preliminary pass through the artwork. With this cut complete, I realigned everything, changed cutting heads and performed the actual cut. This was done in two passes to ensure as much as possible that it properly got all the way through the thick tuck papers. This was the dangerous phase, as the small details in the camel quite easily tore.

With the tuck properly cut, I then hand-folded the box carefully on the score lines and glued it together. The cards were inserted and then I used my cellophane sealer to do the final wrap.

As you can see, there are a lot of steps and it took a lot of trial and error to arrive at the best solutions. This project was an excellent chance to refine the entire customized deck process and as with most things, it got much easier with practice and each iteration. With my particular setup I now have the option to do fully printed designs and even foil, though that obviously adds even more steps. (Experimental holographic foil signatures are quite pretty though, aren't they?)

I love pursuing new ideas and this particular one is quite special I think. The possibilities are limited only by imagination and time and who knows what might be possible down the road.

Hi everyone, I have a few decks from my personal collection for sale on eBay. Nothing crazy, but things people may be looking for.

I will be shipping from the US, you can check all my listings at the following ebay page (ebay username xmetal280). All the decks I am selling are new, in perfect shape and will be shipped promptly in the same professional fashion that I ship Encarded products.

Thanks everyone!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/xmetal280/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

I get lots of questions about the process of making cards, and using Kickstarter, so I wrote an article on medium.com. Hope you find at least a couple useful tidbits in there.

https://medium.com/design-startups/7eaf803b8620

Forgive me, but I found this funny this morning. I was just being silly and teasing Theory11 a little, but the sequence made me chuckle.
 

Hey everyone,

A common complaint we seem to come across every time anything rare or in limited numbers comes out is that some people get screwed, some people get lucky, some people don't even get the chance to buy.

With the release of Aurum coming in the near future, there will be some things that are naturally available in small numbers. I think that people will be quite interested in these things, and therefore I want to work out the fairest possible way to release stuff. If there are 500 people that want something, but only 25 to go around, how can we ensure everyone gets a fair chance?

Now I realize that I'm no Theory11 and won't have 20,000 people hitting my site at the same second, but I still think it would be valuable to talk about some ideas.

The way my store works now is that when you add to cart, you have a "hold" on that item and have 30 minutes to check out. This works pretty well, as it makes sure that you don't have something stolen away while trying to enter your payment info. However, this extends the time people need to hang around and try just in case someone doesn't follow through and the item is available again.

My best idea is to release certain things in batches at different times each day. Say we have 25 of something, maybe we'll do 5 each day (at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 10pm) to give everyone a chance without making half the world wait until 3am. I know that staying up late only to not get what you came for is terribly annoying.

Another idea I heard was a "lottery" where everyone that is interested emails specific info, and we draw names and those people get to buy it. This takes some of the time pressure off but this hurts the people that can plan ahead and be ready to buy. Also, everyone that didn't get picked feels a little cheated.

I'd like your ideas. With the huge disappointment we keep seeing at each big release, perhaps by working out a few good ideas we can help improve some of these situations and make more people happy.

I've pondered this and can't decide. On the one hand, it would be great to try to make a deck that fits into the Bicycle history and it would make the deck appeal greatly to certain folks. On the other, Aurum will be totally custom and not bear any resemblance to standard Bicycle design. It also costs more to make a Bike deck and there are more legal hoops to jump through.

I'm quite torn, both routes have advantages. Therefore, I seek opinions. 

Well, I was going to offer this guy some suggestions but he so clearly has not a single clue what Kickstarter is for, that I just gave up.

"Let me be explicitly clear. NO..I am not selling decks of cards.  This is not a Home Shopping Network.  It was my understanding that this was a site wherein a person could list an idea and potentially receive financial backing to bring their idea and/or product to fruition. Please read through my description and rewards carefully. I am not selling decks of cards."

http://kck.st/KX1uFn

So we have just a handful of days left in the Kickstart campaign for the Tendril. Things have gone rather well, to say the least and I thank everyone that pledged or spread the word. Since most of you will probably be a little curious as to what happens next, here's the next steps:


- When the Kickstarter ends, I'll send out the backer survey to gather a little info about everyone. Amazon will process all of the payments and hold the money for about 14 days before transferring to me, minus all the fees.
- I will also be drawing the winner of the little giveaway, and giving folks access to the Aurum development blog.
- I've registered with my state to be an official reseller of products, so I can at least save some sales tax on a very large order from USPCC.
- I got the final contract from USPCC today and will get that back to them soon. Generally it takes a few weeks to get the deck on the printing schedule, at which time I owe them 50%
- As we all know, the amount of time it takes them to print the deck varies, and I'll push that along as best I can.
- Simultaneously with deck production we will be producing the three flavors of Eco card clips.
- Once the deck is done, a few resellers will be getting their decks directly at USPCC. The rest of the decks, along with the uncut sheets and a few special items will be sent to me after I pay the remaining 50%.
- Once I receive the shipment, the process of packaging and shipping will begin. I have scales and postage printers and label making hardware on the way, so hopefully that will be an efficient process. With 900 backers there will certainly be some busy work for me to do.
- After the Kickstarter packages go out, remaining stock will go onto my website store, along with leftover uncut sheets and Eco clips or other items.


Speaking of those "special items", check out this post: http://encarded.com/post/18792419304/gauging-interest-tendril-printing-plates  Unsure what I might do there, but there are some options.


I'm moving things as efficiently as I possibly can and hope to get everyone their decks ASAP. I want them out the door more badly than all of you, so that I can move on to Aurum at full speed! My head is busting with ideas but we have to get deck #1 out the door first.

As I look at decks, ponder designs and think about things I might try in the future, I wonder what strikes your fancy most? I classify decks 3 ways:


1. Bicycles (or similar standard brands that we all know. The "standard" in everything.)
2. Things like the Fantastique, Arcane, Monarchs. Fancy backs, nice boxes, custom AoS but standard faces with perhaps just coloring differences.
3. Fully custom, with every element changed, like the Artifice, Seasons, Tendril ( ) and the like. All elements are redone, redrawn, recolored.


Seems like the market is very biased towards #2 these days, as that's almost all that comes out of the big names and most of the smaller guys. #3 is a rare beast indeed. Your thoughts and feedback just maaaaay influence some decisions in the future from certain people. Maybe.