Black and White Baubles and Vintage Cards

Ink on paper. That’s where it all began. I still love the simple elegance of black and white, symbolic of polarities; Fortuna with her half-and-half face, tiles on the Mason lodge floor, chess, the Yin Yang…

This Fall, I’m focusing my accessories on this simple, classic colour combo. For the sake of an interesting photo-shoot, I paired them with cards from a deck I created as a promo when first starting out as an illustrator in 1988. The 4 suits were: masks, skulls, equines and serpents. At the time it was my Magnum Opus, but turns out it was just a warm-up. Strange to think there was only a space of 10 years between publishing that one and starting the next, they’re so completely different.

Besides the current Opus (Tarot deck), am also working on a few side projects, including black and white fortune-telling cards (read about that one here). Lots to do, none of it lucrative yet, so needs we must make prêt-à-porter.
You can find more photos and details (size, materials, pricing) on the necklaces and bracelets pages in the Jewelry drop-down menu. New pieces will be added as they are completed. ~rb

All written content and images herein are copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff. Please share via LINK only. This helps bring potential customers to my site. Thank you.

Fortune Cookie – a Trip down Memory Lane

 

‘Fortune Cookie’ packet

Back in 1994, when I made decent money as an editorial illustrator and had extra for personal projects and crazy promotional material…in the days before digital files, websites and steampunk, I created this little ‘deck’ of illustrated Fortune Cookie cards. It was indeed meant to evoke Victorian Orientalism, but was also inspired by Max Ernst collages and Edward Gorey, mixed with my own, somewhat goth-infused sensibility, for which I was then recognized.

I had at my disposal only J. G. Heck’s ‘Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration’, some 1960s Letraset stock imagery, a Xerox machine, scissors and a Rotring Rapidograph. Oh yes, and a bag of fortune cookies. It was actually one of my Aries Mum’s whim suggestions pulled out of her magic hat, and I thought it sounded like a hoot.

Perhaps it was an early prototype of sorts for the Tarot deck I would begin work on 4 years later, which also uses mixed media, old art, scissors, paint instead of ink and has turned into a Magnum Opus. But the two have little else in common. (I had also completed a deck of illustrated cards (non-Tarot) in 1988, which I may get around to posting at some point).

Maybe in the future (had better see what the crystal ball says), I will do a real deck of ‘fortune telling’ cards, it seems to be a popular thing and might be fun.
One thing at a time. ~rb

All images and written content copyright ©Roxanna Bikadoroff and may not be re-used without my permission. Thanks for being respectful.
Feel free to share via LINK, it helps.