Divine Art Playing Cards Limited Edition

[rousselle]

Can't wait to receive mine!

[guru]

So finally I had some time to handle this great deck of cards!

IMG_9250.JPG

So here are some thoughs:
Thick and stiff stock - great because you can see the gilding even in a single card!
Foiling is great, and shines pretty well, and the better part is not noticeable from the face!
The art work is beautiful.
And the best for last! The gilding! Oh boy it really is beautiful, have not seen that in any deck before. It looks like a pearlscent gold.


The deck handles pretty good for a gilded+foilded deck. I would say it is on-par-with an MPC deck.
After some time handling the deck, here how my fingers looked:

IMG_9225.JPG

As a curiosity, my deck had the seal sticked in the wrong direction, meaning that the number instead of being on the back it was on the top, but I opened it anyway so I can re-stick it the right way!

All around a great deck by a first time creator that proved himself in the best way possible, by pulling a master deck of cards.
Congratulations Sunish, looking forward for your next deck.

Thanks a lot for the above feedback. I'm happy to know you liked the deck

I'm also sorry to know that the seal was in the wrong direction, I do hope your other decks are okay as it seems to be a one-off error as I've not been informed of this by any other backer. I've noted it down and will be sharing it with the production partner.

Regarding handling, there was lot of effort put into it even though the constraints of foil n gilding were there. Glad to find out that it is being liked by everyone.

On the next project front, I was working with certain folk artists to design a fully hand-crafted and lacquered deck of cards but I've now found out that the project is not feasible for Kickstarter as such because it is taking a really long time to produce a single deck of cards. So, even if I put a year as a date to fulfill, I'm not sure if we can produce more than a couple of decks. With that being said, I got some decks already done and will be putting those up for sale via an online store soon.

@Rouselle - It should be in your hands very soon. Fulfillment partner mentioned that US shipments from China have started taking somewhat longer time in clearance processing since Feb and I also noticed that almost all non-US backers have already received the decks.

Last but not the least, VJ did a review of the deck on his You Tube channel. For some reasons only known to him, he won't be making the review public for at least a couple of weeks. But anyways, for you all UC folks, I do hope you'll watch & like the review.

PS: He is wrong on the printer

[rousselle]

Okay. I received my decks yesterday and I haven't yet watched VJ's review, but I will soonish.

Here's my quick quick thoughts:

First, love the art; the design is exactly what I expected.

Love the little bookletty insert that explains the courts and other cards. Nice little addition.

The foil backs -- outstanding!

The gilding -- interesting effect. As has been mentioned earlier, I like the way you can see the gilding on a card-by-card basis because of the thickness of the cards. Not particularly shiny, as also was mentioned before, but the pearlescent effect is pretty cool.

Handling -- also as previously mentioned, these don't fan well out of the box, and in some ways kinda resemble MPC in terms of the cut around the edges and the mild clumpiness when it comes to fanning.

Because this is purportedly a "new" (to us) printer, I decided to add this deck into my regular rotation of cards I use in the evenings to play games with my young sons (pre-teen and early teen), and we played a few rounds of "B.S." and "Big Two" last night with this deck. I don't normally do that with nicer, foiled-backed, gilded, US$16 decks, but these weren't too expensive, and seemed worth the experiment.

I'm glad I did. Based upon only one evening of play so far, I'd say these decks hold up just as well as any other deck I've used for this kind of abuse. The stock has a nice thickness and snap to it, and they shuffle crisply without clumping. While these cards may not be quite as stiff as some of our super sturdy, higher-end cards (like Robusto stock from EPCC, et al), nor quite as supple as USPCC, they nonetheless didn't lose their snap as the evening wore on, and they weren't fragile during regular game play with young boys. They still lined up nice and evenly with regard to the gilding when the evening play was done, and frankly, I enjoyed both the feel and the look of them as cards for daily use. I look forward to seeing how these handle in the coming days/weeks/month.

They didn't fan any better toward the end of the evening (although, to be fair, our "break-in" wasn't a typical cardist's break-in, but rather, the result of normal game play), so I'm guessing that these wouldn't become go-to decks for cardists. But, even so, I like them for game play, I like the art and design, I like the print quality of the faces, and I like the foil quality and detail on the backs. The gilding adds a nice touch.

At $16 shipped per deck (US), these are more expensive than I'd prefer for daily use, but not outrageously so, and I expect these will continue to hold up for a while. All-in-all, I like them. I'm satisfied with this purchase, and I look forward to future projects from Sunish / Guru Playing Cards. If any more of these decks appear on the after-market at a lower price, I'll happily pick up a couple more for my collection.

Cheers!

[shaitani]

I can't seem to find this info easily, but anybody know the post-kickstarter methods of purchasing these?

[jerichoholic]

So finally I had some time to handle this great deck of cards!

IMG_9250.JPG

So here are some thoughs:
Thick and stiff stock - great because you can see the gilding even in a single card!
Foiling is great, and shines pretty well, and the better part is not noticeable from the face!
The art work is beautiful.
And the best for last! The gilding! Oh boy it really is beautiful, have not seen that in any deck before. It looks like a pearlscent gold.


The deck handles pretty good for a gilded+foilded deck. I would say it is on-par-with an MPC deck.
After some time handling the deck, here how my fingers looked:

IMG_9225.JPG

As a curiosity, my deck had the seal sticked in the wrong direction, meaning that the number instead of being on the back it was on the top, but I opened it anyway so I can re-stick it the right way!

All around a great deck by a first time creator that proved himself in the best way possible, by pulling a master deck of cards.
Congratulations Sunish, looking forward for your next deck.

Thanks a lot for the above feedback. I'm happy to know you liked the deck

I'm also sorry to know that the seal was in the wrong direction, I do hope your other decks are okay as it seems to be a one-off error as I've not been informed of this by any other backer. I've noted it down and will be sharing it with the production partner.

Regarding handling, there was lot of effort put into it even though the constraints of foil n gilding were there. Glad to find out that it is being liked by everyone.

On the next project front, I was working with certain folk artists to design a fully hand-crafted and lacquered deck of cards but I've now found out that the project is not feasible for Kickstarter as such because it is taking a really long time to produce a single deck of cards. So, even if I put a year as a date to fulfill, I'm not sure if we can produce more than a couple of decks. With that being said, I got some decks already done and will be putting those up for sale via an online store soon.

@Rouselle - It should be in your hands very soon. Fulfillment partner mentioned that US shipments from China have started taking somewhat longer time in clearance processing since Feb and I also noticed that almost all non-US backers have already received the decks.

Last but not the least, VJ did a review of the deck on his You Tube channel. For some reasons only known to him, he won't be making the review public for at least a couple of weeks. But anyways, for you all UC folks, I do hope you'll watch & like the review.

PS: He is wrong on the printer

The reason is because I upload several reviews at once, to have them ready ahead of schedule.

[guru]

Okay. I received my decks yesterday and I haven't yet watched VJ's review, but I will soonish.

Here's my quick quick thoughts:

First, love the art; the design is exactly what I expected.

Love the little bookletty insert that explains the courts and other cards. Nice little addition.

The foil backs -- outstanding!

The gilding -- interesting effect. As has been mentioned earlier, I like the way you can see the gilding on a card-by-card basis because of the thickness of the cards. Not particularly shiny, as also was mentioned before, but the pearlescent effect is pretty cool.

Handling -- also as previously mentioned, these don't fan well out of the box, and in some ways kinda resemble MPC in terms of the cut around the edges and the mild clumpiness when it comes to fanning.

Because this is purportedly a "new" (to us) printer, I decided to add this deck into my regular rotation of cards I use in the evenings to play games with my young sons (pre-teen and early teen), and we played a few rounds of "B.S." and "Big Two" last night with this deck. I don't normally do that with nicer, foiled-backed, gilded, US$16 decks, but these weren't too expensive, and seemed worth the experiment.

I'm glad I did. Based upon only one evening of play so far, I'd say these decks hold up just as well as any other deck I've used for this kind of abuse. The stock has a nice thickness and snap to it, and they shuffle crisply without clumping. While these cards may not be quite as stiff as some of our super sturdy, higher-end cards (like Robusto stock from EPCC, et al), nor quite as supple as USPCC, they nonetheless didn't lose their snap as the evening wore on, and they weren't fragile during regular game play with young boys. They still lined up nice and evenly with regard to the gilding when the evening play was done, and frankly, I enjoyed both the feel and the look of them as cards for daily use. I look forward to seeing how these handle in the coming days/weeks/month.

They didn't fan any better toward the end of the evening (although, to be fair, our "break-in" wasn't a typical cardist's break-in, but rather, the result of normal game play), so I'm guessing that these wouldn't become go-to decks for cardists. But, even so, I like them for game play, I like the art and design, I like the print quality of the faces, and I like the foil quality and detail on the backs. The gilding adds a nice touch.

At $16 shipped per deck (US), these are more expensive than I'd prefer for daily use, but not outrageously so, and I expect these will continue to hold up for a while. All-in-all, I like them. I'm satisfied with this purchase, and I look forward to future projects from Sunish / Guru Playing Cards. If any more of these decks appear on the after-market at a lower price, I'll happily pick up a couple more for my collection.

Cheers!

Thank you Allan for the detailed feedback and I'm really happy to know that you've put this deck to regular use. Though it is gold foiled n gilded but you won't see any of the quality issues that you must have felt with other decks like gold foil rubbing off after just a few shuffles or foil being noticeable from the fronts or cards getting bent or out of shape after a few months. Considering there have been quite a few decks with gold foil released in last few months, there can be comparisons made wrt the card stock (it won't feel flimsy or thin like others), and the gold foil or handling by keeping this deck in front of the others out there.

I'd a health scare (liver ailment) during the KS campaign, and I just wanted to get this delivered to backers as soon as possible with the utmost quality. I'm glad that all pieces fell into place perfectly even though there were brief scares like foiling & gilding issues. I've noted the critique & hopefully will get something much better next time.

I can't seem to find this info easily, but anybody know the post-kickstarter methods of purchasing these?

I didn't get a chance earlier to set up a store as I was only focussed on production & fulfillment, but this being done & dusted now, I hope to get these out soon. Thanks for the interest.

[guru]

It is available now @ucdecksales. USD $35 / deck incl. shipping worldwide.

https://ucdecksales.com/collections/fro ... rds-gilded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Features:

-Fully custom illustrated cards based on Hindu Mythology
-54 Poker sized cards
-Gold foiled tuckbox on 300 gsm cardboard paper with Matte finish
-330 GSM German Black Core Card Stock with linen finish on one side
-Hot stamped gold foil on card back
-Custom numbered stamp/seal
- Hand gilded
-Extremely limited run of 500 decks in total
-Includes a 6-page booklet
-First deck produced by GPCC(Guru Playing Card Company)


Shipping will be done by SFC from China, who has been my fulfillment partner for Kickstarter. I've extended the subscription with them for a month and here is the list of shipping channels I'd used for Kickstarter fulfillment. Barring the exception of US where it took a bit long for customs clearance this time, all other (non-US) deliveries were quite fast & backers received the packages well before their US counterparts.

eae3c1e3935e3760b68303c6abbb67cd_original (1).png (70.48 KiB) Viewed 1710 times

[guru]

Just saw this Buzzfeed article on Divine Art and other decks. Natalia's and Steve Minty's decks are also featured in there.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jacobreed/x-di ... good-about

[flashcards]

Funny that they have Hanna by Steve Minty when, the last I heard, they have not even been printed yet.

[guru]

Funny that they have Hanna by Steve Minty when, the last I heard, they have not even been printed yet.

The post mentions the following:

"A successful Kickstarter campaign just finished. Follow Steve there for more info on when you can purchase."

[flashcards]

Actually the campaign "just finished" in March 17, 2017.

Here is the last update from Steve on September 5:

Hello Everyone!

I'm not dead! It's 5:33 AM where I am at and I am super elated to bring you good news. First off, I want to thank all of you for your continued patience during these rough times for me. The artwork is finally at a level where I am happy with them and has been sent to EPCC to continue the manufacturing process.

That was the "last I heard" mentioned in the post. Obviously, I'm not in contact with Steve on a daily basis so I cannot know for sure exactly where they are in the production process. Others may have info that I am not privy to. The cards may have been completed, shipped and sitting in my mailbox tomorrow but the last I heard they were still in the production process.