A St. John's artist is bringing back N.L. folklore, in card form

St. John's artist Graham Blair is trying to get their next project off the ground and in the hands of card players. 

Blair's newest creation is a card set based on Newfoundland and Labrador folklore, all with their own original designs. 

While it's not their first deck of cards — a 2021 deck represents the working life of early Newfoundland settlers  — this one is focused on the rich history of tales of fairies, dragons, witches, giants, pirates, ghosts and sea monsters in the province. 

"My primary medium as an artist is wood-cut print making, so actually physically cutting a piece of wood into a stamp and making images from that piece of wood," Blair, who uses they/them pronouns, told CBC News on Wednesday. 

"It's actually one of early techniques that was used in producing playing cards."

Blair said they like to pay tribute to history through their work, and creating pieces connected to playing and tarot cards has been a part of that for about a decade. 

Each suit has its own folklore theme. Hearts represent home, diamonds the sea, clubs represent the woods, and spades the night. 

The 2021 deck was spawned from a wood-cutting design Blair created that featured a playing card theme. The public suggested Blair make the actual cards in the same style. A Kickstarter campaign to get the deck made was successful, but now it's time for a "companion" deck. 

Blair is once again raising funds online to make the idea come to fruition. The actual production isn't cheap, so $20,000 is the target goal. As of Thursday afternoon, $13,436 had been raised.

"COVID, the lockdown, finally gave me the time to actually convert it into an actual playable deck of cards. The first campaign just took off really, really fast," Blair said. 

As far as novelty decks go, Blair said they're often not properly printed. 

That's why they're enlisting the help of the United States Playing Card Company, the makers of the popular Bicycle playing cards. The minimum order is quite high, said Blair, which is why the funding goal is $20,000. 

Listen to the full interview:

"I'm going to get them printed properly," said Blair. "The kind of gold standard are the United States Playing Card Company."