BOTANICA: A Tarot Deck about the Language of Flowers

COMPENDIUM Peek!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 20, 2020 at 12:46:58 AM

Hey Botanists!

We hope you’re doing well and still staying safe. As we all know, it’s been an especially stressful and challenging time of late, and we hope you have an opportunity today to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and new blooms.

As spring turns to summer, BOTANICA has been budding abundantly. Kevin is wrapping up his remaining paintings, and he and Maëlle have been hard at work designing rewards and stretch goals, and doing everything they can to make this deck the most astonishing creation it can possibly be. 

To give you a glimpse of our progress, here’s a sumptuous sample spread from the COMPENDIUM, featuring the Six and Seven of Coins:

This design isn’t final, but should give you a good idea of where we’re headed! 

We’ll be sure to keep updating you with sneak peeks as BOTANICA continues to grow. Like the best-tended gardens, Beehive has always been a community endeavor, and projects like this wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support and passion of every single one of you. Thank you all so much, and we can’t wait to bring this deck to full bloom with you.

Love,

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

Watch BOTANICA Grow! An Update from our Greenhouse of the Mind
over 4 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 11:24:15 PM

Hello Botanists!

We've missed you! It was so much fun to be in daily communication with this wonderfully passionate and generous community. Frankly, the end of this campaign has left us the tiniest bit lonely!

But we sure haven't forgotten about you. Without a moment to lose, we've snapped right into production mode, starting the long march towards pushing this remarkable project across the finish line. This thing turned out to be exponentially larger and more ambitious than we expected it to be, so we have a lot to figure out in terms of our own processes, devising how to complete this thing in the best, fastest and wisest ways. But we've made a lot of progress on that front, and we're getting closer every day.

Meanwhile Kevin is deep in his own greenhouse of the mind, painting up a storm. With a couple dozen cards left to go, he's really hitting his creative stride now. Here's are process videos of his gorgeous work-in-progress on the Nine of Cups and Eight of Coins.

Lots more updates to come as Kevin finishes this suite of paintings, and we move quickly towards completion of this floral opus. We have lots to design, and miles to go before we sleep -- but we're getting there.

And as one more show of gratitude -- and as a panacea for those of us currently self-isolating -- we'd also like to offer you all a gift. A free digital edition of one of our most recent titles THE FAIRY TALES OF OSCAR WILDE, illustrated by the great Yuko Shimizu, with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham. (It's part of our ongoing line of Illuminated Editions, in which we update literary classics with new artwork and bold modern design. You can see our other titles at beehivebooks.com.)

Download the book here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iyiuau93rjfh67o/BB_WILDE_DIGITAL_181101.pdf?dl=0

Anyhow -- we thought you might enjoy, and we're always wracking our brains for new ways to show you how much we love you.

Thank you once more for turning this into so much more than a Tarot deck -- BOTANICA has become a genuine happening, and we couldn't be more proud or pleased to have you here creating it with us from seed to stem to stamen. Onward!

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

THE END OF THE BEGINNING
over 4 years ago – Sun, May 10, 2020 at 10:40:46 PM

Friends,

What a wild and seemingly impossible experience this past month has been. We're so overjoyed to see the huge, generous and caring community that's sprung up around this project like so many daisies.

We never expected anything like this, and we've never experienced anything like this. As a small publisher, we've never sold more than three or four thousand copies of ANYTHING, and here we are with close to ten thousand supporters just from this Kickstarter. Managing a project of this scale is going to be an ongoing lesson for us, but with you all in our corner I know we're up to the task. We're going to deliver a tarot deck that exceeds even the highest expectations in terms of production, design and fulfillment. That's the best way we can think to show our gratitude and devotion to you, the countless Botanists who've tended this garden.

Stay tuned over the next weeks for more updates and info, and don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions you might have. For now, we just wanted to express the infinite depth of our gratitude and joy. We're all celebrating today, and getting ready to buckle down for six months of hard and happy work getting this project across the finish line.

Having seen almost all the stages of Kevin's process while working on this project the last few years, we can't even begin to describe how validating and supportive this extreme act of generosity that you've shown has been. Since 2015, Kevin has been creating BOTANICA little by little, in between paid jobs (some with Maëlle!), working in his spare time to finish it, and sharing his project at conventions and online. He worked like so many artists in the world making beautiful projects, with the ultimate goal being the project’s completion, and the ability to share their art with those around them. He patiently, tenderly, nurtured BOTANICA like he does his own plants.

I think it's fair to say that most (if not all) Kickstarter projects are labors of love, this one included. In our wildest hopes, we dreamed of making a little more than our base funding goal and unlocking one or two key extras, like gilded edges. But this massive wave of support means  that we can now go above and beyond what we initially thought possible, and with a project that explores every inch of Kevin's expansive botanical world. We have the finances to make charming additions to the initial project, as well as stretch goals we really see as integral to the deck (like the Compendium, where all of the symbols and histories of each plant will be expanded by the artist himself!). Thanks to you, we have the privilege of letting Kevin's artistic reins loose to see what new magic he can come up with.

One of the real triumphs of this campaign, in our minds, is that it brings its artist and author real financial support. It has meant that years of unpaid labor done out of love and passion are now given material compensation. Though the process of making art is fulfilling in and of itself, we do live in a world where artists still need to eat and pay rent and go to doctors! Having a community of people like yourselves that are able to financially support this labor and recognize its value is a very moving and powerful thing.

Thank you for making this magical project possible. We're so proud to be traveling alongside you.

Keep your eyes on the skies and your hands in the soil, friends. For now we'll leave you with a song.

Perennially yours,

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

A THANK YOU FROM KEVIN JAY STANTON
over 4 years ago – Sun, May 10, 2020 at 07:29:40 PM

This campaign has been a an act of genuine impossibility. We'll have a lot more info about what comes next in the coming days. But for now: a message from BOTANICA creator Kevin Jay Stanton.

Two months ago, I emailed Beehive to ask if we should postpone launching BOTANICA. I told them I was scared we wouldn’t make our funding, and that after a few significant setbacks over the past couple years, I worried that the failed launch of my most personal project would probably break me. 

I truly don’t know how to process what just happened. The past few weeks have been a blur, and so unexpected. And I say that as someone who is a bit of an optimist - this is so far and away from what I hoped.

There is no end to my gratitude to each and every person who has supported this project, from the kind words and excitement, to buying the Major Arcana and my tarot pins, and to now supporting the full deck. It is in every way the exact deck I wanted to make for myself, entirely selfishly. But to have this response, to hear from all of you… I’m speechless. 

A couple years ago, I was asked in an interview what my dream project was. What I would do if  I had no other obligations or obstacles. I said I felt lucky because I was already working on it, and that was BOTANICA. 

Thank you for making my dream come true. I can’t wait to share more of it with you.

-Kevin Jay Stanton

TWO MORE STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED! JOIN US FOR A LIVE Q&A AT 2PM EST!! LESS THAN 11 HOURS LEFT IN THE CAMPAIGN!!!
over 4 years ago – Fri, May 08, 2020 at 06:30:38 PM

Hi hi! Here we are in the final hours of this wild ride. You all have built something genuinely incredible and reality-defying, here. We hope you're half as excited and proud as we are. This is a real achievement, and we made it happen together. 

I'm going to miss announcing new cool stuff for you all EVERY SINGLE DAY as we have been for almost two weeks! This is maybe the most fun part of my job, feeling like Stretch Goal Santa.

Here's the last announcement: TWO MORE STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED!!!

$500K: DIE-CUT METAL DANDELION BOOKMARK CHARM! We will craft a brass-finish dandelion charm to be included with ALL physical editions of the deck! This means all HERBALIST and up backers will receive this as a token to display, wear, or use as a page marker!

$550K: TWO MORE TAROT SIZED POSTCARDS! We have unlocked the last two postcards from our SOCIAL MEDIA STRETCH GOAL, for a total of SIX postcards included with ALL physical editions of the deck!

We're on the verge of hitting $600k, at which point we'll add THE FOOL patch to every physical edition of the deck, HERBALIST and up!!

Also, just one more daily reminder that the DARK ALCHEMIST editions, which may not be available for long after the campaign, have become an ABSURD deal. I frankly can't believe all the stuff you get for $100. It includes:

• DIGITAL ACCESS
• THE ALTAR CLOTH
• THE HERBALIST EDITION (with embossed, foiled, interior printed drawer-style box)
• SMALL BOOKLET EXPLAINING THE CARD MEANINGS
• THE DARK ALCHEMIST TIN
• DANDELION PIN
• EGLANTINE PIN
• THE FOOL PATCH
• THE HARDCOVER COMPENDIUM (with embossing, foil, edge-staining and a silk ribbon!)
• THE DIGITAL COMPENDIUM
• THREE TERRARIUM STICKERS
• 14 DIGITAL WALLPAPERS + BONUS KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE WALLPAPER!
• DIGITAL PRINTABLE CALENDAR
• CUSTOMIZABLE BOOKPLATE/DECKPLATE STICKER
• METAL DANDELION CHARM/BOOKMARK
• VIDEO OF KEVIN JAY STANTON EXPLAINING THE MAJOR AND MINOR ARCANA
• SIX TAROT-SIZED POSTCARDS
• FIVE HIGH-RESOLUTION PAINTING DOWNLOADS

Finally: join us in under an hour at 2PM EST on Instagram Stories Live @beehivebooks for a live Q&A with Kevin and Maëlle! Kevin will be live-painting as they talk about the project, express our gratitude to all of you, take any questions you might have and discuss what comes next. And don't forget to follow @kevinjaystanton and @beehivebooks for more process art and behind the scenes glimpses into BOTANICA. (We'll also be posting a ton of that stuff here as we go along!) 

Thank you once more, friends! This has been an experience we'll never forget -- and this adventure is really just beginning. We can't wait to bring you all on the journey of of loosing BOTANICA decks on the world like so many dandelion seeds on the wind. Onward and outward.

Forever yours,

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin