Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

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Mahdi Gilbert
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Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 4th, 2018, 7:43 pm

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mahdigilbert/hidden-leaves-playing-cards-by-mahdi-the-magician

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Hi everyone,

For the last year I have been designing my first deck of playing cards.

What are Hidden Leaves?

Hidden Leaves are painted pieces of cardboard with suits of dreams, lies, and love. These premium playing cards are drawn & designed by Mahdi The Magician for his unique style of magic, cardistry, & card manipulation.

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Hidden Leaves Playing Cards will be Made in the USA & will be printed to the highest quality possible by the United States Playing Card Company. No detail was considered too small or trivial when pursuing the high standards we aim to achieve.

The cards are made from the same Premium Bee Stock used in world class casinos for durability & flexibility. This premium stock has been Crushed Thin so that they can be used for superior and fine card manipulation by card experts worldwide. Finally they have been enveloped in a Smooth Finish so that they are long lasting and glide effortlessly in any environment.

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Every single card in every pack of Hidden Leaves playing cards has been drawn by Mahdi to evoke a nostalgic feel. Crafted with love, this deck is inspired by & a homage to the legendary card artist who in 1885 designed cards for Andrew Dougherty including Tally-Ho.

The ink on playing cards used to be pressed onto the uncut sheets one color at a time resulting in every single deck looking completely unique due to the discrepancies and bleeding of the ink. I recreated this vintage aesthetic by making everything purposely imperfect.

The artwork on this project has taken me almost a whole year to complete. I had to figure out every single detail from the symmetrical pattern on the back inspired by William Morris to the Pantone colors used to print.

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Many of Hofzinser's finest deceptions were only possible because of the playing cards of the era. Hidden Leaves playing cards feature no indexes just like playing cards used to be made. This unique feature allows you to explore all sorts of forgotten card transformations, hypnotize your audiences with hallucinations of duplicates, renders well-known prearranged stacks completely invisible (even to magicians).

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Hidden Leaves is my first deck of playing cards. This massive project has consumed almost a whole year of my life.

I have put the best of my ability, my heart, and my soul into creating this deck. I need your help to get these cards out into the world. Please consider backing this deck as I would love for you to be able to enjoy these cards. Sharing them so far with my friends and family has been a great pleasure and it would be an honor to have my deck, Hidden Leaves go from my hands to yours.

Please check out my project and consider adding this special deck of cards to your arsenal of tools to create wonder:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mahdigilbert/hidden-leaves-playing-cards-by-mahdi-the-magician

Best, Mahdi

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby MagicbyAlfred » April 5th, 2018, 5:16 pm

As i mentioned on the thread where Mahdi demonstrated his creative overhand shuffling technique, IMO, these are beautiful cards, and I sincerely hope the project gets the support it needs.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 6th, 2018, 12:01 pm

I asked Mahdi about the lack of indices and he told me that this enables tricks from centuries ago to become alive again. Interesting.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 6th, 2018, 6:08 pm

MagicbyAlfred wrote:As i mentioned on the thread where Mahdi demonstrated his creative overhand shuffling technique, IMO, these are beautiful cards, and I sincerely hope the project gets the support it needs.


As much as I built it for working professionals I don't think the magic community as a whole will support me much. They prefer shiny new things not quality most of the time. I made this for myself really and the good magicians who see the potential in both the art & and quality of this project.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby JustinM » April 6th, 2018, 6:25 pm

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:
MagicbyAlfred wrote:As i mentioned on the thread where Mahdi demonstrated his creative overhand shuffling technique, IMO, these are beautiful cards, and I sincerely hope the project gets the support it needs.


As much as I built it for working professionals I don't think the magic community as a whole will support me much. They prefer shiny new things not quality most of the time. I made this for myself really and the good magicians who see the potential in both the art & and quality of this project.



Glad i'm not a part of that group... I checked these out today and they're beautiful Mahdi!

I've never used kickstarter for anything before, but i will for these 52 works of art...


Justin

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby MagicbyAlfred » April 6th, 2018, 7:30 pm

Mahdi, there is a whole international community of custom card collectors, that is growing by the day. Some of them are magicians, others are cardists; some are both; and some are neither. In any event, I would think these collectors and connoisseurs of the art of fine playing cards are likely to appreciate and want to acquire the deck if it comes to their attention, irrespective of what the "magic community as a whole" does or does not do.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 6th, 2018, 7:46 pm

Alfred's accolades convinced me to pledge for one deck. It does have that nice retro look and will work great for The Three Aces effect in The Expert. I hope it's in poker size.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 7th, 2018, 9:07 am

Leonard Hevia wrote:Alfred's accolades convinced me to pledge for one deck. It does have that nice retro look and will work great for The Three Aces effect in The Expert. I hope it's in poker size.


Of course it is Poker size. ;)

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 16th, 2018, 6:31 pm

Hi!

I've updated the Kickstarter with new tiers and add-ons including my sold out notes.

I'm also going to be supporting this brand of playing cards by creating gaffs.

What kind of gaff cards would you like to see?

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » April 17th, 2018, 6:31 pm

MagicbyAlfred wrote:Mahdi, there is a whole international community of custom card collectors, that is growing by the day. Some of them are magicians, others are cardists; some are both; and some are neither. In any event, I would think these collectors and connoisseurs of the art of fine playing cards are likely to appreciate and want to acquire the deck if it comes to their attention, irrespective of what the "magic community as a whole" does or does not do.

As I wrote in the other thread where Mahdi posted this, this deck looks truly beautiful. I love the minimalist approach you've employed with the design, and the striking effect that is created by going with an exclusively red and black colour palate for the card faces.

As a reviewer of custom playing cards, I can confirm that there is a very large and active community of keen collectors, and ever since the advent of Kickstarter the custom playing card industry has really exploded, and it's not uncommon for successful projects to raise over $100,000. Jackson Robinson is one example of a successful designer who consistently produces custom playing cards with projects that raise those kinds of figures. See my article here to read an amazing success story about a crowdfunded deck, and especially read the first few paragraphs of that article which document the impact of crowdfunding on the custom playing card industry. Every month there is a steady stream of new custom playing cards coming out that are gleefully lapped up by collectors.

The challenge is that now the market is becoming somewhat saturated, and marketing is very important to make a product stand out - I've seen a number of good projects not get funded for this reason. But clearly Mahdi has already succeeded on that front, being funded so quickly and having crossed well past the required support line already - congratulations!

Two big communities of collectors can be found at these web forums:
http://www.unitedcardists.com (link to discussion of Hidden Leaves deck here)
http://www.playingcardforum.com (link to discussion of Hidden Leaves deck here)

I do have a few questions about Mahdi's deck that I'm curious about:

1. One-way pips

As you can see from the image below showing cards from this deck, the spot cards have one-way pips, and will look quite unusual when they get reversed, while the court cards are reversible. Undoubtedly you've considered the impact of this when the deck gets shuffled and some spot cards get reversed. Any particular reason for this decision to go with one-way pips?

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2. Charles Goodall designs

Elsewhere someone has pointed out that the court cards appeared strongly inspired by designs from Goodall. They also remind me of the Phonograph 5 Playing Cards design which I reviewed here and can be found on Kickstarter here.

The court cards of that deck are based on a deck that was produced in London by Charles Goodall in 1899, which designer Landry Sanders describes as "an uncommon deck that uses scroll-work and ornamental patterns." Here's an image showing an example of the Goodall designs from an antique Bezique deck.

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The court cards of the Hidden Leaves deck (below) look identical to the Charles Goodall courts. I'm glad that this has now been acknowledged on the Kickstarter page, since collectors of playing cards will immediately notice this. Could you expand on the relationship that the Hidden Leaves deck has with the Goodall deck? I'm especially interested to learn more about how these were redrawn, and what process was used to do that - was it simply digital? The Kickstarter says that the cards were "drawn and designed by Mahdi", so I'm wondering what this process involved.

I'm not criticizing, but curious. As magicians, we all know the importance of giving credit, and I'm glad you've now mentioned this on the Kickstarter. And I really do love the look of the Charles Goodall courts, and was disappointed when Landry Sanders' Phonograph 5 deck that featured them didn't get funded, so I'm pleased that the Hidden Leaves deck has already made the cut and will get printed.

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3. Narrow borders

One potential concern you may want to consider is that USPCC is known for not being able to provide consistent printing registration on their decks, and this can especially be noticeable when there are thin white borders. Typically USPCC has what they consider an allowable amount of inaccuracy between one side and the other, and while they can get away with this on an average Bicycle playing card where it isn't very noticeable, the error gets amplified on cards that use thin borders.

Legends Playing Card Company (based in Taiwan) is an industry leader that prints cards that rival the quality of USPCC, and tends to do a much better job on their registration, with precise borders. Your deck does appear to have narrow borders - which I love, because it really emphasizes the design, which employs the full canvas of the cards. But have you considered that this might be a potential issue with USPCC printing the deck, given the narrow borders, and did you consider using an alternative printer like LPCC at all? My article here gives a detailed comparison between USPCC and LPCC decks.

Best wishes in successfully bringing this lovely looking deck to print, Mahdi!
Click here to see all my reviews: Magic Reviews Playing Card Reviews Board Game Reviews

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 17th, 2018, 6:47 pm

Hi!

Thanks for your interest in my project!

Here's my responses ( bolded below)

As I wrote in the other thread where Mahdi posted this, this deck looks truly beautiful. I love the minimalist approach you've employed with the design, and the striking effect that is created by going with an exclusively red and black colour palate for the card faces.

As a reviewer of custom playing cards, I can confirm that there is a very large and active community of keen collectors, and ever since the advent of Kickstarter the custom playing card industry has really exploded, and it's not uncommon for successful projects to raise over $100,000. Jackson Robinson is one example of a successful designer who consistently produces custom playing cards with projects that raise those kinds of figures. See my article here to read an amazing success story about a crowdfunded deck, and especially read the first few paragraphs of that article which document the impact of crowdfunding on the custom playing card industry. Every month there is a steady stream of new custom playing cards coming out that are gleefully lapped up by collectors.

The challenge is that now the market is becoming somewhat saturated, and marketing is very important to make a product stand out - I've seen a number of good projects not get funded for this reason. But clearly Mahdi has already succeeded on that front, being funded so quickly and having crossed well past the required support line already - congratulations!

Two big communities of collectors can be found at these web forums:
http://www.unitedcardists.com (link to discussion of Hidden Leaves deck here)
http://www.playingcardforum.com (link to discussion of Hidden Leaves deck here)

I do have a few questions about Mahdi's deck that I'm curious about:

1. One-way pips

As you can see from the image below showing cards from this deck, the spot cards have one-way pips, and will look quite unusual when they get reversed, while the court cards are reversible. Undoubtedly you've considered the impact of this when the deck gets shuffled and some spot cards get reversed. Any particular reason for this decision to go with one-way pips?

The decks I love from the past were all one way so that's what inspired me. The court cards are also one way even though they don't appear to be at first glance.

Image

2. Charles Goodall designs

Elsewhere someone has pointed out that the court cards appeared strongly inspired by designs from Goodall. They also remind me of the Phonograph 5 Playing Cards design which I reviewed here and can be found on Kickstarter here.

The court cards of that deck are based on a deck that was produced in London by Charles Goodall in 1899, which designer Landry Sanders describes as "an uncommon deck that uses scroll-work and ornamental patterns." Here's an image showing an example of the Goodall designs from an antique Bezique deck.

Image

The court cards of the Hidden Leaves deck (below) look identical to the Charles Goodall courts. I'm glad that this has now been acknowledged on the Kickstarter page, since collectors of playing cards will immediately notice this. Could you expand on the relationship that the Hidden Leaves deck has with the Goodall deck? I'm especially interested to learn more about how these were redrawn, and what process was used to do that - was it simply digital? The Kickstarter says that the cards were "drawn and designed by Mahdi", so I'm wondering what this process involved.

I'm not criticizing, but curious. As magicians, we all know the importance of giving credit, and I'm glad you've now mentioned this on the Kickstarter. And I really do love the look of the Charles Goodall courts, and was disappointed when Landry Sanders' Phonograph 5 deck that featured them didn't get funded, so I'm pleased that the Hidden Leaves deck has already made the cut and will get printed.

The court cards are based on a Goodall deck design. I'm not too sure about your timing on the year as I believe they are actually older than 1899. The deck has no particular relationship with the Goodall deck in and of itself but rather with the legendary card artist who designed all the classic card back for the most famous brands of the day. I have investigated his artwork and found many identifying motifs. I have not discussed my research on this project but his artwork is very recognizable by a few details when you are familiar with his style.

I drew and designed every single card. I first drew everything by hand and then scanned by illustrations and redrew them in Adobe Illustrator. I even drew all the court cards. Even though they are redrawn from a Goodall deck they are handdrawn with me and when you buy a deck and notice the small detail I painted in you will recognize the effort involved. Cards from the past were colored by ink on plates resulting in every deck being unique because of differences in the consistency in the ink, etc. I drew all these old school details into every single card. The pips are also inspired by the old Goodall pips, although no one seems to have noticed that. Hidden Leaves is a deck of cards with many secrets and details that will go missed by many people. I don't want to explain every piece of art in the deck (although I have talked a lot about various details in the October 2017 issue of Card Culture) but instead wish people to discover these details for themselves.


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3. Borders

One potential concern you may want to consider is that USPCC is known for not being able to provide consistent printing registration on their decks, and this can especially be noticeable when there are thin white borders. Legends Playing Card Company (based in Taiwan) is an industry leader that prints cards that rival the quality of USPCC, and tends to do a much better job on their registration, with precise borders. Your deck does appear to have narrow borders - which I love, because it really emphasizes the design, which employs the full canvas of the cards. But have you considered that this might be a potential issue with USPCC printing the deck, given the narrow borders, and did you consider using an alternative printer like LPCC at all? My article here gives a detailed comparison between USPCC and LPCC decks.

My borders are deliberately asymmetrical by design with them being longer then they are wider. Although most people have not recognized this. I would love to expand my back design and do a borderless version one day and will use EPCC for that as they have either perfect or near-perfect registration.

Best wishes in successfully bringing this lovely looking deck to print, Mahdi!

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » April 17th, 2018, 7:05 pm

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:3. Borders

One potential concern you may want to consider is that USPCC is known for not being able to provide consistent printing registration on their decks, and this can especially be noticeable when there are thin white borders. Legends Playing Card Company (based in Taiwan) is an industry leader that prints cards that rival the quality of USPCC, and tends to do a much better job on their registration, with precise borders. Your deck does appear to have narrow borders - which I love, because it really emphasizes the design, which employs the full canvas of the cards. But have you considered that this might be a potential issue with USPCC printing the deck, given the narrow borders, and did you consider using an alternative printer like LPCC at all? My article here gives a detailed comparison between USPCC and LPCC decks.

My borders are deliberately asymmetrical by design with them being longer then they are wider. Although most people have not recognized this. I would love to expand my back design and do a borderless version one day and will use EPCC for that as they have either perfect or near-perfect registration.

Thanks for your responses Mahdi, that's appreciated.

I wonder if perhaps you've misunderstood my point about the narrow borders. I have no issues about asymmetrical borders that are longer than wider. But my concern is that USPCC doesn't always print perfectly in the middle of a card. I've noticed this with a lot of their custom decks, while this is never an issue with LPCC or EPCC decks.

With USPCC, there is a chance that some of your courts or card backs may end up looking like the image below. With wide borders, this printing registration variance will usually go unnoticed, but it is far more obvious with narrow borders.

Image
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 17th, 2018, 8:00 pm

A set of Gypsy Curse cards would go nice with this deck.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 17th, 2018, 11:13 pm

I should keep well clear of gypsy curse associations. People can take them quite seriously you know.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 18th, 2018, 7:36 am

Ordinarily I would agree with you but I think it would look very cool with my deck is their were some oddities. But so far I have not encountered what you photoshopped.

EndersGame wrote:
Mahdi Gilbert wrote:3. Borders

One potential concern you may want to consider is that USPCC is known for not being able to provide consistent printing registration on their decks, and this can especially be noticeable when there are thin white borders. Legends Playing Card Company (based in Taiwan) is an industry leader that prints cards that rival the quality of USPCC, and tends to do a much better job on their registration, with precise borders. Your deck does appear to have narrow borders - which I love, because it really emphasizes the design, which employs the full canvas of the cards. But have you considered that this might be a potential issue with USPCC printing the deck, given the narrow borders, and did you consider using an alternative printer like LPCC at all? My article here gives a detailed comparison between USPCC and LPCC decks.

My borders are deliberately asymmetrical by design with them being longer then they are wider. Although most people have not recognized this. I would love to expand my back design and do a borderless version one day and will use EPCC for that as they have either perfect or near-perfect registration.

Thanks for your responses Mahdi, that's appreciated.

I wonder if perhaps you've misunderstood my point about the narrow borders. I have no issues about asymmetrical borders that are longer than wider. But my concern is that USPCC doesn't always print perfectly in the middle of a card. I've noticed this with a lot of their custom decks, while this is never an issue with LPCC or EPCC decks.

With USPCC, there is a chance that some of your courts or card backs may end up looking like the image below. With wide borders, this printing registration variance will usually go unnoticed, but it is far more obvious with narrow borders.

Image

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 22nd, 2018, 7:56 am

Leonard Hevia wrote:A set of Gypsy Curse cards would go nice with this deck.


What is that? Also, I do not produce occult items.

My pack of cards don't have anything to do with that world.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 22nd, 2018, 8:07 am

Well, they do now! I own a pack!

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 22nd, 2018, 10:51 am

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:
Leonard Hevia wrote:A set of Gypsy Curse cards would go nice with this deck.


What is that? Also, I do not produce occult items.

My pack of cards don't have anything to do with that world.


Not to worry Mahdi, it doesn't have to use Tarot or strange occult cards. Gypsy Curse is a packet trick much like Wild Card. Here is the description from Magicpedia:

Gypsy Curse (later called the Hungarian Guessing Game) is Peter Kane's variation of his Wild Card effect marketed as a packet trick by Emerson and West in 1976.[1]

Seven ancient playing cards are shown to be six black spot cards and one King of Diamonds. A story is told about a game of chance at an old, county fair in which the cards are divided into two groups and the spectators wager as to which group contains the Diamond. An elderly Gypsy woman, having wagered and lost, placed a curse upon the man and his game. When the proprietor next attempts to operate his game, he finds to his dismay that all the cards are Diamond Kings.


The packet of cards will consist of 5 regular King of Diamonds, one regular Nine of Clubs, and 2 double facers: Nine of Clubs on one side, King of Diamonds on the other. Your cards have that old world look and would go perfect with this effect.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 22nd, 2018, 11:10 am

Somebody suggested yesterday (probably Mahdi) that I should use them for psychic readings. I won't be doing that although they might fit because they look so weird. They don't have the power of tarot cards since there is no major arcana which are the strongest cards in the Tarot.

A

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 22nd, 2018, 11:10 am

It would also be great to get a few double backs and a MacDonald's four ace set with this deck. That's a set of double faced cards consisting of the 4 aces on one side and low spot cards on the other. This deck is great for Hofzinser type of effects.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 22nd, 2018, 5:10 pm

Ahh, I understand now.

Yes, I have plans for gaffs to be made available in the future.

Best to sign up to my mailing list to stay informed.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 29th, 2018, 9:12 am

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the comments about gaffs. I am working on them. I want to really sit down and decide on how to print a high quality deck consisting of 56 gaff cards so that they can be made really well.

Will include

Blank faces
Blank backs
Double facers
Double Backers
Split faces

As well as very specific gaffs for real routines. None of this regular gaff decks that you see from the magic companies which have no real routines for.

Every gaff set will come with full instructions for great and fully polished routines.

Also, I did a Hidden Leaves session yesterday in Toronto. Here's a sneak peak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SLkA_RLBQ

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 29th, 2018, 10:10 am

Too many young people flipping cards about for my lilking in that video. Horrifying. I find it quite unsettling.. They should be out shoplifting and breaking windows like I did when I was a kid. Standards are definitely slipping nowadays.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 29th, 2018, 3:27 pm

We can set up a young gifted grifters camp in Blackpool.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby performer » April 29th, 2018, 3:34 pm

The words "gifted" and "Blackpool" are not compatible I am afraid. As for thieving kids I think Dublin has the highest efficiency where that is concerned. The kids there could teach Slydini one or two things about misdirection.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » April 29th, 2018, 8:27 pm

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:Also, I did a Hidden Leaves session yesterday in Toronto. Here's a sneak peak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SLkA_RLBQ

Thanks for sharing that video Mahdi - some nice cardistry moves happening there!

I especially liked the colour changes with your deck. The multiple instant colour changes starting around 1:50 was my favourite part of the video - hilarious!

Did you get prototype decks printed with MPC (MakePlayingCards.com)?
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » April 30th, 2018, 12:26 pm

Since we funded so early in my Kickstarter I was able to print with USPCC.

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » April 30th, 2018, 7:53 pm

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:Since we funded so early in my Kickstarter I was able to print with USPCC.

That's terrific Mahdi, how many did you get printed?

I seem to recall that their minimum size order is around 1000, or is it even higher than that?
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » May 1st, 2018, 8:49 pm

I printed a small run enough to satisfy demands but would love to print more soon.

You can only buy them for the next 2 days so don't hesitate!

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » May 11th, 2018, 9:12 am

SATURDAY MAY 19 at 2PM

I will be performing and teaching a few tricks at Browser's Den of Magic in Toronto. This is not a lecture but rather an informal performance.

"We will be celebrating the launch of Mahdi's brand new Hidden Leaves Playing Cards. The cards will be on sale that day at the shop for $20.00. Great opportunity to pick up a deck and support Mahdi. Good opportunity too to have Mahdi sign one of the cards as they are destined to be collectable.

Young Jeff and I have already seen the deck and the quality is top. Plus the cards have some secret details that Mahdi will expose on this day at the shop for those who buy a pack.

We will have a limited supply at the shop of Mahdi's cards. Should you wish to buy a deck in advance please call us at 416-783-7022 with a credit card." - Browser's Den

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » June 16th, 2018, 1:40 pm

Hidden Leaves have just been launched and are available for purchase here: http://beforemagic.com/store/

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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » July 17th, 2018, 1:42 am

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:Many of Hofzinser's finest deceptions were only possible because of the playing cards of the era. Hidden Leaves playing cards feature no indexes just like playing cards used to be made. This unique feature allows you to explore all sorts of forgotten card transformations, hypnotize your audiences with hallucinations of duplicates, renders well-known prearranged stacks completely invisible (even to magicians).

Mahdi,

I recently had someone ask about the above sentences, since there appears to be no further information about this on your site.

What exactly is meant by this? Can you elaborate more specifically on the kinds of things that are capable with the Hidden Leaves deck that wouldn't be possible with a regular deck, due to the absence of indices?

And if it's okay with you, I'd love to be able to share your comments with other magicians on another forum where this question was asked about your deck.
Click here to see all my reviews: Magic Reviews Playing Card Reviews Board Game Reviews

Leonard Hevia
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 17th, 2018, 10:35 am

Having purchased one, this deck would be nicer with the air cushion finish we see on Bicycles.

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Mahdi Gilbert
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby Mahdi Gilbert » July 17th, 2018, 3:40 pm

Hi,

I am currently writing the secrets out and will update people who purchase when they become available.

M

EndersGame wrote:
Mahdi Gilbert wrote:Many of Hofzinser's finest deceptions were only possible because of the playing cards of the era. Hidden Leaves playing cards feature no indexes just like playing cards used to be made. This unique feature allows you to explore all sorts of forgotten card transformations, hypnotize your audiences with hallucinations of duplicates, renders well-known prearranged stacks completely invisible (even to magicians).

Mahdi,

I recently had someone ask about the above sentences, since there appears to be no further information about this on your site.

What exactly is meant by this? Can you elaborate more specifically on the kinds of things that are capable with the Hidden Leaves deck that wouldn't be possible with a regular deck, due to the absence of indices?

And if it's okay with you, I'd love to be able to share your comments with other magicians on another forum where this question was asked about your deck.

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EndersGame
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Re: Hidden Leaves Playing Cards

Postby EndersGame » July 17th, 2018, 7:26 pm

Mahdi Gilbert wrote:Hi,

I am currently writing the secrets out and will update people who purchase when they become available.

M

Thanks Mahdi, that's great - I'll pass that on to the person who asked me about this. They bought your deck at my recommendation.
Click here to see all my reviews: Magic Reviews Playing Card Reviews Board Game Reviews


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