Hey love,

We owe you an apology.

Our last email about "waking up" your deck was meant to help with what we thought was the main issue: cards bound tightly in two stacks, causing heavy bowing that needed some love to work out. It went out yesterday morning, after the first reports of bowing, peeling and uneven cuts had reached us, but before we understood how widespread the trim and card-face problems were. To some of you, it read like spin, and that was never my intention. We're sorry. You deserved the straight story first, and then the artful support.

My own deck settled with the care steps, and I love reading with it. Most decks are usable, and some will look a bit more "wild" around the trim. Some have problems care steps won't fix, and you shouldn't have to live with those.

That's on us and our printer.

What we're doing now

• We've paused sales while we sort this out.
• We're taking your photos and details to the printer as part of a claim for reimbursement.
• We'll email you as soon as we have a solid answer on how we're making this right.

If your deck has problems

Reply to this email with your order number and a few photos. A side view of the stacked deck shows the trim problems the best.

If you're missing cards or have damaged cards, send a photo and we'll put you in the queue to replace them or the whole deck.

A heads up on trimming: some members of the Supportive Tarot Facebook Group have shared ways to trim cards to an even size. It's harder than it looks. The raised snakeskin texture is part of what makes the edges rough, so results vary a lot, and a trim can't be undone. Our honest advice is to leave your deck as it is for now and wait to hear from us, so your options stay open. If you decide to try it anyway, please know you're taking that risk on. And if it works, share how you did it! We'd love to learn from you, and so would everyone else.

What happened, for transparency

Not as an excuse, but as some insight into what we've been navigating as fulfillment has unfolded. We had heard of a few other deck issues, which we put down to the normal challenges of making a physical product. We didn't yet know how many of you were having them when yesterday's email went out.

As I always try to do with life's lemons, I wanted to offer a poetic and fun way to look at a sour experience, so I wove the curve into a playful process and ritual for those who had received the deck and those still waiting. I also wanted to get this information out as soon as possible, while on a work retreat in México, knowing that a little information and guidance was all many of you needed. You had written to squawk@wildmessengers.com, our support inbox, which my husband, Tigre, manages solo.

For context, this is a two-person company, run by Tigre and me. Tanya, our card artist, licenses her art to us. She isn't responsible for support or for any of these issues. The two of us are, so please bring anything about your deck to us, rather than to Tanya.

The printing story

For this second edition we used two printers. One made the cards, because their prototype had the snakeskin texture we loved, and they promised the full run would match that sample. The other made the box and guidebook, because theirs were cleaner and sturdier (and that decision has panned out, thank goddess).

Partway through production, the card printer ran into trouble with the texture and changed their process. We saw early signs of issues, but only from afar and only to the degree they would communicate with us, which was very limited. When the cards reached our box printer, they flagged that the UV on the backs looked uneven, but nothing we saw at the time came close to the variation we've now seen in person. By that point we had already paid the final 50% that released the cards to our box printer. It was on us to ask for a new production sample. Given an already extensive wait, and timelines we felt pressured by, we trusted the results would still be OK and let the printers finish, so the decks could be boxed and shipped across the ocean to LA and arrive to your doorstep.

The card printer only showed us the wrapped decks after they had wrapped all 3,000: a) in the wrong paper color, and b) split into two stacks, following an old spec from an earlier box design that Tigre and I missed. The printer didn't check with us about it either, even though it didn't make sense for the new box design. We had no idea how tightly their machine wrapped the decks, or that it would cause the bowing you've already seen, or will once yours arrives.

Frustratingly, we saw the cards in person only slightly ahead of you, and our first spot checks landed on decks that, while not exactly what we had envisioned, still worked well in our own use. They felt 95% of the way there.
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It wasn't until we started hearing about large trim variations, UV far more uneven than anything we'd seen (including blurring and white specks or cloudiness we never saw ourselves), and cards pressed so tightly they pulled ink off each other's faces, that we realized the quality issues went beyond tightly bound decks.

A large part of this is on us. Timelines were a pressure we caved to. We rushed because we didn't want to disappoint you, and we disappointed you anyway. That was never our intent.

This deck has been eight years of our lives, with the last year and a half spent preparing for what should have been a hell yes experience for everyone.
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Instead, it has felt more like a hell no, and we're heartbroken it reached you like this.

Thank you for caring enough to tell us, and for walking with us on this journey back to integrity.

💜🦋✨
Lola & Tigre