دليل
How This Deck Was Made: The Real Process Behind a Mother-of-Pearl Digital Deck
Let's be clear from the start: the cards on this site are not made from real shell inlay. The images were created with an image generation model, and we composited the card borders to standardize all 78 cards to the same size. This article is an honest record of that process and its limitations.
What This Deck Is
It's a set of 78 digital cards. Each file is an 832×1248 JPEG, used for on-screen display and print previews. We've never printed and sold a physical deck.
It's not a mother-of-pearl lacquerware craft. No shells were ground or cut, no lacquer was applied, and no drying was managed. There's no workshop, no production notes, no humidity logs. In this deck, 'mother-of-pearl' refers to the visual texture of the images, not the material.
The iridescent sheen inside the cards is painted into the images, and the shimmer you see when tilting the screen is a CSS effect. The material doesn't reflect light; the screen is drawn to look that way.
How the Images Were Made
For each card, we wrote a scene description in sentences and fed it to an image generation model. We specified the figure's pose, gaze, clothing, background terrain, and light direction in text, then selected the result that best matched the card's meaning.
The generated images were composited into a card frame. We measured the inner window's coordinates and cropped all 78 images to the same position and size, so even though the artwork varies per card, the border and margins stay consistent.
When recreating a card, we keep a record of what changed from the previous scene description. The prompt is the production log, and the resulting image is its output.
What We Took from Mother-of-Pearl and Dancheong
We referenced the patterns and light textures used in mother-of-pearl lacquerware, especially from Tongyeong and Wonju. We didn't replicate the craft process; instead, we translated the color flow and pattern density of a finished mother-of-pearl surface under light into the images.
The five colors of dancheong (traditional Korean decorative coloring) served as a basis for dividing the card palette. We didn't apply blue, red, yellow, white, and black directly; we adjusted them to avoid oversaturation or dullness on screen.
We also drew on symbols from minhwa (folk painting) and the Ten Symbols of Longevity. Cranes, deer, turtles, pine trees, and plum blossoms—long-used motifs—appear as background elements in the cards.
Clothing and Iconography
The figures' clothing is based on late Joseon dynasty attire. We specified سترة قصيرة (jacket), معطف طويل (overcoat), gat (hat), satgat (bamboo hat), braided hair, and shoes according to each card's status and situation. Since silhouettes varied by class and occupation even in the same era, we wrote separate clothing details for each card.
Some cards reference Rider-Waite-Smith iconography, while others keep the iconography but change only the background and clothing. The criterion was simple: does the image convey the card's meaning more accurately?
We don't claim definitive historical accuracy in clothing. We consult uigwe (royal protocols), paintings, and surviving artifact plates, but when sources differ, we don't force one as correct; we note which we used and why. Unverified elements remain as educated guesses.
Rules We Actually Followed
Each card features only one symbol in the foreground. The mother-of-pearl sheen is background; the figure and symbol are the protagonists. For every card, we specify clothing, background, and light source in the scene description, and if the generated result deviates, we regenerate it.
Before publication, code checks the content: text length, paragraph count, banned words, internal links, structured data, and the number and length of sentences in translations. This check is a safeguard against irrelevant text, not a guarantee of factual accuracy.
The card interpretations and this page's text are drafted by AI, then fact-checked and edited by the operator before publication. Card names, meanings, and translations are managed as locale-specific data files.
Limitations and Corrections
The limitations of the image generation model remain. Regenerating from the same description yields different results, and details like fingers, fabric patterns, or background elements can be distorted. That's why we generated multiple versions per card and selected the best.
Since this isn't a physical material, the colors don't actually change with light angle. The shimmer on screen is a visual effect; it disappears when printed.
The initial version of this page included a claim about recording humidity and drying times in a workshop. That was untrue, and we replaced the entire page on November 14, 2026. If you find any other incorrect statements, email us at info@aikorea24.kr, and we'll verify and correct them.
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