Informacje
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 artwork is generated by an image model, and the card borders are composited 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 or sold a physical card deck.
This is not a piece of mother-of-pearl lacquerware. 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 artwork, not the material.
The pearlescent sheen inside the cards is painted into the image itself, and the light that shifts as you tilt the card on screen is a CSS effect. It’s not a material reflecting light; it’s the screen rendering that appearance.
How the Artwork Was 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, attire, background terrain, and light direction in the text, then selected the results that best matched the card’s meaning.
The generated images were composited into a card frame. We measured the inner window 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 notes on what changed from the previous scene description. The prompt serves as the production record, and the resulting image is the output of that record.
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 into the artwork.
The five directional colors of dancheong (traditional Korean decorative painting) guided our color palette. We didn’t apply blue, red, yellow, white, and black directly but 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—these long-used motifs appear as background elements in the cards.
Attire and Iconography
The figures’ clothing is based on late Joseon dynasty attire. We specified krótka kurtka (jacket), długi płaszcz (overcoat), gat (hat), satgat (bamboo hat), braided hair, and shoes according to each card’s status and situation. Since silhouettes vary by class and occupation even within the same era, we detailed the outfit for each card.
Some cards follow the Rider-Waite-Smith iconography, while others keep the iconography but change only the background and attire. The criterion was simple: does the image convey the card’s meaning more accurately?
We don’t claim definitive historical accuracy in attire. We reference uigwe (royal protocols), paintings, and surviving artifact plates, but when sources differ, we don’t force one as the answer. Instead, we note which version 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 texture serves as background, with the figure and symbol as the main focus. For every card, we specify attire, background, and light source in the scene description, and if the generated result deviates, we redo it.
Before publication, code checks the cards. It verifies text length, paragraph count, forbidden words, internal links, structured data, and the sentence count and length of 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 in locale-specific data files.
Limitations and Corrections
The limitations of the image generation model remain. Recreating 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 there’s no physical material, the colors don’t actually change with light angle. The shimmer on screen is an effect, and it disappears when printed.
The initial version of this page included a description claiming we recorded humidity and drying times in the workshop. That was false, and we replaced the entire page on November 14, 2026. If you find any other incorrect statements, please email info@aikorea24.kr, and we’ll verify and correct them.
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