Categories
Divination

Crafting a Casting Tray

As I have a growing collection of non-tarot divination tools that involve casting (charms, bones, dice) I wanted a tray suitable for casting onto, with markings that divide the space into different areas, which I can use or ignore as I please each time I cast.

We’ve had an oak tray going spare since we bought our aquarium. It was supposed to be a shelf inside the cupboard of the unit the tank sits on top of, but in order to fit the filter into the cupboard, the shelf had to be removed. I fancied that I would use it as a tea tray, but it’s a bit heavy and awkward for that purpose, and it sat on the kitchen surface gathering dust. I knew I would find a use for it eventually, and it’s now my casting tray. It’s perfect for the job as it’s large enough to scatter things onto, and has a raised edge that stops things from falling off the sides.

I wanted to decorate the tray with a pretty pattern that separated it into flexible zones to use depending on my mood at the time. Sometimes I want a middle zone, an intermediate zone and an outer zone, like a bullseye, and other times I prefer to use quadrants, above, below, behind and ahead, the cardinal directions or the classical elements. I wanted a design that could be used for both, either, or none.

I considered burning a design into the wood with my pyrography pen, but the oak has a finish that might not be good for burning, and I didn’t want to do something permanent with a high chance of me ruining it. I also thought about paper or fabric inserts that could be swapped out when I changed my mind, but that seemed a bit elaborate and would also cover up the oak which I didn’t really want to do. I settled on a vinyl decal since we recently got a Cricut machine.

For the design itself, I decided to go for a diagonal cross to separate out four zones, with a circle in the middle and guides along the cross arms to indicate where the intermediate and outer zones would be if I wanted to use the bullseye pattern rather than the quadrants. It occurred to me that this would end up looking quite similar to the Helm of Awe but with fewer spokes, so it was from that symbol that I took inspiration. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

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