A while back, Jackie Morris's otters on luggage tags gave me an idea for a story about a group of women artists working in a small city after a second pandemic. A time-travel story knocked it aside. Now, here comes Grace Ponder's deck of Yarn Tarot for Crocheters, Knitters, Spinners, and Weavers with the just the clue to jumpstart the neglected luggage-tag story again.
Even though I love fantasy, I have never been inclined to study the Tarot or use it for divination. But thanks in part to Leonora Carrington's Tarot, I'm now beginning to think of the deck as an art form that can illustrate a time period or consume a character's interest. In the case of my current story, one of the artists will have been working obsessively for years on a Tarot deck. She sees the blank cards as perfect for copying individual designs.
The Artworks website holds other possibilities to stimulate imagination or provide a helpful detail. Pub signs like Chris Wormell's, for instance. Bottles that illustrate The Nutcracker—or whatever you fancy. Trip diaries in watercolor. It's easy to waste time web-surfing, but what a resource!