Longer than it looks. The shuffle itself is quick — a few minutes, filmed, done. The rest takes most of a day, sometimes longer if the deck is awkward or I have to stop and let glue set.

Once the order is fixed I start laying the cards out on the A1 board. I measure as I go so the rows stay even and the edges line up properly. Every card is placed by hand. Some decks are thicker than others (the Bourbon ones especially) so the spacing has to be watched or the whole thing starts to bow. Glue goes on carefully. Too much and it squeezes out at the edges, too little and a corner lifts later. I check each row before I move to the next one.

There are pauses. The board needs to sit flat while sections dry, otherwise it warps. I usually do the main assembly in one stretch, then come back the next morning to press anything that has shifted and clean the edges. Framing happens after that. The whole process from shuffle to finished, framed board is rarely under a full day of actual work, and often closer to two once you count the drying time.

People sometimes think because the idea is simple the making must be fast. It isn’t. The care is in the repetition — 52 or 54 cards, each one set so it stays flat and the order remains readable. When curators visit the studio in West London they can see the half-finished boards and the tools still out. It makes the finished ones feel less like they appeared all at once.

I don’t rush them. If a section isn’t sitting right I take it off and redo it. The certificate only goes on once I’m sure the sequence is locked and the surface is stable. Thats the pace.