Baroque Bohemian Cats Tarot

baba-prague

Umbrae said:
[BPS; I’m terrified to think about the death card. Will this deck need a disclaimer (“No actual animals were injured in the making of this deck”) [/B]

Oh - dear, yes, the Death card. I have a feeling that it will be difficult indeed. The Tower and The Devil are more or less done and in fact weren't too hard. But Death? Not an easy one to do.

I don't want to go into all the details about how we've managed these pictures, but I will say that technically it was much harder than we expected. A photography session with cats usually takes two to three hours as one issue is that they have to get used to us and trust us - otherwise as Alex says, all we get is photos of cats looking suspicious! We also tend to arrive with toys (those feathers on sticks ones are just great) and we have been known to use the whipped soured cream available here - for bribing! (it doesn't upset cats stomachs the way ordinary cream can). But in the end, we just rely on incredibly kind owners - the book and site will have full credits to all the people who have participated. Plus we want to build in some way of making donations to the cats homes here - amazing places, we met one feral that it took TWO YEARS to domesticate - they do not destroy cats, but instead keep them for as long it takes.

Whoops Umbrae and Hudson, bit off the subject but it is nice to talk more about the cats themselves.
 

baba-prague

HudsonGray said:
Astra's right about the SCA, if you get them done before 2nd week in August I know 2 or 3 dealers who would be interested in having them at Pennsic.

(this site cracks me up! www.mycathatesyou.com)

Thanks for that - it's good of you to suggest Pennsic (and that cat site cracks me up too!). I would hope that the deck will be published around April this year (as long as we go on working until eleven every night - it really IS that time-consuming, but it's very enjoyable work so not complaining). It will be published in the US two months later (our distributors explained the usual thing about the time it takes to cross the Atlantic).

We'd love to get to one of these tarot events ourselves, but I don't think it's going to happen this year.
 

Summerdream

I LOVE this deck. It will definately be on my wishlist and if it takes 2 months longer to arrive in the U.S., I'll just have to go ahead and order from your site as soon it becomes available. I ordered the Tarot of Prague from your site and that is one of my favorites too.

Catdoc, I wanted to say, your deck will be on my wishlist too. They both have cats but are very dissimiliar in style. When do you think your deck will be available? Are you just doing the majors or the minors too? I have to say, I am practically a neighbor, because I live in Maine too; although not Portland and will be most glad to have a deck in my collection made by someone in my own state!

By the way, I am allergic to cats so this is as close to a cat as I'll get by owning these two decks....lol.

PS. Is anyone making a dog deck soon???? I own a beagle and would love a dog deck!

Blessings,
Momof3girls
 

catdoc

Momof3girls,
We will both probably be purchasing baba-prague's fashionable cats well before my deck is complete. I have been making slow but steady progress and I am beginning the minors now. Though my staff loves my cards, my suggestion that I take a few months off to paint full time falls on deaf ears. If I don't work, none of us gets a paycheck ;-(

I will post new cards as they are completed and any news on this page.
http://www.catseyetarot.com

It will definitely be a full 78 card deck. I have also been making notes which will eventually become a companion book. It should be fun. I am a disciple of the Joan Bunning school of tarot, so her keywords, and actions are the ones that resonate for me and are the basis for my card images from a cat's point of view....My 22 years of workin with both feline patients and their human companions will also color this work.

As to making a dog tarot deck....
Cat and Dog lovers (or at least #of households which own them in the USA) run almost neck and neck. Cat owners edged out the dog owners in the late 80's in Maine. So lack of dog fans is not the reason for the paucity of dog decks. Having worked with both I have to think it is the complexity of cat psychology which makes them the more likely candidate for inclusion in the tarot. Dogs are just so simple and open in their approach to life. The many breeds would provide variety, but the subtle nuances of tarot messages would be difficult to acheive using only dog images IMHO.

Next time you visit Portland stop by the Cat Doctor on Brighton Ave and say hello (if your allergies will allow a brief how-do-you-do)

Deb
 

Astra

baba prague - for the Death card, how about a few drifting canary feathers? Cats are much more pragmatic about the whole area.
 

Demonesse

Beautiful. ToP with Cats it is. I can't resist either catdoc's or baba-prague's interpretations of felines and tarot.

...but...but... I don't even LIKE cats, and besides, I'll never be able to afford them (the decks, not the cats)...

...nooooo!

I feel the twitches of a new tarotholic attack!
 

baba-prague

feathers?

that's quite a thought!
In the end, we are following RWS really quite closely in this deck, so Death will have a strong influence of the RWS Death - but of course with a twist.

This deck is intended as a reading deck, and so we don't want to "fluffify" it, but on the other hand, well, it is cats, and so we are tending to do any dark elements with humour, so as not to be too heavy or serious (for example, there is a dog in The Devil card - of course :) )

Anyway, for now here is a very small Queen of Swords. A bit hopeless at this size as it's actually one of the most detailed cards. I'll try to upload it on our site soon.
 

Attachments

  • c_queen_swds_very_small.jpg
    c_queen_swds_very_small.jpg
    26.9 KB · Views: 169

catdoc

I can't get over the clothing. Are they really complete original creations in cat size? This 'Queen' has a bit of a sour puss on. I guess that may be appropriate for the Queen of Swords. Were you particular about cat gender in chosing which cat appeared on which card, or were expression and color more important?

The companion book needs to contain a section on the 'making of the Baroque Bohemian Cat Tarot'. I hope you are working on the documentary as you proceed.

Deb
 

baba-prague

I think it's the size. When you can see it properly she looks thoughtful and a bit sad, but I hope not more than that. She is a nice cat actually - lives with a friend and is a very sunny character in real life (but also intelligent).

So, yes, the costumes really are real ones. In fact, Anna being the kind of very meticulous person she is actually used only genuine baroque patterns (we all took part in finding them - quite a bit of time spent in libraries and on the web) which she then scaled down. Alex made a proper wire hoop based on a drawing in a book on baroque costume. We even have some underwear too - underslips, so that the skirts fall well.
My part is simpler by the way - I find and then sew on trimmings!

Here is Anna working on one of the female costumes (in Finland - for Finnish design aficionados, you can just see the Marimekko fabric curtains in the corner) . We tend to use only natural fabrics, mainly silks but also some wools and linens. The real difficult one to sew was the vintage silk velvet you can see in the cloak on the Two of Cups (which Alex has now changed a bit by the way - I told you so!)

I know all this must sound a bit obsessional, but while you can't see all the details in scans you WILL be able to see them in the final cards (oh - yes, in answer to the earlier question they will be quite large, about as large as we dare while making sure they are easy to handle and shuffle). In the end the detail will make a difference - well I hope so :) I think a lot of beauty is often in the detail - especially when you want a thing to last and even, hopefully, be treasured (I don't like the idea of decks being discarded).

Oh - and yes, we do try to match gender and personality when we can. I think I said already that the King of Swords is a Supreme Champion here who was pushing around all the cats at his home - lovely cat, but oh boy, was he over self-confident!
We actually have used a female cat for the Knight of Swords, but I like to think of her as a rather dashing girl-dressed-as-boy type character. In reality she is a VERY large Siberian, so not obviously a girl by appearance. She is also totally fearless. Her owner said "that cat is afraid of nothing" LOL, so she fits with this card.
We've also been very careful about age. The Heirophant and Hermit are both rather elderly cats. The Pages are all around six-months old.

This may be more detail than you want. Apologies if so. But we are totally absorbed right now :) Catdoc, I think you can probably relate to that!
 

Attachments

  • annaphoto2_small.jpg
    annaphoto2_small.jpg
    20.5 KB · Views: 172

Melvis

Wonderful, fabulous, stunning, amusing, charming, um, let's see, I think that about covers how I feel about this deck.


No, wait, there's a couple of things that it is not. I think it is: not too cute, not too serious, not too 'fluffy', not too precious, and not too detailed so as to overwhelm. I don't go for happy-pretty-sweet kitty things like cat-shaped frames or dangly cat earrings...unless they have the proper attitude, that is! (And yes, I really enjoyed that "My Cat Hates You" website, HudsonGray! ;) ) I just loooove cats with attitude! And I fully believe that the Chariot cat is thinking, "I am coming right over there and kicking your a$$, mister! Hyah! Hyah!" I love it!

Well, I guess that does it, other than to say that I think it's perfect! Well done, Karen and Alex and Anna!

Peace,

Melvis
:TSTRE