The Fool – how to depict a free and feckless feline?
The Fool is one of those cards that everyone has an opinion about. In the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) Tarot, he is shown as someone smiling blithely as he steps off a cliff. He (or indeed, she) is reckless, in some ways thoughtless, and yet…
Slow but sure on his hobbyhorse. The cautious Knight.
Some people find the Knight of Pentacles (or Knight of Coins as he was known prior to the Rider Waite Smith “RWS” system of Tarot) slightly boring. Compared to the dynamic Knights of the other three tarot suits, he can certainly seem less exciting. However, we…
Aiming for an amazing Two of Pentacles – a hopeful harlequin juggler.
The Two of Pentacles is is a tarot card that we always enjoy designing because there are so many possibilities for conveying the broad idea of juggling a lot of things at once! We knew almost immediately that we wanted to show a cat in…
How to made a Baroque theatre – for cats! Part 2
It's not every day that a carpenter is asked to create a mini Baroque theatre for cats! It was a challenge that Dirk took on with enthusiasm - here he explains how he worked with Karen and Alex to make the perfect setting for The…
Because the first step is working out how to make a Baroque theatre…
This video explains how Karen and Alex made the decision to use a theatre setting for the new Bohemian Cats project, drawing inspiration from previous images they had created (as well as from a vivid dream Alex had!). When it came to making this vision…
A scary feline – it’s the Cat Devil puppeteer.
We wanted this Cat Devil card for The Bohemian Cats’ Theatre Tarot to be full of symbolism and with a depth of meaning. After much thought, we turned to a very old table-top theatre that we bought from Austria, and two Czech puppets from Antonín Münzberg, a good,…
Anthropomorphic felines: our love of cat stories.
The Bohemian Cats images that we are currently making at BabaBarock are a new approach to the very old tradition of anthropomorphic felines. Today, we think nothing of seeing a cat dressed up, walking on hind legs and talking. They can be seen in animated films, cartoons,…
The Bohemian Cats’ Theatre project – new beginnings
The original Baroque Bohemian Cats’ Tarot and the Bohemian Cats picture book date all the way back to 2003/4 and has been through several versions since. We’ve always loved living with cats and it came naturally to us to build to make an entire fantasy…