The Applied Technique
The illustrations by Farangis for Obayd-e Zakani’s ‘About Cat and Mice’:
- The graphics (linoleum blocks) as handprints from the original linoleum cuts, initially black and white, later 4- and 5-colored
- The text in German/Farsi as an offset print
TThe 10 graphics were initially designed and crafted by Farangis as black and white prints, but the later edition that she worked out together with the German hand printing press the Harrisfeldwegpresse, consists of the multicolored prints that you can see on this site.
For each additional color Farangis had to create an exactly fitting extra linoleum block, to thus translate the originally black and white picture into a multicolored series of illustrations.
The multicolored edition, handprinted by the Harrisfeldwegpresse from the original linoleum cuts by Farangis, uses a card box as a container that holds the 10 separate handprints and the text of the fable both the original Farsi and a German translation. The paper size of the prints is 45 cm x 34 cm, and the edition had been limited to a number of 60. Each print is signed by Farangis.
TThe design of the card box consists of a typographical Farsi pattern and the colors are bright, ranging from a dark purple to a lilac and a pale 'orangish' tone. The container boxes have been handcrafted by Helmut F. Binder. The text of the story is on a separate large folded sheet of paper, in Farsi and German. The translator of the German version is Lieselotte Stracke-Stieler.
The graphics and the typographical text elements were made in separate printing processes, to ensure a technically proper treatment of each printing medium. The paper which has been used for the graphics of the multicolored edition is a rather untypical copper printing paper, which produces an exceptional colorfulness of the linoleum prints.
