Chinese zodiac dragon: Liechtenstein

Chinese Zodiac Signs are popular all around the world. The zodiac year plays key role in one's astrology. It is a twelve year cycle and each year is represented by some animal.  It starts with Rat year and goes on with Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and finally Pig.

These Lunar based Chinese Zodiac New Year usually falls between last week of January and first week of February of the Gregorian Calendar.

Silhouette, is an art of cutting the outline of the design, where as the inner structure is featureless.  It is made of single color, usually black against the light background color, usually white.  The finished work looks like a shadow image of an object.  It is a French folk art.

Filigree is an art of making small pores inside the design to give a unique look. Usually Filigree has done on gold and silver wares.  Karim Nagar, Andhra Pradesh in India is the home for this Filigree Work.

You can see the combination of Silhouette and Filigree work in many Chinese artifacts.  They have done filigree silhouette on mediums like leather, paper etc.,

Liechtenstein Post has issued few stamps using this Filigree Silhouette technique and the pores are done with the help of latest laser technology.  They used Red color for the stamps because in China red is the symbol of luck.

The above miniature sheet was issued on 14th November 2011.  The zodiac cycle and the letters are printed using Hot Gold Foil printing process.

The above miniature sheet was issued in 12th November 2012.  I have scanned the miniature sheet with a green paper in the back, so that the pores are visible.  The letters are printed with hot gold foil printing method.  Below is the reserves side of the stamp.

The "Year of the Horse" miniature sheets were issued on 11th November, 2013.