Fabrication of the slides
Fabrication of the original series
Basic to all the pictures was a gouache in black, white and grey tones on a larger format. These cover-color pictures contain the proper design of the picture, which was then exposed and multiplied on black-and-white slide film.
After development the film strips were wetted and colored with transparent albumin colors. This is how the effect of the prettily gleaming background was created.
Also, due to a touch of the brush on the wet film, is, for instance, the yellow shine of the lantern in the house of the seven dwarfs. Because of the wetness the yellow touch merges slightly with the violet-blue background.
The small red surface which should not coalesce was painted with a fine brush after the film was dry again.
Those pictures that show night were not colored, but underwent a special development procedure; the so-called blue-development. All parts that normally would appear as black then appear as blue surfaces.
When all coloration processes were done the dried film was cut in single pictures and was framed by home workers.
In preparation for sale, every slide series was tied with a colored strip of paper and given a black and white printed title illustration.
Attached to each series was a text flyer with the shortened Grimm's tale, folded to the size of the slides.
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Download of the
original flyers: Hänsel and Gretel  Snow-White Cinderella The Valiant Little Tailor The Seven Ravens Frog Prince Mother Holle Hans in Luck |
This is how the slides were given to a traveling salesman. We do not know anything about the extent of these sales or about the number of slides sold. We would be very pleased to hear from anyone who possesses Heimel-Slides!
A different procedure was in parts applied to the series of »The Seven Ravens«, and completely so to »Hans in Luck« and »The Wishing-Table«.
Basic to these ones were black and white contrast pictures, largely doing without grey shades. The contour drawings were colored on the dried film afterwards.
Such a detailed coloring certainly was very laborious. However, Mellmann planned to apply the same procedures to new editions of the other series. There are pre-stages for the series »Hänsel and Gretel«, »Frog Prince« and »Snow-White and Red-Rose«.
About the same time, Heinz Mellmann attempted to change to color films. For this aim he photographed the black and white drawings on a large format positive film, put it between two plates of glass and colored the picture with transparent colors.
This is how the new editions of »Hänsel and Gretel« and »The Valiant Little Tailor« and the colored pictures of »The Bremen Town Musicians« were made.
The colored plates of glass should be multiplied on color slide film. To this intention, however, there are only experimental prototypes left. They were never published because of Heinz Mellmann's untimely death.
