RSS
Home
Making paper rubbings as a family
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Rubbings can make beautiful nameplates.
Making rubbings with a crayon and a piece of paper is a fun and frugal way to spend time family time, preserve art, look at the world, and enjoy your environment. Whether leaving the house or staying in, rubbings can be made with little skill and little money. They can also be made indoors and outdoors.
What is a rubbing? It is texture that has been transferred to paper with a crayon. Remember being a youngster and placing a penny or fallen leaf under a sheet of paper then rubbing with a crayon (or pencil) on its side? By looking at your environment, other unusual and fun textures can be found for rubbings. Findings in and around a house could include keys, grates, fireplace screens, lamp bases, carved wooden furniture, manhole covers, vent covers, fancy doorknob plates, spoon handles, and picture frames.
By picking a familiar museum or building to make rubbings, a new dimension of enjoyment may take hold. My family recently visited a favorite spot, the Iowa Statehouse. I had received permission to lift rubbings the day before our visit. We've always liked the door hinges in that building, and now we have rubbings as mementos to add to our photo album! I had always photographed them in the past, so I knew they were there and that they were interesting to look at, but I had never looked at the fixtures in the Statehouse as closely as I did that day. Rubbings from plaques and the many stone monuments on the grounds outside can also be lifted successfully.
Rubbings can make unique cards, bookmarks, frame art, and book covers. I've also seen window shades and screens made from rubbings that were lifted with a long roll of paper. Mementos can be kept flat or rolled in cylinders in keepsake boxes.
