 In this episode, we will create images of leaves using a printmaking technique called rubbing. Hello, and welcome to Make Time. My name is Ryan, and I'm a studio guide at the Makerspace that's a part of the Long Beach Public Library. In this Print Make Time mini-series, we will be learning a variety of printmaking projects that you can make at home. Today, we're going to learn a printmaking technique called rubbing. Using crayons and other writing utensils, we can make an exact copy of a flat object like a leaf or flower on paper. We can then reuse this object to rub and print as many copies of it as we want. The form and texture of an object appear on our canvas when the surface of the object has strong rigid details. A unique advantage of rubbing is its ability to exactly transfer the texture and fine surface details of objects onto paper. This is why it has proved helpful in criminal forensics at crime scenes. Rubbing goes back hundreds of years and has been done in many different ways. We will be blending non-traditional methods with very old and modern printmaking techniques, such as frotage. Let's get started. Make sure you have a clean flat surface where you can create your art. You are going to need four materials. First, you need a drawing utensil. Crayons work best for this art project. You can be creative by using many colors. If you don't have crayons, that's okay. Pencils and colored pencils also produce strong results. Other drawing implements that work well include charcoal, chalk, pens, and ink. Next, you need a canvas, which will become your art. I recommend a piece of regular printer paper because it is not too thin and not too thick. You are also going to need scratch paper to protect your work surface. You can use old newspapers or printer paper. Finally, our fourth material we need are the objects that we are going to print. We are going to print objects that we find in nature in our neighborhood. We are going to look for leaves, grass, or flowers. This is because objects that are thin, lie flat, and have many ridges and details on their surface work best for this project. Let's go find them. Bring an adult or guardian to help you find leaves and plants in your neighborhood. Be respectful of people's properties and of the plants. Ask an adult before you pick up something that might be too dirty or a habitat for a small critter. You need only between about 5 and 10 leaves. If you don't find any leaves, you can use other flat organic material like grass, flowers, or even crumpled pieces of printer paper. Remember to look for plants with an interesting shape, form, and texture. Instead of looking for the most colorful plant, try feeling the plant with your fingers. You can also try to identify and name the plants you find. Do you have kind of first ever green trees with thin needle leaves nearby? Or maybe dandelion flowers growing in the sidewalk? Didn't find any good leaves outside? Try looking in your fridge. The leafy greens that you eat work just as well for this project as the ones outside. Once you have found the leaves or material that you're going to use, you can go back to your workstation. First, lay down your scratch paper. You want it to be at least a few inches larger than the surface of your paper canvas. Then you can choose your first leaf. You might want to coin or wipe it off before using it. I'm going to use this leaf that is from a jasmine vine. Put it on your scratch paper underside up so that the bumpy veins of the leaf are facing you. Now place your paper canvas on top of the leaf. This is why we want it to be flat. Position it so that the leaf is behind the area of your canvas where you want it to appear. This kind of artistic arrangement is called composition. Once you begin rubbing, you can't lift up your paper because it is difficult to place it back in the same position and continue rubbing. Decide if you want it to have a blank border around your canvas. If you want it to have specific patterns or something else. Choose a crayon and unwrap it from the paper. Lay it on its side and firmly rub it against the paper. Hold your canvas to prevent it from accidentally moving away from your printing object. I recommend rubbing your drawing utensil in many different directions, speeds, and strengths to find the best method for seeing the shape you are making a rubbing of. Instead of rotating your canvas to get a better angle, try moving the scratch paper. This will ensure that the object under your canvas stays in the same spot. Sometimes though, you can't move your object and you have to move your canvas. Some ancient rubbings were done by placing paper over stone carvings. You can try that by making rubbings of the sidewalk or other textured surfaces. Cool! We can see the image of the leaf appear. You can now make a second and third print of the same object, maybe with a mirror effect. You can use a different color or drawing utensil. Or you can layer your other leaves under your paper canvas and make rubbings of them too. The more prints you make of an object, the flatter it becomes, which sometimes is helpful or sometimes becomes less detailed. If you're using a pencil, you can try quickly rubbing the lead gently or hard against your paper. It might be easier to hold the pencil at an angle close to the paper. It can also be helpful to use the pad of your finger to blend pencil and oil pastel marks. This is what my finished rubbing print looks like. I think I might turn it into a card or hang it up on my refrigerator. Now that I'm done, I'm going to clean up my work area. If you want an additional challenge for this project, you can try these ideas. Using scissors, you can cut your paper canvas into different shapes like this. You can even cut out the leaves and paste them onto a new art project. A second idea you can do is add watercolor paint to your leaves or to your paper canvas. If you use crayons, the watercolor will paint around your drawing. This is called a wax resist, and it's because crayons are made from wax and wax repels water. Check out our make time videos about Kirigami, bullet journaling and book binding for more ideas for your rubbings. Let's check in with some of our other studio guides and see their rubbing prints. Thanks for sharing everyone. Those were really cool. Now that you have seen other prints people have made, it's your turn to create your own prints. That's it for today. We made some cool and beautiful rubbing prints using objects from nature. Thank you for making time to join us at Print Make Time. Be sure to check out the link in the description box below for more printmaking resources at the Long Beach Public Library. And look for our other printmaking and make time videos. Until next time.