I saw what you did and I liked them. Maybe they need to be larger. Maybe darker, more black, less grey. Contrast in other words. Who knows.

I still think the answer is some matting and a frame! ;]

A collage might take away from the uniqueness of each rubbing. Like the "13" you did. GREAT! I can totally picture that in an 11" x 17" frame with a nicely-cut matte, Matt.

i commented on your first rubbings post. i still think rubbings are cool. aye, that's the rub.

Scanning in the rubbing and blowing it up really big does make them look more interesting. It really brings out the tactile qualities that are interesting. However, you do lose that one-to-one scale replica of the original. In a way it becomes more like a photograph, because of the scale change. (hmmm, so that's one idea worth exploring, what else could there be...)

here's the answer. i'm giving away free art here. any body want some? it's all free.

you're doing rubbings. analyze the process and throw a twist on the process by challenging a step in the process.

In this case you are taking a sheet of paper; placing it over an object; rubbing the pencil over that object. the result is an interpretation of that object. a different look. the only way the viewer can tell what your object was was to view the rubbing and decipher.

Here's what you do. Do your rubbing like you normally do. Then and only then do you find an object of the exact same size. perhaps it is man-made to replicate the shape of your rubbing.

Pair the two items (rubbing and new object) together and wham-o ... you are instantly challenging the nature of the rubbing. people will ask: did the rubbing come from that? if not, then how is it related to the rubbing.

oh so that second object looks like the original that i did the rubbing from? Huh, so there is just a fine difference between the rubbing and this fake original. neat! Did you have this idea before I made the post on rubbings? OR did the rubbings post prompt this idea from your head?

i was very tired yesterday. i was ready to pass out. i forced the idea to oozed out of my ears. i wanted to respond cuz there's so many things that can be done with this rubbing thinger. i took a 2.5 hour nap when i got home. then that japanese game show on spike tv lifted my spirits. i like mentioning one little blurb about the blog post, then ramble on about something that doesn't relate to the blog. i think that's fun.

and what's up with laura's post? "i commented on your first rubbings post."

you're holding us back laura. c'mon. tell us what you commented in matt's first rubbing post. is this second rubbings post not good enough for you?

You forced the idea to ooze out of your ears? crimey. Usually I force ideas out of my nose when i blow my nose. Y'know how the Egyptians would pull the brains out of the mummy's nose, well it only makes sense that ideas would come out of your nose then.

Laura is being very slick and making us click on the previous link to the post so we can read and adore. It gives the spudart.org website more clicks and more clicks are welcome.

But! the spudart.org site believes that clicks are not all that important, I highly praise easy reading for my viewers over clicks and "hits".

That is why now every user who clicks the "Notify me when someone replies to this post" box will get the full comment in an email, and not merely a link. You can read the comment in the email, andif you decide to respond, you click the link in the email.

Otherwise, you'd get all these duplicate emails with duplicate links and it's very frustrating.

spudart.org does not believe in frustration of this kind. Frustration of other kinds can be welcome, but it really depends.

and for your convenience, here is the infamous laura post: "that is really cool. when i was in girl scouts, we used to go to the cemetary and make rubbings of the tombstones. sorta odd, now that i think about it..."

I read tom's post from June 26, 2002 "Hey, Matt! You could sell them on ebay!"

this would be very interesting. I would pay for rubbings from around the world. rubbings do something that photographs can't. they have touched the actual surface of the subject matter.

How cool would it be to have a rubbing from an ancient Mayan temple?

And imagine a rubbing from the floor number from an elevator where the planes crashed in the World Trade Center. Imagine how valuable that would be now.

Matt, Tom and I could put together a website of rubbings and sell them to the public. I imagine that the Wrigley Field and Sears Tower rubbings would be the most popular. I wish I took rubbings of all the places I have visited. That would be neat. Photos are nice, but they are missing the tactile quality that rubbings communicate.

I picture the rubbings website being all grayscale. All the graphics are done with pencil.

The idea of a website featuring rubbings is interesting. A photograph of rubbings. I established earlier the difference between rubbings and photographs, but with the website, you are combining the two. It's a crazy marriage of media. And the rubbings we sell on the website would have a photo next to them of the object and maybe a bigger picture. Like if i do a rubbing of part of the wall at wrigley field, i would photograph that slice of the wall and then i would photograph the general area where the rubbing was at.

i've been poking around the internet and i am absolutely disgusted at the lack of pencil rubbings. this is such a great idea.

there is nothing on ebay for "pencil rubbing" or "pencil rubbings" if you do a search for rubbing, you get all this stupid brass rubbings.

part of the reason why i love this rubbing idea so much is the affordable nature of rubbings. All you need to make a rubbing is a sheet of paper and a pencil and a texture. I live in Chicagoland so I can easily make rubbings of famous things in and around chicago and sell them to the world for a dollar. and vice versa. i could buy rubbings of an egyptian pyramid from some Egyptian dude for a dollar. And it's easy to ship! minimal cost! I love the basicness of this. But no has started this movement. I want this movement to start and i want it to catch on. Ebay could be a primary source for transactions. I'm sure fraud would be a problem, but i'm not concerned with that right now.

YES! THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I like you phrased it as "they have touched the actual surface of the subject matter". That word "touch" is very powerful.

But yeah, i was very saddened by the lack of good rubbings material on the web, there is totally nothing out there.

Another interesting point to bring is up is that each rubbing is unique to the creator. Each creator will have their own slight style of how they do a rubbing. Hard/soft. Slow/Quick lines. Long/Short lines. Diagonal/Horizontal/Vertical lines, etc.

Actually, I can set up a website with database cabailities to do this, so it's all automated. People can post their rubbings and a price. Or a swap type thing. What should we call the site?

What we really need is lots of friends or contacts in different places that would make rubbings for this group. Then it would take off.

Excellent ideas!! Call it "Rubbing It Over"!

i just reserved the website name, pencilrubbings.com. It will take a couple days for it to sink into the databases worldwide.

i just bought a couple 3x5" pads. i'm gonna carry it with me all the time to do my rubbings.

one of the series i'm gonna do is either the number 3 or the number 4. any time i see the number 3 or the number 4 and i can capture it in a rubbing, it will be rubbed. i can't decide if i want to do 3 or 4. I think 3 would have more variety in its shape. But it would be interesting to do 4 just to see how often you see the number 4 open or closed. (the top part of the 4).

why not do all the numbers? maybe that would start to get overbearing.

I'm curious how a 3x5" pad will work out. I was thinking of using 9x12".

Another neat thing about this is we don't have to worry if we cross over on some of the same things to rub, cuz we will each do it differently and have a different quality to it.

Now for methodology goes, when you rub, will you just hold the paper up with your hands or will you tape your paper up to get better registration?

though i haven't decided if i like having the lines on the pad. i like the charm of the lines, but i think the charm is gonna wear thin soon.

i have another idea for rubbings. this one's good. they have these silly old car shows all the time out here in the burbs where people drive their old fancy cars and park them on the street of downtown Elmhurst, Lombard, Villa Park, etc. I'll go and get rubbings of the name and emblems on all the old cars.

SAAAA WEET!

oh neat! cuz you can actually go up to the car and do it. I wonder how some of the owners would react to that. I bet some of them are so anal, they won't let you do it.

Yeah, i bet the lines will old fast. It's like making art out of barbie dolls. *yawn*

If i see a celebrity on the street, i'm gonna ask them if i can make a rubbing of their ear!

methodology. geez. it's hard for me to say. i'm such a rookie. actually, i've only done one since i've put all these posts. it really involves a certain techique. i'm gonna keep them in the book whilst i rub. that way if people ask what the hell i am doing i can show them the whole book.

you're gonna do a 9x12 book? that's huge!

i like the charm of having a 3x5 pad. rubbing is such a personal act. i feel the 3x5 helps enforce that personal activity. 9x12 starts getting too big and less personal. plus, carrying around a 3x5 pad is 10,000 times easier than carrying around a 9x12 pad.

i think i'm going to make my own 3x5 pad here at work. we have a binding machine. that way there will be no lines.

barbie doll art. that's funny. i hate barbie doll art. i saw a chick at the dollar store the other day. she was buying alot of dolls. i bet she was buying them for art stuff. she looked like she could be an artist. (don't ask me why i thought that. i would start to have flashbacks from senior seminar at iwu.)

here's another way to expand the technique of rubbings:

aluminum foil

though it's much hard to maintain a collection of aluminum foil rubbings. i guesss it's really not rubbing with foil. it's more like impressions or somethin'.

i suppose traditional rubbingists will declare aluminum as not rubbing. But more avant-garde rubbingists will say that foil is rubbing.

such controversy in the rubbing world.

man, i am a rubbing machine today. here's another cool idea.

rubbings of computer parts (especially motherboards).

how symbolic. you can imagine. i won't go into details.

I design greeting cards and did a commission one year with aluminium foil that was embossed. It worked out great!

the aluminum foil would be neat, but i think that's starting to get more in the area of making molds. Why not make a plaster mold of something and then start making ceramic molds or plastic molds. There is something inherently interesting about the action of the pencil lines. Something obsessive repeating over and over. And so much character in how you do the lines. It's a merging of artist feelings with a replica of an object.

rubbings of computer parts would be interesting. I wonder if they would be very abstract, or if you could tell they are computer parts.

Yes, the 3x5 pad is more intimate and easier to carry. We'll have to see the sizes of things that we rubb. Cuz after doing just a few, I've found that even a 8.5x11" was too small.

I remember using large sheets of paper whenever I did rubbings in school. 3 x 5 is too small, and as Matt indicated, even 8.5 x 11 might not be big enough. The weight of the paper can make for an interesting rubbing as well. I also remember not only using pencils but charcoal. Could it be that I even remember using pastels?

laura is funny. you make me lol. we will start another ebay bet one of these days (or years) and i will win. i am a winner. win will i. i win. after all, i am the proud owner of www.dirtcheapart.com and www.artdirtcheap.com

So, I was all pumped about doing rubbings at wrigley field this weekend. well, andrea and i got a late start and we didn't have time to do any rubbings outside of wrigley. i took a break around the 3rd inning and went on a rubbing search. I had major problems. There wasn't much. Damn! I shoulda gone in the bathroom. I bet there were some textures there.

and there's one factor that i did not realize: the geek factor. you look pretty damn silly doing a pencil rubbing in public.

yes, you do look like a geek when doing a rubbing in public. Imagine doing a rubbing at your workplace by the elevators. MAJOR GEEK! But that is part of the charm and uniqueness of doing the rubbing. And that also means that not everyone can do a rubbing. It takes guts.

Major textures in the mensroom at Wrigley..Oh brother! Don't even go there, dude!

Actually I find the "Geek" characteristic one of the more endearing characteristics of being a "rubber". Oops! I said it again!

And rubbers are gutsy. We are bold. We don't take 5hit from anyone. If a security guard comes to yell at us, we ask if we can rub their security badge. We are one tuff group. Don't mess with the rubbers.

wow, this rubbing post has now overcome the Pepsi Cool Million post for the most commented entry on my site. Check out the stats.

I did quite a few rubbings today at Boston Market. There are lots of textures in fast food restaurants.

There is a lady bug walking on my phone cord. ha! maybe i can do a rubbingof the lady bug.

I'm more interested in doing rubbings of man-made textures as opposed to textures in nature. Maybe i will leave the ladybug alone. It is doing laps on my phonecord. I could spend the rest of the day watching this crazy lady bug.

ladybug! aaah! watch out. It could be an alien killer ladybug! http://www.spudart.org/etc/ladybugs

But yeah, man-made rubbings are more interesting. Doing the nature ones makes it seem too childish to me (for now). Perhaps I will become more sophisticated in my rubbings.

Somewhere at home I have a rubbing of a VERY cool man hole cover that I took in St. Croix. I can't visualize it that's why I was searching for it, I just remember that it was very cool. At the time I thought I would take a picture, but then I thought it would be more interesting and more true to the cover if I did a rubbing. This was 2 years ago.

Tom, you are obviously the granddaddie of our pencil rub club (or pencil rub hub). You offer years of exerience. Your vast knowledge of pencil rubbing will only catapult our little pencil rub hub into absolute fame and fortune.

I am 101 years old. You know though, this could be huge...I really think so!

it is very difficult to do rubbings of the top or side of hot wheels cars. the bottoms are easier, but still a tricky challenge.

I'm finding that with 3-D items, using double-sided tape does a decent job of holding the paper in place [one of the "draw"backs to working those types of thing]. But you have to make sure you don't buy the Permanent kind. The Temporary stuff works best, lest you want to tear the paper and ruin your image.

There's another cool aspect of rubbings. Paper stock. I was at Schlotzsky's today ( http://cooldeli.com/ ). I used a napkin to make a rubbing of the food tray. I also used my receipt.

I especially enjoyed the concept of using the receipt. I always throw away my receipt. Not any more. I found a valuable use for this trash. Any time I go to a restaurant now, I will perform a pencil rubbing on the receipt from somewhere in the restaurant. That way, I have a dated pencil rubbing. And the rubbing's story is more informative with the info on the receipt. It takes the idea of a pencil rubbing being a personal record to the next level. I could write a whole essay on this.

I think you just did! That's a pretty cool idea! I was at Wildfire last night and it's one of those restaurants that gives you 14 receipts! Imagine if I'd gotten any sleep the night before last and was THINKING. Very cool idea.

yer gonna be using toilet paper while sitting on the john pretty soon. that's the next level of personalization.

LOL!

if i run into a famous celebrity, i am going to ask them if I could get a pencil rubbing of their teeth.

have you tried to do one of your own teeth first? I'm curious how that turned out.

At the risk of being censored, if I run into a celebrity, I'm not going to ask them to do a rubbing, I'm going to do the rubbing ;^b

I like the idea of doing a rubbing of the celebrity's teeth. Normally when people see a celebrity they give the celebrity a pencil and ask them to sign a piece of paper. Essentially asking them to do work for you.

But with your idea, the celebrity just sits there and you do all the work and handle the pencil. The celebrities will surely let you do this when they realize they have to do no work.

hey, this is post number 50 on this listing!
I was at Burger King yesterday. I was able to make a rubbing of my name on my receipt. I took the "er" out of burger and the "i" and "k" out of king to spell "ERIK". It was my first self-portrait rubbing.

hey! that's cool!

I've been taking rubbings from around the office. We all have name plates and I take a rubbing from my name plate on the rubbings that I do. It's like my signature!

well, i let the pencilrubbings.com url slip away a few months ago. *sigh* poor pencilrubbings. getting no luv.

Wow! Looking back on this makes me nostalgic! I remember running all over re-generating my interest in taking pencil rubbings.

PencilRubbings.com has a new splash page up now.

Wait a minute ... are you going to start selling pencil rubbings??

I'm starting to host websites. I'm renting a virtual server, and I'm getting my domains in order. Was using pencilrubbings.com as a test. But yes, eventually pencilrubbings.com will be THE source for the world's pencil rubbings.

That's pretty cool, spud

Hi,
My question is .Do you know anyone who is interested in purchasing English brass rubbings from England?My mom has many beautiful ones to sell when she did them in England.My Father was stationed overseas at one time..I would appreciate if you know of anyone .
Thank you
Donna Pysar

Donna,
I'm confused. You say you have "English brass rubbings".

Does that mean you have brass objects from England that make for nice pencil rubbings?

Or does it mean you have pencil rubbings that were taken from brass objects in England?

I'm interested in knowing too

are you selling brass rubbings from england - how much and where do i see a picture.

Hello Anna, I have some pencil rubbings from my trip to London and Salisbury in March/April 2005. I will post some of the rubbings for sale in my ebay store shortly. I will post a message here to let you know when they are up.