Indra Tj - D ENGLISH FOR DESIGN 1 MEETING 9 Prepared by : Dr. Ir. Indra Tjahjani, SS, MLA, MMSI

Indra Tj - D Reading

Indra Tj - D R U B B I N G S The three main techniques, frottage ( frotter, to rub ), brass rubbings, and creative rubbings, each use wax rubbed onto a piece of paper.

Indra Tj - D FROTTAGE This is a technique developed by Max Ernst when he was working with the Surrealists, and it involves looking at the frottage (rubbing) until you ‘see’ something in the shapes, lines, and either adding more pieces (to make a collage) or drawing into it with a pen. Essentially, it ignores the subject of the rubbing. A rubbing of a plank of wood would suggest waves in the sea, sunsets, and landscapes.

Indra Tj - D BRASS RUBBING This is a method of reproducing what already exists; and involves little creativity. It has its uses in learning about the history of costume, social history, the history of art, just as the rubbings taken coins, man-hole covers, tree bark, tombstones, have their place in the study of natural history, numismatist, history, etc. In Britain, most churches contain medieval brass plate monuments let into the floor, which are excellent subjects for brass rubbings. The earliest extant is at stroke d’Abernon in Surrey, and dates from A.D The London Brass Rubbing Centre at St James Church, Piccadilly, London W1, is the major brass rubbing centre in Britain.

Indra Tj - D CREATIVE RUBBINGS With this technique, the rubbing is constructed by the person doing the rubbing. The technique capitalizes on the delight of an image appearing on a blank sheet of paper (merely by rubbing it with a wax crayon), as if by magic, but at the same time quite complicated aesthetic problems can be dealt with in making the original paper cut from which the rubbing is taken. These are the spatial relationships between the various shapes and between the shapes and the edges of the picture.

Indra Tj - D METHOD - 1 Cobblers’ wax (heelball) or any make of wax crayon is suitable for making a rubbing. Cobblers' wax is a very hard wax which gives particularly even distribution of tone and is excellent for bringing out work done in thin paper on the original, or work using folding (which the coarser waxes fail to reveal) but it gives a very grey rubbing with no strong tone contrasts. Avoid ones which give are too greasy and give an uneven build-up of wax on the paper leaving bare patches often unrelated to the original design. Try using gold and copper colored wax crayons on colored tissue or wrapping paper. When crayons wear down it will be found difficult to use the small pieces; these can be melted in an old saucepan and poured into a jar lid and used again. The paper on which the rubbing is made should be thin, strong and smooth (such as shelving paper).

Indra Tj - D METHOD - 2 Lay the sheet of paper down over the original (whether an engraved brass or a collage of paper cut-outs) and tape it down lightly at the corners so that it does not move during rubbing. Use the whole length of the wax crayon in rubbing, not just the tip. If you rub evenly all over the original, a rather grey picture results, with every part having the same emphasis. A more satisfying result is obtained if certain parts are made stronger in tone by harder rubbing, and other parts understated by only lightly rubbing with the wax. A greater sense of form can be expressed by the general direction and weight of the strokes.

Indra Tj - D PRINTING FROM RUBBINGS A heavy rubbing made with black wax crayon can be used to take a print from with a hot iron. To do this, lay the rubbing face down on a clean sheet of paper of the same size as the rubbing. With a warm iron, iron the back of the original rubbing with a medium hot iron. If the paper browns slightly, turn to a lower temperature setting. However the iron must be fairly hot, because the wax has to melt and the excess be absorbed by the lower paper. The quality of the print depends on the surface of the paper used for the print.

Indra Tj - D SEE THE EXERCISE IN THE SEPARATE DOCUMENT