Practical Mint Rubbing Technique

we have been stressing the advantages and qualities of rubbing mint for over three years now. while our efforts do not pass unnoticed, some people have complained that our approach is too theoretical in nature. in order to address this issue, we have decided to release to the world some of the more efficient mint rubbing methods in use today.

meetings, seminars, discussions, presentations, time spent at the office or in classrooms - so many different activities with one common denominator: the need to make time pass more quickly. when thinking of this, one of the methods that immediately comes to mind is the time honored tradition of idle drawing. some people draw lines or circles to make time pass faster. some people draw bunnies or flowers. abstract patterns. lansdscapes of their dream vacations or portraits of their annoying bosses or teachers.

while all of these approaches have their merits, we here at mintrubbing.org would like to work a bit on this technique. this is how we have come up with a pattern that has all the qualities that a serious mint rubber is looking for, such as:

- scalability. this is essential since the pattern can be scaled down and completed in as fast as ten minutes, or scaled up and completed in several hours. having one single pattern to work on for the entire duration of a meeting or presentation is vital, since this gives one a sense of purpose and a definite goal to achieve.
- minimum requirements. while not everyone can draw cute bunnies or accurate geometrical shapes, our proposed pattern requires minimum artistic or technical drawing skills. the pattern is easy to draw and the end-product is beautiful to the eye.

in the paragraphs that follow we will present a step-by-step practical guide on this method of rubbing mint with a pen and a sheet of paper. let's get started.

get a sheet of paper and a pen - these are all the tools we will need for now. identify a chair in the back of the classroom or conference room to minimize chances of being disturbed by annoying teachers or bosses. start by drawing a square.

the size of the square will determine the time that you will spend working on the pattern. in time you will learn to correlate the size of your drawings with the time spent making them. now divide the square in a grid of rows by drawing a number of horizontal parallel lines, as shown below:

the height of all rows should be the same. next, draw a number of vertical parallel lines equal to the number of horizontal lines draw in the above step. your goal is to divide the original square in a grid of smaller squares (which we shall call cells), as shown:

now draw one diagonal for each row of cells, as show in the next picture:

remember, just one diagonal per row. finally, in a similar way draw one diagonal for each column:

these steps may look tricky, but in practice they're quite easy. you have now completed the first (and easiest) part of our assignment. what you have on the piece of paper in front of you is a wireframe of the pattern that you will create in the next couple of hours:

now it's time to start the real work. begin with the first row. notice how the row is divided in two equal parts by its diagonal. each one of these parts is divided into a number of unequal shapes (some of which might be missing due to imperfections in the drawing process - don't worry about this for now). beginning with the first part of the first row, start filling each alternate shape with ink, using your pen. finish the first half, and do the same for the other half of the first row. no two shapes that share a common line should have the same color (by color we mean either white or black, or the color of the pen you're using). please remember that some shapes will be hidden due to human drawing imperfections, so try to understand the principle of the pattern before filling a shape.you might get a better idea of how to fill out each row from the computer model below:

this activity can keep you busy for hours. the pattern used as an example here took about one hour to complete, but a larger paterrn and/or a less experienced mint rubber will require more time.

the fact that shapes are unequal will guarantee that you will not loose interest in this project. furthermore, as you finish filling out each row, the pattern will begin to reveal itself before your very eyes, urging you to finish it. thus, many enjoyable hours can pass as fast as minutes.

the end-product should now look like this:

notice how the top right corner has been mistakenly filled with ink - it should have remained white (this mistake was made on purpose. attention is key, of course). if some unexpected additional time needs to be filled, you can start a second phase of your little project. find a pen that has a different color than the one you used so far and start working on the remaining white spaces. we have found that a pen and a pencil create a very nice contrast. nevertheless, two pens of different colors are just as good. take a look at our completed example below:

it looks nice, doesn't it? if you have been following these instructions accurately and have created your own pattern, now look at your watch. time flies when you're having fun.