Printing a Tree Root

I noticed this tree root about a week ago.

I thought this would be fun to print but would need to come back with supplies. Now there are several ways to print this but I decided on the quick and dirty to start with – a crayon rubbing, a.k.a. frottage. I did a post on frottage several years ago and you can see that here.

Basically, all you need is paper, a crayon, and about 20 hands if the object is large. This really seems large but since it is on the ground it was easy to just tape the paper to the root. Using the side of the crayon, I started to rub the texture underneath.

I used two different color crayons for contrast. In case you are wondering what exact materials I used, I used Caran d’Ache Neocolor 1 wax oil crayons (NOT the water soluble ones). The wax oil crayons are very hard and make a crisp print. The paper is something called Masa, which I used in the post regarding printing the large leaf.

Here is the result. It actually looks better in person. However, I think I am going to try to print this again using water washable ink.