St Martin's - in - the - Field is a church in Trafalgar Square which I have never been inside. However I have descended into the crypt on several occasions since arriving in London. No I have not developed a penchant for the caves under churches that would be a little too Vampire like, though I believe they can be more interesting then what happens in the church, but St Martin's is the place in London for doing brass rubbings.

I actually did one years ago in Queensland when I was a kid. It hangs in our bedroom here. And I did a charcoal rubbing in Glastonbury a few years ago. But the appeal has always been there.

Anyway I went along and tried a relatively small one to start with. It took about and hour over coffee in the quiet of the crypt. I became addicted. I have since done a few and have done all the life size ones available.

The Crypt has a shop and coffee shop and is popular for brass rubbing and there are plenty to choose from.

After picking a brass I take several photographs. It is surprising how much of the detail is hard to pick out after the paper is laid over the brass. And once the paper is attached it can not be moved until the brass is finished.

Of course it sounds like, "well obviously after you put paper over the brass it is hard to see". But the first step in to create a light trace with silver wax crayon.

All the crayons are different metals mixed with wax. They are much harder than normal drawing crayons. Colours include silver, pewter, brass, bronze, gold in the metals and blue, green, red and brown in the non metal waxes.

Start with the light silver trace to get a basic idea where the features of the brass are. Then gradually build up the layers of wax from light colours to dark. There is no going over a mistake and if you rub off the edge of the brass there is only a remote chance of rubbing the mark out.

Also press really hard to get a good shine of metal but don't do what I did today after 4 hours and punch through the paper. Some holes are easy to fix, but they are forever obvious.

There is a brass rubbing society here and many of the churches with the original brasses allow people to do rubbings in the church. I am going to pursue this and after I have wall papered the house be prepared to receive a rubbing in the mail as I will run out of space before I run out of brasses.

It is nice doing something arty while waiting for my nursing registration to come through. Plus it is dry and generally warm in the Crypt.