A few books

I made a few books.  They are practice books in several ways.  I need to work on my sawing skills so both of these books have hand sawed boards.  I need to work on my blind tooling so both of these books are blind tooled.  And I always need to work on my cover work.

So!  Two books:

 Small leather bound book. Signatures are sewn on cords.  Birch plywood book boards.  Blind tooled decorations.  I messed up my measurements so the diamonds are wonky.  Measure twice, tool once, people! 

Small leather bound book.  Signatures sewn on cords.  Birch plywood book boards.  Blind tooled decorations.  Measurements worked out better on this one.

Things I learned from these two books:

I think I want to make some templates for several basic tooling patterns so that the wonky diamond problem doesn't happen again.  I also want to get some basic leather stamps for more variety (currently I am using a stylus for lines and a nail head for circles). 

I need to figure out a better wood source.  These boards splintered a lot while sawing.  Also, better wood working.  I need to start beveling my edges.

I didn't make headbands on these books.  I should have taken the time to do it because headbands add a finished touch to these books.  Remember to do this, silly.

Old bones

No post last week because my brain was silly and didn't want to fence.

Birka was a problem.  I felt terrible and decided not to fence.

BUT!  I went to practice last night and it was great.

Things I am working on:

Stance
Breathing
Actually lunging instead of just tossing my arm out and hoping I am close enough

Stance:

I was really working it last night and my thighs were happy to let me know.  When I am in the stance, I feel better defended and mobile.  I still need to work on the "thoughtlessness" of the stance so that I can get into and stay without having to think about it so much.

Breathing:

Oh, man.  More breathing, more better.  Still working on it.  I think I had some small success but I really, really want to better at this.  I feel like it will make a BIG difference in my fighting and my braining.  I hate feeling so out of breath after a pass and it pushed brain buttons of being out of shape.  Which then push "I can't do this" brain buttons and things spiral out of control.  I don't want that anymore.  I can do this and if I remember to breath, I will do it better.

Actually lunging:

I practiced lunging after foot work and when I had some downtime.  I was aware of the time when I should have lunged and I didn't.  I also made active choices to lunge in passes.  And it was good.  I need to do more of that.

I am not going to make it to another practice this month, but I am considering taking Remy's Intro to Italian class at the Cambridge practice.  Even if I don't, I will get to other practices.  Need to let my ego go.  I am not good and that is okay.

New Year, New Fails

So, let's get back to it.

Fencing last night.

I struggle with fencing sometimes.  It has a lot to do with my brain and depression.  However, I made it to practice and I did more fencing than I expected.  I did get frustrated with myself over one match because I just didn't seem to be able to deal with an off-hand weapon.  I let it distract me too much.  I should spend more time on that in the future.  I should also bring my own non-dagger off hand to practice and play with it some more. 

My focuses recently have been on my stance and my breathing.  I find when I attack, I hold my breath.  It really hard to remember to breath in the middle of all the other things I am thinking about.  Also, focusing on breathing makes it harder to get into the "zone" where I let my body do things instead of having to tell it to do things.  I mean, if you have to tell yourself to breath, you also find yourself telling your body to parry and riposte.  It makes for inefficient fighting.  It also also keeps me from moving on past my first or second intentions.

Still, I need to breath.  So I will keep working on it until it works.

My stance is getting better.  I have been working on a deeper stance that seems to make the rest of my body move better.  I must have been doing it right yesterday because I was getting good aches while drilling foot work.  I do need to remember to drill my lunges after I lead foot work since I don't do lunges with everyone else.  I think I haven't adjusted my lunge to my new stance so I need to do some more work on that.

To sum up:

Working on - Stance and breathing
Good: occasionally remembering to breath through the whole match, better at keeping stance through whole match
Bad: occasionally forgetting to breath through the whole match, need to work on lunges from new stance.

Lastly, I need to start getting out more.  Sometime this month, I need to go to another practice and just force myself to be bad in front of other people.  I need to work on just working at fencing and letting my ego about it go.  I am not good and that is okay.  I don't need to be good to have fun.