(no subject)
Today I am leafing through my brand-new copy of the catalog from the Metropolitan Museum exhibit, Art of the Samurai. As I doubt I'll get back there before the exhibit closes in a few weeks, it's the only way for me to see the other items that rotated in after my visit early on.
The catalog is very informative in its own right, and the photos are pretty darn good, especially of the swords, the details of which are notoriously difficult to photograph. And they included rear views of some of the armor, which shows off the details of the cordwork. Alas, it was really neat to look up underneath the gear and see, for instance, the suspension of the helmets (I knew to look for it because Mr. Boss mentioned it) and the underside of the plates, and you won't get that sort of shot in a catalog.
Yesterday I helped my sister-in-law pick up sewing supplies for her grand-daughter who is being gifted a sewing machine, and as a thank you for the basic assistance I'm going to provide, she also got me a couple of yards of unbleached denim which I'm going to make a second naginata/yari bag from. I figure four pockets should do it, in roll-up style like the smaller one I made for tachi/kodachi/tanto.
Tomorrow I'm checking out a lumber place that's just around the corner from my in-laws' offices. We were driving by, and I saw the sign, "Exotic Lumber, Inc." They had closed at noon, but are open tomorrow. Their species list includes padauk, purpleheart, jatoba, yes . . . but also osage orange, which is supposed to be very good. I'll see what there is. Of course if there's anything suitable in polearm length, I can't exactly get it home right now, but we'd cross that bridge if we came to it.
In the meantime, I'm thinking about a conversation that's come up at Kendo World about practice ingraining bad habits. I haven't run into it personally, but there are plenty of people on-line who insist that new students shouldn't practice on their own for fear of picking up bad habits. Of course the other side of the coin is that they won't ingrain the good ones, either . . .
Of course I've been looking at the video I took at the beginning of the month and I'm having a hard time finding consistent errors in there for me to correct. I'm really hurting for input from my teacher at this point. I know there are errors there-plenty of them, I'm sure-but I don't know enough to see them myself.
I can't wait for next weekend.
The catalog is very informative in its own right, and the photos are pretty darn good, especially of the swords, the details of which are notoriously difficult to photograph. And they included rear views of some of the armor, which shows off the details of the cordwork. Alas, it was really neat to look up underneath the gear and see, for instance, the suspension of the helmets (I knew to look for it because Mr. Boss mentioned it) and the underside of the plates, and you won't get that sort of shot in a catalog.
Yesterday I helped my sister-in-law pick up sewing supplies for her grand-daughter who is being gifted a sewing machine, and as a thank you for the basic assistance I'm going to provide, she also got me a couple of yards of unbleached denim which I'm going to make a second naginata/yari bag from. I figure four pockets should do it, in roll-up style like the smaller one I made for tachi/kodachi/tanto.
Tomorrow I'm checking out a lumber place that's just around the corner from my in-laws' offices. We were driving by, and I saw the sign, "Exotic Lumber, Inc." They had closed at noon, but are open tomorrow. Their species list includes padauk, purpleheart, jatoba, yes . . . but also osage orange, which is supposed to be very good. I'll see what there is. Of course if there's anything suitable in polearm length, I can't exactly get it home right now, but we'd cross that bridge if we came to it.
In the meantime, I'm thinking about a conversation that's come up at Kendo World about practice ingraining bad habits. I haven't run into it personally, but there are plenty of people on-line who insist that new students shouldn't practice on their own for fear of picking up bad habits. Of course the other side of the coin is that they won't ingrain the good ones, either . . .
Of course I've been looking at the video I took at the beginning of the month and I'm having a hard time finding consistent errors in there for me to correct. I'm really hurting for input from my teacher at this point. I know there are errors there-plenty of them, I'm sure-but I don't know enough to see them myself.
I can't wait for next weekend.