fabric hoarding part deux: freebies!

This afternoon I got a call from my friend G. G., among other things, works in television production and was taking a break from cleaning up after a shoot.

She called to tell me that they had a lot of "yellow and red silk" left over from decorating the set. It was free if I could come get it, and was I interested?

Was I interested....;)

G. understated her case somewhat - there was, I swear, a metric buttload of fabric, far more diverse/voluminous than the red and yellow she mentioned. I'm going to need to pick through most of it to remove staples and wood splinters (these were backdrops, after all). Haven't had a chance to go through all of it but I'm most impressed so far with the ~8 yards of burgundy silk/poly drapes. They're crying out to be an Elizabethan (or 16th century Spanish?) though they're a bit slubby (not period, AFAIK) I'm strongly urged not to care just because the fabric and weight (fully lined!) are so wonderful!

Shiny shiny shiny....

rapier notes

Went to rapier practice today and was AGAIN frustrated at my inability to control the point as I'd like. Mentally I know exactly what disengage I need to make, but I lack the physical strength to do it. Drills help, but ultimately I tire out just before (or worse, just as) I feel like I'm making some progress.

I convinced my fellow swashbucklers not to cut me any slack, but to recognize that while I AM getting the concepts, I just tire out easily. Which irritates the crap out of me because though have more upper body strength and better posture now than I ever have before, it's still just not enough for some purposes!! Luckily I'm not completely alone in this but it still grates to watch other people bout the way I ought to be able to by now!

They recommended some endurance exercises which I WILL do; I'm going to a proper gym with skill_grl Tuesday to hopefully discover some more endurance/strength exercises, among other things.

Rapiers are sexy and brilliant and I want to be able to fence with one, dammit!