Quote:
Michael Hackett wrote:
I personally don't care for the canvas covers much. They are too hard to keep clean and sanitary in my opinion and show stains too easily. Again, my personal preference is for the heavy weight vinyl material for ease of cleaning and maintenance. That said, I don't like catsup or red cars either.
Carrie, can you describe the spacing of the blocks under the plywood? Sounds interesting and I'd like to know more about your experience/situation. Thanks.
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Hello, Michael. I'm just a student and am not very familiar with the measurements etc. Robin McConnell sensei designed the mat very well for us. We appreciate its forgiving nature as we practice on it, and like it as well as any others we've practice on in the midwest area, from here to Illinois.
I've attached a few miniature pictures from before, during, and after assembly of the mat. More were selected to illustrate spacing of blocks on the plywood sheet since that was a specific question. I'm not sure I have the original pics anymore, but had thrown them into a word document, which I just now converted to a pdf to attach here. Hope that helps.
Our travel mat for demonstrations is from the leftover foam 1 3/8 " thick. It works fine on a regular floor or stage. It gets little tears though on impact. So for regular use, it would be prudent to protect it somehow.
I happen to like the canvas cover. Our canvas seems soft enough; it's a little slick when the air is dry. The fabric is nice because it's warmer than tatame in winter and cooler than tatame in summer. As for caring for it, we vaccuum it every day after practice. Hydrogen peroxide works to get up most stains, but leaves a bleach mark that blends in later. A mixture of peroxide and water does the job too, but doesn't leave the initial white mark. We ordered our canvas through a company called Strinz Tipi (
https://www.strinztipi.com/estore/) that also makes tents for renaissance fairs.