For a while now we've been looking for a quality supplier to produce a new dojo badge for us and the samples we've received in the past from numerous companies seemed to vary quite noticeably in accuracy, colour and overall design.

One company we contacted recently was E-Patches, who make and ship quality embroidered patches pretty much all over the globe. They work with a whole range of groups including schools, sports teams, police, military, charities and of course martial arts organisations.

Cutting a long story short - E-patches is a company that we highly recommended!

We were looking for the three black Japanese kanji for Toku-Sei-Kan embroidered vertically onto a white background and within a white border so that it matches our karate suits when sewed into position on the chest area.

Even though our design requirements seemed pretty straight-forward, embroidering of the kanji and the changes of thickness to the 'brush-strokes' so that it looked 'natural' had proved to be somewhat of a problem in the past. However, E-Patches have successfully produced a great looking badges for us. It was perfectly in-line with our design brief and proved that sometimes (with the right amount of care and attention), simple is more!

In summary, we are very happy with the design, quality and overall image of our new dojo badge. They are already becoming very popular with our members and comments back so far have been more than favourable.

With a relatively swift manufacturing turnaround and shipping, coupled with great customer service and design advice, E-Patches is destined to become our official badge supplier as we continue to grow into the future.

Thank you E-Patches!

Well done to all our members who challenged the grading held at Whitehaven on Sunday 5th July and congratulations to those who achieved their next rank! We tested over sixty candidates of all ages spanning across beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

We make no apologies for the high standards we set in our dojo and it's a fact that not everyone who attempts our gradings will come away with a new belt or indeed, the result that they may have been expecting. It's no easy feat to stand up and face a challenge such as this and no matter what the individual outcome, digging deep and giving 100% of one's effort is a sterling achievement in anyone's book. No one could ever ask for more.

Whether successful or unsuccessful, all our members will come away with the same reward and common goal...more practice :-)

Successful candidates from the grading are listed below. Special congratulations go to Sophie Swindale, Leah Wishart and Danielle Leeson on gaining a distinction - our highest award for exceptional standard.

See you all back in the dojo soon to continue your journey!