Baren Play--home-made barens revisited. Italianism schedule?

In preparation for tomorrow's ITALIANISM art fair and creative conference in Rome, I've been busy making barens. While technically, I think I'll be demonstrating moku hanga printing and carving....it's a group of artists and designers, and in my experience, the baren is what really makes people curious.

I make these twisted-cord barens for my moku hanga workshops--they work better than the plastic ones--but I'm still looking for how to improve them.  Since I'm working more often with Western papers (as it's still hard and expensive to get Japanese washi way out here in Florence), I continue to look for ways to strengthen the barens to allow them to work well on thicker papers.

 
I made a thumb tack baren (after seeing examples on the web) which has steel 9mm tacks. They're quite hard, but far apart so I'm curious to see how it prints. It should be a hard baren, suitable for color passages on thick paper.

Tomorrow I'm demonstrating moku hanga.
It's a long day 10am through probably 8-10pm (when the music starts).

So here's the tentative schedule I'm planning on following.
10am-noon:  Organize my table and work on a small carving for later printing (baren tests).
12:00-4:30pm--I'm printing copies of my Boteh print from white paper to as far as I get.
4:30-5:30  alternative barens: How to make a home-made twisted cord baren.
5:30-6:30  printing tests with a Murasaki/Twisted Cord/Thumbtack and Ball-bearing baren.
7:00 until I'm too tired: More Boteh Braid printing.

I'll be answering questions, and discussing some of the prints I'll have on display for who stops to look or ask.
It should be fun!