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Shoot with Okissakki

By |2012-11-18T18:17:10+00:00November 18th, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , |

This was one of our very first shoots and I have to say what a pleasure it was. New to shoots though we were I think we got some good stuff here. Okissakki was great to work with and Clover captured her so well. I think this was only the second shoot we had done in our new 'studio' so getting used to things a lot. Okissakki isn't around on the scene much any more from what we've seen in the past few years; wherever she is and whatever she's decided to do now I wish her the very best of luck with it.

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Newness and getting out into the kink community

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00November 3rd, 2012|Categories: Learning|Tags: , , |

For many people it's a nerve-wracking step going out into the community especially to the myriad of events, workshops, munches and parties. This is especially because of uncertainty about what to expect and how to behave. Also how should they react to how other people behave? Here are a few things you should always be able to expect no matter what the event. To be treated with respect Not to be touched, slapped, spanked, groped, played with or otherwise molested without consent Not to have your personal space disregarded Never to be told that you 'have' to submit Not to be told how you 'should' behave To not have anyone make you feel uncomfortable or scared Here are a few rights that you should never forget you have or be made to be feel uncomfortable exercising You have the right say NO You have the right to your own opinion You have the right to disagree You have the right to be new and learning without that being held against you You have the right not to like some kinks, not everything's for everyone You have the right to completely disregard anything ever said by anyone who tells you you're not a 'true'... submissive, dominant etc. Common sentences beginning with or containing... All submissives/dominants are... All submissives/dominants should... All true... All real... Oh you're a natural... Oh you're not a natural... ...should be carefully analysed to determine their bullshit content. Many people come to kink via fiction of one kind or another. There's nothing wrong with this. Very many people do. Often these routes will include books, films, stories or fantasies... These things are very often not really true to life and in some cases present a very skewed view [...]

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Shooting with Jonny Blaze

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00October 21st, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , |

It seems a long time ago now but as I go back through old pictures I came across this shoot with Jonny Blaze. Normally you don't often seem to get much good stuff from group shoots but this one had a few good images mostly from Jonny and led to us working together again. I hope you enjoy this gallery.

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Interview with Scott Smith in London

By |2018-01-20T15:59:57+00:00October 16th, 2012|Categories: Festivals, Interviews|Tags: , |

I've had the rare pleasure of interviewing some great people from all around the world. This is the very first interview I've conducted so I hope it's not too bad. Whatever I fell short on, Scott more than made up for. This first interview is with Scott Smith. I really enjoyed doing this interview and I hope you enjoy hearing it just as much. It was a real pleasure to get Scott's thoughts on the Festival, bondage performances and more.

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Absent mindedness and routine cockups in rope bondage

By |2012-10-15T23:27:48+00:00October 15th, 2012|Categories: Learning|Tags: , , |

A friend today made a very good point about when he found things most likely to go wrong in rope bondage. And I absolutely agree with him on this. Often its when you’re doing the routine things, the small things, the things you’ve done a thousand times before. It’s in those moments when you’re running on automatic pilot rather than when you’re working on something on the edge where you’re focused and paying complete attention. You should be able to do some parts of your bondage completely without thought, you should know what you’re doing so well. The mistakes in things you have done a thousand times before happen not because you don’t know how to do it but because you are not focused. It is absence from the moment. It is something unregarded and considered unimportant. All things in rope bondage are important, from the first detail, especially from the first detail. Those brings me to the main point of this article. The need to be present in the moment. Now there is an apparent dichotomy in the concepts that you should know what you’re doing so well that you can do it without conscious thought and the idea that you must be present and focused in the moment. This dichotomy is however only apparent. There is a very big difference between having practised things so well that you can do them automatically i.e. that you have developed muscle memory for an action and by contrast, simply not paying attention to what you’re doing. When you are focused in the moment you are paying attention to all things including those things that you do automatically.

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Ichinawa, Ippon me no nawa and One rope

By |2024-08-18T00:11:21+00:00October 14th, 2012|Categories: Learning, Teaching, Workshops|Tags: , |

I've been asked a lot of times if Ichinawa is right for the one rope technique I teach or if it should be Ipponnawa. So rather then keep explaining it I'm going to write out my answer here and point people at it in future. The term comes straight from the Japanese language. Confusion has arisen because some people have been getting confused between naming and counting. Some have told me that Ichinawa is wrong and it should be Ipponnawa. It would be Ipponnawa if you were counting ropes. Or slightly more accurately Ippon me no nawa. Japanese counting is a nightmare so I checked this with a Japanese born professional translator who also agrees that it's a nightmare and a minefield. Ippon = one as in one two three... for long cylindrical things, The 'hon' category! Yes I know it's written 'pon' but it's still in the hon category. Ichi = one in a general sense can also mean best. (Ichiban is worth a mention as it's what you also might use for best or first as in first, second third.) There are also Japanese counting variants for flat thin objects, small compact objects, liquid in cups, bound objects (i.e. you count things like books differently to everything else), machines, the floors of buildings, pairs of things (i.e. socks), time, large animals, small animals, birds, people (formal), people (informal) and age. To be honest I've probably missed a few in that list. Nightmare right? Which is why I asked a professional translator who's a Japanese national and also into rope to make sure. Ichinawa definitely (in the opinion of a professional native Japanese translator) a correct usage for the naming of this technique. Now [...]

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London festival of the art of Japanese Bondage 2012

By |2024-08-18T18:03:08+00:00October 14th, 2012|Categories: Events, Festivals, Performance|Tags: , , |

Part 1 Well apart from wishing that the event had a shorthand name that was less of a mouthful than "The London Festival of the Art of Japanese Bondage" or LFAOJB for short. I'm really looking forward to it again. Last year it has to be said was amazing. 10 performers over from Japan plus a few good home grown talents. This year there's more of a European flavour and even a few Americans and Canadians. There is still Kazami Ranki from Japan headlining, this is his second London festival. I'm specially looking forward to seeing Riccardo Wildties from Italy and Bob Ropemarks (not to mention Dutch Dame) from the Netherlands. Amy Morgan from America and.... Oh it's 02:30 here and I'm blogging. Knackered and forgetting lots of people. So I'll just put - others too numerous to mention right now. There are a couple of people we wish had come that we're going to miss too. This year will we hope be a bit relaxed for us. Aside from performing on the Friday I'm not teaching except for a few private sessions and we're not concretely booked into any of the other goings on. We really hope to spend a good amount of time socialising and getting to talk to some of the people that have been in the same place as us all over the world but we never got the time to sit down with. There looks to be a stellar line up of shows though I have to say I'm a bit sad that John Murakawa will not be performing this year. He's a real artist and he puts a tremendous amount of energy into the festival and his artistic input [...]

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Shibari shoot with Neil Whitely

By |2024-08-18T18:07:46+00:00September 23rd, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , , , |

Yesterday Clover and I had the fortune to shoot with Neil Whitely (In Rhyl (In Wales (In the UK))). It was a real pleasure for us. From the nice drive down (And Jersey ice-cream. (And a Coffee that was like a mug full of espresso.)) to the shoot itself, to the chip supper when we got home. The whole shoot was very relaxed and Neil was very forthcoming about his aims and the kind of images he was looking for whilst very open to ideas about how to get them. His style is very strong on emotional content and focuses very much on expression and feeling. He's very good at getting this into his images as you can see when you look at the gallery at the end of this blog. Frankly for the bulk of the images we just sort of did what we might do at home anyway. So at least this time you will see some of us being ourselves. The fat that it looks good is entirely down to Neil's expertise in capturing these images. I hope you enjoy the results of this shoot, we certainly enjoyed doing it.

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Yin Yoga for Bondage

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00September 21st, 2012|Categories: Learning|Tags: , |

Hi. This is Dave introducing a guest article here. Yin Yoga for Bondage is by BYG (Bendy Yoga Girl from Boston at the time of writing and just lately relocated to Seattle) I'm sure you'll enjoy it. As a yoga person, and a bondage person, I’m always happy to hear teachers talk about the importance of stretching as it relates to bondage. There are two main buckets of stretching, if you will: static and dynamic. Static stretching involves holding positions for at least 30 seconds, although I recommend 1.5 to 3 minutes (I’ll get into the why of this in a bit). Dynamic stretching involves using movement to take the body to (not beyond) its limit. Dynamic stretching increases blood flow to the areas that are being worked. The debate between the efficacy of dynamic vs. static stretching has resulted in a great deal of research on the matter. In a study by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, researchers found that athletes (runners) generated less force in their leg muscles after static stretching than after no stretching at all, indicating that performance (running, etc.) is enhanced by not doing slow stretches before working out. The inverse of this finding would state that static stretching inhibits athletic performance (running, etc.) Here are some effects of static stretching one it’s held for more than a minute or so: muscles relax fascia is stretched ligaments stretch mobility in the joint that is being stressed increases flexibility in the general area that is being stretched increases If one was to work the hips in such a way as to relax all of the muscles, and then ask the legs to do, say, a 5k run... well, yes. This [...]

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Rope workshops (Washington 2012)

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00September 21st, 2012|Categories: Teaching|Tags: , , |

It seems very late to be blogging about this. However I don't like to let events go past unrecorded and this one is no exception. First of all I have to say that this would never have happened without Greeneyedevil and AsianBella in Washington and TheHammer and Roxy in Baltimore. I'd like to thank all of you for the wonderful effort and hospitality you showed to us. I can't tell you all what it means to us. Thank you so much for welcoming us into your home. Hard on the heels of Shibaricon it was quite something to be doing two days teaching. I really hope that people got something from the classes. I really want the classes that I do to change people's bondage for the better. If I gave you guys something useful then I'm good with that. I love that feeling when people in the room are really starting to get things together and clicking with the point of the class. Especially those classes where the main focus is on connection. People did great in Washington. It was a pleasure to visit with you and to have the pleasure of teaching there.

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