I wanted to point out that the feelings and emotional reactions we have with shibari are normal human feelings, we all have these feelings and we all need to be able to recognise those feelings and be able to deal with them.
It's always interesting starting a new shibari intensive, you never know what people are going to need to improve their rope bondage and it's a fascinating moment of discovery. Lots of hard work to follow and people were showing real improvement by the end of the first day.
This was our second visit to Memphis Tennessee USA and it was even hotter than the last time. That's saying something. Coming over from a wet and windy UK it was more than a little bit of a contrast in conditions for us. The first thing once we were at our hosts was to get some supplies, we looked on google maps and found a local Walgreens (I think it was a Walgreens) and headed off. Man it was hot! We noticed fairly quickly that we were getting some odd looks and that we were the only people walking. The walk was only 10 minutes but... Man you've got a lot of churches in Memphis! We must have gone past 7 in that 10 minute walk. Dudes! Insane! The walk was fairly uneventful but we did hear some gunfire! This is very unusual for UK people where guns are the exception not the rule. (Later that day when we our hosts got back we were told that that wasn't the best neighbourhood and walking that way was probably a bad idea. They did register some surprise that we'd heard such a small amount of gunfire and yes, there are a fuck-tone of churches in Memphis.) So anyway we'd gotten some sun block (Hey did you know that they aren't allowed the chemicals in the USA that we are in the UK and that therefore our sunblock is much more effective?) and bits and pieces. So suitably protected Clover decides to keep her training up and go for a run... and nearly dies of the heat and gets sunburned. Protip: People from Europe, take sun block with you. Happily our hosts had stuff for just such [...]
As I can't help but find these a bit weird and funny and after the delay spray post it got pointed out to me that there was more of this stuff... Shibari intimate lubricant! From a recent review Taste – This lubricant is unique, very unique. According to Amazon reviewers, Shibari’s taste is not very unpleasant. Most people describe its taste as similar to that of black licorice. Viscosity – Just as Shibari’s tastes is uncommon, so is its thickness/viscosity. It is neither a pure gel nor a pure liquid. The lube seems to combine properties of gel and liquid. It spills out rather easily and quickly and its consistency is sort of gooey. Ingredients – Our sexy bottle says that the lube is made up of aqua or purified water, propylene glycol, glycerin, Methylparaben, propylparaben, diazolidinyl, hydroxyethylcellulose and urea. Is it natural? – A natural product will hardly contain a manmade ingredient. Based on what is listed above as ingredients, you can clearly see glycerin and parabens (Methyparaben and propylparaben), for instance, which are artificial. So there you have it Shibari is gooey tastes like black licorice and is not entirely natural. You may agree with one of more of these assertions. p.s. These #Random posts are just for fun and you shouldn't take them seriously.
Sometimes you come across odd things on the internet. I don't know why this has the word shibari in it but it does and it's something you can buy on Amazon. Shibari Triton Spray Men's Desensitizing Spray with Maximum Strength Lidocaine Prolonged Intimacy Stimulant. Shibari Triton is formulated to help prolong sexual pleasure in men by delaying ejaculation, increasing endurance and maximizing performance. The Shibari Triton Delay spray, or Premature Ejaculation spray, is designed for prematurex while ensuring no transfer to your partner. Shibari Triton was formulated with the strongest dose possible of 10 mg Lidocaine, so it will be sure to maximize your pleasure! Paraphrasing Eels Lidocaine for the.... no that doesn't work. Well it's sex related anyway but why shibari? We may never know, we may never know why triton either. It just seemed an odd thing to me considering my usual interests and thought it might raise a little bit of a smile. Shibari triton. Nothing to do with the meaning of the word 'shibari' in any sense or context at all but definitely a thing that apparently exists.
At the venue for the Prague shibari intensive (left to right) WykD Dave, Clover and Fuoco. Our first overseas trip of 2016 was to Prague in the Czech republic. We had a great time in the beautiful city of Prague and would like to thank everyone who made us so welcome, especially the organiser of the trip. First off it's always great to be taken care of when you're in an unfamiliar country and you don't speak the language. Being collected from the airport is such a huge help on any trip and we always appreciate the effort that people go to to make life easy. Also wow, we were put up in a really nice place, so nice to have that kind of space. Next to the teaching venue, normally a photographic studio but for this weekend a shibari teaching and performance venue. It was a really good space and we really appreciated having this opportunity to teach in the Czech republic for the first time. We arrived the day after Fuoco finished teaching a flexibility class that Clover was quite sorry to miss. I'm not sure what to say about the intensive other than it was a pleasure to teach such an enthusiastic group. We really did enjoy teaching in Prague and I hope that we made a difference to everyone's rope life there. The performance evening was a lot of fun too. It began with a self suspension performance by Fuoco followed by myself and Clover. Finally after the rope was over for the weekend we got to see some of Prague at night.
Well we had a great time in Charlottesville. We didn't get to see too much of the town but that's par for the course when we make these very short trips to teach and return home. In this intensive I added some things that I haven't been teaching before, my method TK, reverse prayer shibari and my version of the chest loading TK. I'd created the chest loading variant some years ago before going to Bound in Boston to teach and only showed it to one person while we were there (guess who). It was a little bit of a nervous moment for me, I've been working through various versions of my TK for several years refining it to make it do what I wanted aesthetically as well as structurally. It's been a big step for me to let it out in public officially. I'm really glad that people have received it so well. The next thing to be officially taught for the first time was my chest loading TK. I guess that some purists will have comments about this but I think it is something worth teaching. It's not something that's come up a lot but now that I've shown my solution to this problem which is quite different to the others so far seen it seems I should probably have been teaching it for a few years now. It got called a game changer from bottoms feeling the difference in it and I'm a bit mad at myself for not having taught it for the last few years. Feel free to ask for it in intensives from now on. The final new thing is my method reverse prayer shibari. Prior to deciding that [...]
Here's the long overdue second part to the blogging of the Viennese rope festival at long last. So after the great opening night and some wonderful shibari followed by some wonderful beer, there's more good stuff to come. In our case this includes some classes to teach, some time with good friends and another show before the festival proper is all over. Our class is on suspension transitions and I have to say that I was very pleased how seriously everyone who came took the class requirements. They were all capable of doing the class and that's a great relief to me. It isn't always the case that people have the ability to assess their skill level objectively. Particularly satisfying in a class like this is to help those who have troubles related to relative weight and strength, this applies in the main to female tops with male bottoms. It's really great to see them execute transitions that they previously thought impossible with the benefit of improved technique. One of the great joys of teaching for me is seeing a tangible improvement in someone's bondage and seeing the joy that brings. We hadn't planned on doing a second performance but well we did. This in a very industrial looking section of the old Ottakringer brewery. It was cavernous and wow that ceiling is high! Pre show memories include much of the unique Viennese lemonade (Almdudler), watching other shows and skipping through the venue hand in hand with Kamijoo Saki. We had a great night of shibari with friends. Finally the end of the festival for us included a wonderful night at the Vienna shibari dojo with all its organisers, the people who had come to [...]
Well we had a wonderful time in the Czech Republic again. This time in the city of Brno. Two days of teaching and a performance night. We had a great venue in a martial arts club on the outskirts of the city where the spacious wood floored rooms provided an excellent working and performance space. Instead of a two day intensive there was a series of subject focused sessions. Thanks to everyone who came to these sessions. We had a great time teaching and I hope that we made a positive contribution to rope in Brno. Here's a video of our performance in Brno. Thanks everyone who came to what was a wonderful evening of rope. On a personal note I wanted to write here about what a good time we've had on each occasion we've had the opportunity to teach and perform in the Czech Republic, the first time in Prague and this time in Brno. Both are beautiful cities with rich histories... and very good beer! As always we're blown away be the wonderful hospitality of our hosts. We really appreciate they way the efforts they make. We especially would like to thank our hosts in the Czech republic for showing us their beautiful cities too. On many occasions we don't get to see much of the places we visit so it was really great to get a local's view of the city and to learn some of its history.
Clover's Rope Bottom guide cover I think this was the first thing we did that was rope related beyond our front door in 2016 and the first time we'd returned to London since the success of the LFRA in 2015. One of the things that Clover cares very much about is information on rope bottoming. This has led to the creation of The Rope Bottom Guide inspired originally for models and those new to rope to give them some reliable information to help keep them safe when starting out with rope bondage. This has been updated over the last few years and is available in multiple languages. She's been asked to teach about rope bondage all over the world and despite really not liking teaching she has taught on rope bottoming around the world and always for free believing so strongly that this fundamental information about bottoming should be shared as far and wide as possible. I've always been very proud of her for doing this. Anatomie studio provided a great venue with an excellent atmosphere for the event. We stayed with the studios organisers Miss Bones and Fred Hatt over night and we thank them for their hospitality and having us to stay again. Often when we go to do workshops we're so busy with the event itself that we don't get time to tie. Happily this time we did some rope for ourselves in the corner of the studio before going home. We'd like to thank Anatomie studio, Fred Hatt & Miss Bones for inviting us and for their promotion & distribution of Clover's rope bottom guide & their commitment to rope bottom education as a whole. We were very [...]
