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Prague February 2016 Shibari Performance and 2 day intensive.

By |2024-08-18T13:55:17+00:00July 30th, 2016|Categories: Teaching|Tags: , , , |

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.

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BED 2014 Good times shibari Bar-b-q rope jamming cook-out!

By |2024-08-18T17:42:13+00:00May 13th, 2014|Categories: Festivals, Learning, Performance, Teaching, Workshops|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I don't even know where to begin with this blog. BED was a complete blast from start to finish. The people of Dallas were great to us and the people of BED especially. This event really has a special atmosphere and has won a special place in our hearts. I'd like to say right off that this event treats presenters better than any conference I've been to in the USA. The team really made an effort to make us welcome and at home. I can't tell you how much we appreciate this kind of effort. It really made a difference to our stay. Highlights of the event include our first show in 6 months. Dinners with friends and seeing people improve in classes. I honestly do love it when you see someone make real progress right there in a class and take away things that can help them improve for a long time to come. It's a cool thing and I never grow tired of it.  My sincere thanks to everyone that came. Next of course seeing Kinoko Hajime san perform again for the first time in a couple of years. BED has a really personal atmosphere, while there's quite a few people there and you cannot of course spend a lot of time with everyone but  many people became familiar and more familiar to us. When we left we were really aware that we were leaving friends behind.  The after party! The after party at TheChurchDallas was an amazing blast. We really had a fun time performing. Thanks to everyone who came and gave such amazing reactions, you really contributed to the atmosphere and our own experience on stage. I can't tell you what it's like to [...]

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LA 2014 Shibari classes and good times.

By |2024-08-18T17:44:04+00:00May 4th, 2014|Categories: Teaching, Workshops|Tags: , , |

This was our first trip to LA and we were really looking forward to it for a variety of reasons. First off this trip wouldn't have happened without the good offices and organisation of our friends in LA. We sincerely thank you all for your amazing hospitality and help. The classes Saturday, April 19 One Rope Tension Sunday, April 20 Rope control and movement Unthinking rope I want to say what a pleasure it was to teach in LA at the Bordello of Decadence. This is a great space and we enjoyed teaching and playing there very much. At the classes every person that came showed improvement and I hope took away lessons to help them continue to improve after the classes. It's a great pleasure for me to see a class have a positive effect on those attending. Shopping We had a really good time shopping in Downtown's 'Little Tokyo' region. Great shops and people. We were able to get some things that we usually have to order direct from Japan at very reasonable prices and without British customs scalping us for import duty on even the smallest items. The people and shop keepers of Little Tokyo were very nice and helpful, I'd really recommend visiting if you get the chance. Culture We had to visit the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. Fortunately while we were in LA there was an exhibition on Japanese American tattoo artists. Tattoo Exhibition Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo Los Angeles, California The exhibition was only there for a limited time so sadly you can't visit this after September 2014. Beach Finally we got to be really tourists seeing Hollywood and the [...]

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Taboo magazine cover Shibari Bondage

By |2013-12-29T13:05:26+00:00December 29th, 2013|Categories: Random, Shoots|Tags: , , , , , , |

In an excellent round of to our working year we have a magazine cover. This is the cover of Hustler's Taboo magazine. The model for this shoot was the lovely and very sexy MaYa Homerton. A wonderful model to work with and just one of the nicest people you could wish to work with. We're looking forward to working with her again in the new year. This year has seen so much good stuff and it's a delight to end on another high point. Just amazing for us. Thank you to everyone who's given us great feedback on this. We really appreciate it.   Dave.

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Robert Wilson, Lady Gaga and the Louvre

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00December 3rd, 2013|Categories: Events, Shoots|Tags: , , , |

From my personal blog on WykD.com I’ve been very lucky recently to get to work with some incredible people. Most recently it was a privilege and a pleasure to work with the American director and veteran of the Avant-garde Robert Wilson and with the model for one of Wilson’s video portraits, Lady Gaga who I had the pleasure of tying and suspending. The result of this I’m blown away to say is a portrait that is now hanging in every sense in the Louvre gallery in Paris as part of Robert Wilson’s Living Rooms installation. The installation will be at the Louvre till February 17, 2014 I had this opportunity only due to the kindness and good will of a very great friend. I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part of this and to have worked with so many great and talented people. On a more personal note... The Robert Wilson portrait of Lady Gaga now hanging in the Louvre. I pretty much can't believe this even now. Something I've worked on is right now hanging in the Louvre gallery in Paris. Just incredible. I could not have imagined such a thing even months ago. Earlier this year I worked on a feature film and saw its first showing at the Raindance festival. I have had the pleasure of working with a lot of extraordinary beautiful and surprising models. This one however was the Mother Monster of surprises! Here is Lady Gaga's own comment on her Little Monsters website. I got to work with some extraordinary people. My personal thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome on location especially those that were kind to the rope guy trying to get [...]

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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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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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Shoot with Hay (as she was then)

By |2016-10-28T16:39:58+00:00September 10th, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , |

A long time ago... Well a few years now (has it really been that long?) we had one of the first rope bondage photo-shoots in our Studio at Number 6 (yeh I know). We had suspension points, we had bamboo, and importantly we had a someone who wanted to be tied up in Japanese style bondage. A young lady at the time using the name 'Hay'. Well anyway we had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I think got some great shots. Clover's gotten a lot better over time and I know what she would do things differently now but I really do believe she did a great job of photographing this rope bondage.

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Behind the scenes of a shibari shoot with Suffering4art

By |2017-02-01T00:37:14+00:00September 9th, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , |

Some time ago I had the pleasure of shooting a model called squeak. On this occasion the photographer was Suffering4art a photographer who lives close by and whom we've collaborated with many times. The images below are a few raw unedited snaps shots taken during the and around the shoot, they are not the images that came from the shoot and not Suffering4art's excellent artistic images. That being said I thought that maybe people might enjoy seeing a few 'behind the scenes' shots from a shibari rope bondage shoot.

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Teaching in Queens

By |2024-08-18T18:53:18+00:00August 28th, 2012|Categories: Teaching|Tags: , , , |

While we were staying in Queens we had a teaching session with a local New York rope enthusiast Joey Red. There's not a lot I can say about this class except that Joey worked really hard and really took in a lot. It was a very good session and it was a pleasure to see him make progress. And also kind of fun to melt his brain a little.

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