In case I haven’t mentioned it lately .. I love rope bondage. 🙂 And I really love teaching others to tie each other up so this past week was especially wonderful for me because I got to teach not just one but two fun interactive workshops! (Sorry there are no pics from the classes but umm privacy issues and all ya know)

Wednesday evening I went into NYC to teach a 90 minute class for TES (The Eulenspiegel Society) about “Adaptable Bondage”. This class focuses on ties that can be adjusted to fit people of any size, shape or degree of ability. This is a fairly new class for me where I am demonstrating ties that are not exactly classic or traditional.  They are quick and easy bastardized ties that I do every day on my clients (who sadly are not teensy bendy Japanese bondage models). 

I had several people that were brand new to rope so it was tough fitting in everything that I wanted to show them but in general everyone seemed to have a great time. 🙂  I especially loved some of the thank yous & comments that I received on my feedback sheets and in follow up emails that said that classes like this were greatly needed and that they got more out of this class than any other they had done!  Yay!   That is what makes it all worthwhile for me.  🙂

I of course stayed for the after meeting round table that TES is famous for and it was an pretty interesting discussion centered mostly on “switch” issues and dynamics.   I finally got in around 2 am and spent the next hour or 2 unwinding from the class and the drive.

Then I spent Thurs and Fri prepping my notes and packing up everything I might possibly need for my weekend on Long Island.  My Leather Dave (who is also sometimes Dawn)  had set up a 6 hour bondage workshop at his home out toward the east end of Long Island. He had been trying to get me to come visit on the island for quite awhile and I just couldn’t seem to make the time to do it so he advertised all over the place and drew about a dozen or so people who were mostly new but a few intermediate riggers.  We held the first part of the workshop out on his deck and it turned out to be a beautiful day for it in spite of the rain the night before. By the early afternoon we needed to move off the deck onto blankets on the shaded grass.

I covered a ton of stuff (at least partially thanks to help from my bondage model and teaching assistant Brett)! We started off talking about rigger and bottom motivations and how that can greatly effect the outcome of the scene. We also of course discussed safety and rope selection / care and the 4 basic knots you must know to do bondage: overhand, larks head, half hitch, and square / reef (or hell granny works too in a pinch).

Then we covered my two favorite basic cuffs: the boola boola or japanese cuff (that I like to call the wrap, over, under, tie cuff) and a standing line lark cuff (wrap, hook, change direction, hook, hitch). Hmm guess you had to be there. 🙂  But once we had those down we played with a tie that combined those two elements that can be used as either a foot or a hand suspension cuff.  

After our lunch break we dove into what I jokingly call the lunch ties that coincidentally also used the same two cuffs I had shown that morning: chicken wing, frog leg and crab leg. From there we covered wrist together ties that were attached to the body low (crotch), middle (hara / waist), high(throat) and then over the head with the hands and using the rest of the rope to do a simple chest harness. I showed them my favorite modification on a hojo jutsu tie that makes a really comfortable hands behind the back harness no matter how flexible or inflexible the intended victim is. 🙂  Then I showed them how to take that chest tie and turn it into a hog tie that doesn’t put added strain on the wrists! 

Somewhere in there we also did a more traditional shinju that went over the arms as well as the variation that went under the arms for those that needed the more comfortable, more forgiving version. 🙂  I showed them a few of my other down and dirty tricks and cheats that I use when I am trying to be quick and efficient with the bondage so I can get onto other things as well as one of my favorite pearls; my $1000.00 knot (aka the taut line hitch)!  According to the feedback sheets that was the favorite of a few of them as well).  

All in all it was an amazing day but I was totally exhausted by the time I was done and glad to spend a quiet dinner with my Brett, Dave and his new charge: Sue.  Later on that evening we gave her a bit of special treatment that was quite a treat for us! 😀 Slept like a baby with my sweetie and had hoped to hit the beach the next day but it was crappy out so we hugged kissed thanked Dave and parted ways.  I visited my sister and her boyfriend on the way back west and tried to get off the island fairly early. 

I hit the road from Lindenhurst at 1p and spent a good 40 mins stuck in bridge traffic due to the fire damage at the Throgs Neck but got thru that pretty well until I hit a really big mess on the Taconic.  They we diverting all traffic off in both directions and I found out much later on that it was due to a truly tragic accident that involved 8 deaths, four of them young children!!  So as miserable as it was being stuck in yet another traffic jam, the reason why really helped put it in perspective for me. http://www.wcbs880.com/Crash-Kills-Eight/4875339: (  That was so sad and it just makes me wonder how the hell you can have two cars in the same day travel the wrong way down a divided highway!?  How the hell does that happen and what can be done to stop it in the future??

Ughhh anyway, I did finally get home, unpack and unwind a little then went to my buddy Mike’s around the block for a mini workout and a dip in the pool! I really needed to burn and then rinse off some of that stress of sitting so long in traffic.  All in all I had an amazing weekend and I have a tremendous amount of gratitude to so many people for making it so. (thanks everyone!) I wanted to get this update out because this week looks to be pretty busy in the dungeon! (Yay because making money is good too!) Ok time to hit the shower and get ready to play!  🙂