Monkey fetish bondage tutorials

I don’t think I’d ever seen the Monkey Fetish tutorials before.  They are gorgeous!  I like that they are not really simple, obvious ties like a lot of the tutorials I’ve come across.  Here are the ones I want to try:

• Cat’s Cradle Cuff
• Japanese Suspension Cuff
• Leon’s Knot
• Basket Weave Chest Harness
• Immobilizing Gag Tie This looks awesome, but I need a friend to learn on…
• Drum harness for upside down suspension

Breast bondage how to

Well I get more search engine traffic looking for how to do breast bondage than anything else.  So I guess it doesn’t hurt to actually have a post on that topic.  There is a good video up at Behind Kink showing how to tie both large and small breasts.  Also the models talk about how it feels.  I could take or leave the somewhat sleazy rope guy and his dubious ideas about humiliation but as an instructional it’s decent.

Self bondage hog tie (why not?)

The other day I put a running hitch along my arm and thought, “Hey I could do up all four limbs this way.”

Well I have made short work of it.  Read and see more….  This took me 55 minutes exactly, I know because I listened to Greydancer’s interview with Mollena Williams on the Ropecast while I was doing it.

Tieing a tie

Current/old fetlife profile

I decided to rewrite my profile for fetlife.  I’m keeping the old one here for posterity.

Rope story I

10 kg of raw hemp rope, bundled to go to the laundrymat. Each coil is about 100 ft. Also pictured, The Kitten, who loooves the ropes.

Splish splah we're takin a bath.... Rope at the laundry mat.

All the rope was all twisted up like this coming out of the washing machine.

Rope flaoting around in the pot, looking all nice before the water turned black.

While some of the rope was cooking, the rest of it was soaking in the tub.

(Part II)

Hemp rope?

Well I would really love some of that nice hemp or jute rope. The hippie in me is overly-fond of natural fibers, and the truth is that I don’t find tying my friends up in synthetics very nice for the same reason I don’t get into PVC fetish: petroleum is not sexy.

That said, processed bondage rope is really fucking expensive. My experiments with the nylon stuff have lead me to the conclusion that to tie up a medium-sized man I need at least 200 ft of rope. There is not much point in getting less than that, and I’m sure I could deal with having more. At this point in my life I definitely can’t spend a month’s rent on rope. To tell the truth, I don’t know if I would ever be able to justify an expense like that. So I have been considering processing my own.

Maui Kink sells 3 kg of rope for $64. They say this is about 450 ft of rope. (Knowing still that rope shrinks with processing.) Assuming that’s in US$, that comes out to about 16¢ Canadian per foot. Compare that to CA$1.13 per foot for the TM stuff. (Shipping extra on both natch.) My time is not as valuable to me as my money.

I found a really good video (with a super cute lady named Fivestar in it who made a comment about being tied to her bike!!) of following instructions from Mike West regarding the processing of rope. Other than the awesome host of the video, I really appreciated that the washer and dryer being used were laundry-mat style, so discretion during all the washing and drying was worked on. I think that’s good because not all kinksters are rich IT people, it turns out!  Here is another account from someone following the same instructions.

Instructables has some directions involving much less laundry. They also include a different idea of stretching the rope over sharp metal instead of just pulling it like is mentioned in Fivestar’s video.

Maybe when my loan comes in I will buy a spool of rope. I’m not sure, I’ll see.

Nettles

Well, Spring is here and all sorts of plants are pushing through the soil. An old friend of mine who will soon be arrive is the Stinging Nettle.

Picture of Nettle, borrowed from BrewBook on Flickr

Off and on I have consumed Nettle infusion for a few years now. An infusion is a tea which is left to steep for 4-8 hours rather than the traditional 2-10 minutes. This allows time for the plant to break down fully in the water. Also, components of plants which are broken down early in steeping aid in further digesting other components later on.

As a side note, if you regularly drink any form of herbal tea, I recommend trying a cup which has been steeped 4-8 hours alongside a cup which has just been brewed. The difference in taste is not only that it is stronger, but is noticeably different in quality. (I recommend this with a leaf or root-based substance as flower teas finish much quicker owing to their more delicate construction.)

The taste of a nettle infusion is rich and earthy. It is not the grassy flavour some other herbs present with, nor are there much volatile oils such as with the mints and culinary herbs. To me it tastes strongly of health, vitality, spring, earth and green. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but delicious over ice during a heatwave.

The flavour is not misleading, nettle is actually ridiculously healthy, being high in iron as well as other minerals and vitamins. It is also one of the most commonly-used herbs in western European clinical herbalism, considered with its balancing qualities to be as close to a panacea as anything could be.

(Excuse me for hippying out there for a second.)

While I do not know of any stands large enough to harvest enough nettle to supply me with much infusion (which requires one dry ounce per liter), I do know where to obtain sufficient plant to play a few games.

Nettle contains histamine, and elicits a mild allergic reaction. Myself I have worked barehanded with nettles before and been fine, but then I used to install fiberglass insulation in short and a tank top, so YMMV.

Now I am also wondering, could I quickly make a rope of nettle to bind someone? The deceptively-named paddling.net (actually about kayaking and canoeing!) has a report of creating rope out of nettle, though in a way so as to remove the stinging qualities. Also found a website which contains detailed, illustrated instructions to making rope out of nettle and other easily-found fibres.

Caning

Caning is something I am interested in as an advanced technique, once I have properly learned other kinds of percussion play.  I found a pretty extensive article, Sensuous Caning, about how to properly warm someone up for caning, including how to read body language of your bottom.  Good all round advice for my more entry-level hitting.

I have been caned, twice.  Both times I had mixed feelings about it, but I definitely saw the potential if given properly.  The first time, if I recall correctly, I was all warmed up from other toys and then for some reason things paused for a bit longer than was needed.  A bit more warm up was done, but if instead things had just kept going with pause it would have been quite delicious.  As it was it was very very close, quite nice as it was.  Also I think the first time you do something so intense there is a certain amount of not feeling what is going on so much as intellectually paying attention. It’s just like taking a new drug, really.  Subsequent experiences are more profound because you are not paying attention so much to the most obvious sensation, are able to absorb

I am quite a heavy masochist when my body is worked correctly, and I look forward to learning how to work on someone else and give those joyous feelings.

Rope corset

I wanted to take a break from studying, as well as try out my newly-green rope. Thought I would do a rope corset, since I am trying to figure out a better one for folk who aren’t skinny already.  I don’t think this one will do it, but I did find a nicer way than the simple larkshead to tie the rope.  It’s also more secure as the rope gets tied at each coil.

For the first time I have put up a video.  I figured it would be simple to show this way.  Basically I just started with a simple chest harness and then did the following the whole way down.