I’ve written in the past about my preference for play spaces that are light, airy and modern. Doing a session in them always feels more serious and purposeful. Adults exploring something complex, rather than kids playing at being mistress/slave in a faux dungeon or torture chamber.
One of the nicest I’ve seen in recent years has been put together by Mistress Jade Thunderstorm of New Orleans and featured in her recent tweet. I love how clean and elegant it is – there’s even trailing greenery! That devious looking chair was custom made for the space.
Mistress Jade was based in Seattle before New Orleans, and I was lucky enough to session with her a couple of years back, before she moved. She’s definitely someone worth seeking out if you’re in the New Orleans area. I just wish she’d stayed and built that beautiful space here.
My gosh that is an absolutely lovely space, so very elegant and quite refreshing to see.
And, I have to say I still love the dark dungeon vibe, perhaps because my first tentative forays into the world of professional domination over 30 years ago revolved around those kinds of places.
Yes. I’m knocking the dark classic dungeon spaces in this post, but they have their place and can be fun to play in. I’m sure if they majority of spaces were like this one, I’d be complaining about the lack of good dark moody spaces with a decor of deep saturated colors. I think one of the reasons I love this kind of elegant space so much is because this style is so rare.
Thanks for stopping by to comment! Nice to hear from someone with a depth of experience.
-paltego
Likewise, I quite enjoy the clean clarity of your writings.
My first foray into this world happened at the age of 22, so yeah, it’s been a long time, over 30 years.
I also live in a city that isn’t so great for professional Dominas, but I have been lucky in that I was able to submit to some incredible women.
I’m also an artist, and like the great cliche goes, I am rarely able to indulge because my working life isn’t the most remunerative, having pretty much concentrated on art at the exclusion of developing a proper working life, but I do feel quite fortunate all the same.
You definitely started a lot younger than me. I only wish I’d had the wherewithal and gumption to venture into the kinky world at that age. That’s a lasting regret of mine.
In my experience there is a huge difference between a just OK to good experience and an amazing one with an incredible domme. I’d take one of the latter over any number of the former. So if you’ve been lucky enough to submit to some incredible women, you’re probably doing something right :-).
-paltego
Being an obsessive type person(see art, music, politics, etc) I was compelled almost violently to explore my own need to submit.
I should also say I had my fair share of horrible experiences(full on psychopaths, rip off artists, flakes), but over time those stopped because after years of experience I developed a razor like antenna as far as reading between the lines of ads.
In the last 20 years it’s been nothing but good experiences, for the most part, and teh intertubes have been a huge boon to budding Dominas as far as learning their craft goes.
But jesus, the basic sub male in this city seems to want nothing more than being facesat while being jerked off which makes it hard for good Dominas to want to stick around.
I think the intertubes have made a huge difference on both sides. They’ve allowed dominas to make connections and spread skills around, and made it way easier for submissives to filter out the rip off artists and flakes. And more of the money flowing to the more talented and conscientious dommes encourages them to invest more in their skills, reputation and equipment.
I’m not sure where you’re based, but I’m often surprised by the variation between cities when it comes to kink. Obviously the big places like LA and NYC have a large community, but it seems to vary wildly elsewhere. Places I’d expect to have a lot of talented dommes can have almost none and other smaller spots can be a hotbed of interesting dommes. Not quite sure what drives that variation. The local submissives are certainly part of the story.
-paltego
Totally agree. My domme can be just as vicious in a well lighted space or open air as in a “dungeon”. I suppose that the confines of a city make some designs difficult though. Maybe “medieval” works better in many places??
I suspect that a lot of it is down to practicality. Dark colors cover up stains and marks and scuffs a lot better. If you’ve got a shared space that lots of people are using, and it’s got a pretty rough finish on its interior walls, then it’s a lot easier to just dim the lights and paint the walls black. Plus, a lot of dungeon furniture comes in dark colors, so doing anything different means getting custom pieces made.
It’s a bit like getting a white leather interior on a car. Great if you’re the only one using it and are fastidious about keeping it clean. Not so great for a taxi, uber or a family with a lot of children!
-paltego
What kind of trick is this? No black & red paint? No dark wood? No baroque chairs?
Harumph.
I’m sure if you ask Mistress Jade nicely Tom you can get a blindfold to wear, and you’ll never have to seen any of the blasphemous pale surroundings. 🙂
-paltego