Sleep

Apologies for somewhat slow pace of posting recently. I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. Not sure if that’s due to work stress, election stress or simply age. In an effort to improve matters I’ve been trying to cut down on late night screen time, which is typically when I write posts.

Maybe a relaxing vacation is called for. Or possibly a very tight leather sleep sack with lots of straps. This example looks suitably relaxing, although it might be tricky to get up to pee in the night with all those locks.

This is from Elise Grave’s Bondage Liberation site. I believe that’s Elise in the center and Troy Orleans lurking off to the side.

Trinity and Roxanne

Continuing the theme of duos with a Matrix influence (a niche but important genre), here’s Mistress Trinity and Roxanne Waters, with sub Heavy. There’s a lot of lovely latex, leather and bondage on display. They would have all looked very at home at Sydney’s Hellfire club – the location for the BDSM club scene in the original movie. The background extras were apparently the regular club goers, dressed in their usual kinky gear.

Image sourced via this tweet.

Boots and Gloves

I have a session planned for latter this week. The first one in what feels like forever (technically 4 months). It’s giving me a nice anticipatory buzz. Not sure exactly what’ll be on the menu, but I am sure it’ll be fun. I’m craving some close physical contact, the kind of thing portrayed beautifully in this image. I love the sense of connection it shows.

This is another image off tumblr. I can’t locate the original but I’m fairly certain that’s an older shot from Domina M .

Yva Richard

When I think of early fetish pioneers, it’s names like John Willie, Charles Guyette and Irving Klaw that spring to mind. Their published work typically date back to the 40’s and 50’s. However, as this article describes, there was a French couple who were blazing the fetish trail decades before them. Named Nativa Richard and L Richard, they founded their eponymous company in 1914. With an in house photography studio and a talent for creating fetishistic outfits, they ran a successful mail order business from Paris up until WWII.

Nativa Richard modelled a lot of the clothes and accessories they created. This is an image of her from the article, wearing some particularly fetishistic boots. You can see a clear influence from this to the later work of Willie and Guyette.

Archetypes Continued

My last post on Damiana Chi’s book on Dominatrix archetypes got me thinking: What is the full set of archetypes?

The book in question specifies four: Authoritarian, Seductress, Mother and Queen. That does seem a pretty core set, but is anything missing?

At first I thought roles like Teacher or Nurse should be included. After all, they are common characters used in scenes. However, on reflection I think they’re just window dressing on the underlying archetype. A teacher is typically an authoritarian. A nurse can be played as any of the above four archetypes, depending on the dynamic required.

Perhaps better suggestions for additional archetypes would be Princess and Amazon. Where you might think of a Queen as haughty, icy and commanding, a Princess archetype would be manipulative, playful and self-centered. I’m not sure that combination aligns with any of the above four. Similarly, I think of an Amazon archetype as being about physical power, independence and forcefulness, which doesn’t necessarily align with an Authoritarian or Queen.

Whatever the complete set is, the topic at least gives me a chance to feature images of each type. So for the next few posts, I’ll try and find a good examples. This seems like a perfect one for the Authoritarian archetype.

Image source is obviously OWK. Sourced via Assertive Ladies tumblr.

Summoning the Maid

I spotted a tweet the other day that said chastity keys were unsightly when worn around the neck of a domme. Ideally they should be tossed into the back of an old kitchen drawer with all the other old keys and knick knacks you never use.

This lady doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy, given the obvious key she’s sporting here. Between that and her summoning bell, she’s clearly the household stuff under control.

I’m afraid I don’t have an attribution for this. If you help out with who this is or where it’s from, please let me know via a comment.

Thanks to Michael I believe I can attribute this to Deni_C from the Power of Leather site. Worth checking out if – like me – it’s a new one to you.

Wise Words

@heavy, a very experienced bondage bottom, has some wise words on anchoring body parts.

Friendly reminder that when doing bondage, please remember what is anchored. If someone is standing or even kneeling and passes out/ falls and their balls, neck, hair, etc. are locked to something you are seriously going to harm someone. Potentially permanently.

I’d guess a lot of my readers are likely to be bondage bottoms rather than tops, but you should still be aware of what’s going on and willing to speak up if it looks unsafe. After all, it’ll be your delicate bits getting ripped off if the worst happens.

I remember doing a scene many years ago in a sex swing. I was on my back and the domme was tying various bits of me to the surrounding metal frame. However, the swing was a lightweight portable affair, built out of the kind of thin metal tubing you’d expect in a cheap sun lounger. The joints all seemed loosely pushed together, held with friction and I could feel it flexing as I moved. At one point the domme wrapped thin rope around my testicles and tied them to the overhead frame. Looking back now I shudder when I think of it, but at the time I was inexperienced, floating in subspace and nervous about topping from the bottom. So even though it felt dangerous, I didn’t say anything.

These days, if the same thing happened again, I’d speak up and pause the scene. If the swing had broken and I’d fallen then it could have been a very nasty situation. I’m a CBT fan, but getting my nuts ripped off by bondage on a shoddy sex swing is one of my limits. I should also add that the domme in question isn’t someone I’ve written about here or done more scenes with.

I’ll finish with a gorgeous bondage shot featuring Heavy and NYC domme Roxanne Waters, as shot by Natasha Gornick. All experts in their field, you can be sure any scene with them will be managed safely.

You can find Heavy’s twitter feed here and his professional HeavyBondage4Life site here. Roxanne Water’s twitter is here and this is her professional site.

Pet Play

This NY Post story and this associated YouTube video introduced me to a new type of pet play – highly realistic and expensive animal suits. The one featured in the story came in at $14,000. You can see more on the owner’s twitter account. As far as I can tell it’s not a kinky thing for him, just a type of roleplay or cosplay. Although where this cosplayer leads, I’m sure inspired kinksters will be sure to follow.

In the meantime, if you’re into the not realistic pups, but do prefer the kinky alternatives, then you might want to check out Mockingbird Leather. They produce some lovely looking pet crawler sets like the one below.

This is from their twitter feed and available to purchase at what seems a very reasonable price.

More on AI

There’s one type of AI image that seems particular common – older women with enormous flawless breasts. I’d guess it’s a single person with a very specific kink churning them out, but maybe there’s a whole art collective involved. I would say it’s one for Dr. Freud, but even he might think it’s a little too on the nose.

The image below – with a caption added by Tom Allen – is an example of what I mean. You can find other examples on his twitter here and here.

Tom left a comment on my previous post that made an excellent point: AI imagery is likely to be a great source for caption creators. It avoids the issues of copyright and unwanted repurposing while giving a lot more control to the caption writer. Right now the image prompt writers and caption writers are likely different people. But once the tools get mature and widespread I can image a lot of new content from people writing image prompts for the particular scene they want to then caption.

You can see more captions from Tom on his tumblr and twitter.

Life’s Rich Tapestry

Warning: A sad blog post ahead. Not this specific on. I mean this one from Mistress Simone. It’s on her experiences with her submissives that have passed away. A thought provoking and moving post.

I was going to follow it up by commenting on how complex the pro-domme and client relationship is. But that’s not entirely true. I’d hate to put off nervous potential clients by over over-emphasizing that aspect of the dynamic.

They can be very simple. A mutually beneficial but limited interaction where someone scratches a kinky itch and someone else earnings a living. They can be delightful but ephemeral. The stars align, it’s magical, and then you never manage to meet again. They can be boring and unfulfilling. I’ve had a sessions – admittedly just a few out of many hundreds – that I thought were just meh. The chemistry isn’t there and you have to move on. And occasionally, as Mistress Simone describes, they can be deep, long lasting and complex. Like most relationships, you never know what you’ll find until you try.

This is Mistress Simone as featured on her professional site. She’s a Chicago and Saint Loius based pro-domme. You can find more of her thoughts via her twitterblog and prodcast.