Breast bondage!

I like tied boobs. I'll admit it. The first film loop I every saw was of Renee Baker getting her breasts wired up into little balloons. It struck a nerve with me, and it's been part of my work ever since. The assumption that some may jump to is that I like adding some extra pain, but that's not even close.

One reason is that it appeals to me aesthetically. I've always viewed rigging as a form of 3D sculpture. The rope melds with the model to create a work of helplessness. The way the rope sinks into the flesh and the skin bulges around it has always appealed to me, and adding rope to a breast is no different. The rope sinks in around the base and the two combine to make something very different than before. In many cases it completes the visual. In the same way that a restraint looks more visually appealing with a crotchrope, some restraints just beg for bound breasts.

Additionally I love the added helplessness that a tightly bound breast adds. It illustrates the control a captor has which is always a great way to show helplessness, but it also limits the ability of the heroine to escape. A girl will think twice before rolling onto her chest or hopping around with those things bouncing all tied up. It's a psychological thing. She has the ability to do it, but the choice isn't as simple anymore. Further, it wears someone out faster. The goal of keeping someone put in a storyline is to either weld them in place or make sure the restraint wears them out before then can do anything to help their situation.

One of the first set of breasts I tied up on video was those of Sammie Sparks. She had a great way of struggling in breast bondage, always making sure they wiggled and jiggled. Today's update is from one of those sets. He Tied My Tits So Tight with Sammy Sparks is and older video, but the quality of rigging and those breasts wound tightly are something to see!

Stacie wrapped up for the holidays!

I often don't really know where a sequence is going until it happens. I have a girl tied up and struggling in what I call the basic tie. That's the tie where the girl is already tied up, but things can get much worse. Her wrists, elbows, ankles and knees keep her somewhat compliant and her ballgag keeps her somewhat quiet. It's a great way to start because you can do so many things to make it more challenging.

That's where my bad guy mode kicks into gear. I film that first part and that part of me watches how the girl is struggling, and I think, "how can I keep her from getting to the phone, getting scissors or attracting attention?" I jump in with more rope and just go for it. Before you know it the poor thing is just a wiggling pile of flesh and rope on the ground with a look on her face that is half play-acting and half, "holy shit Ted, why?"

That happened with Stacie Snow earlier this year. We decided on a nice blouse and skirt combo and some nifty blue high heels. I put her in the basic tie and told her to struggle until I figured out the next part. She wiggled and grunted and stayed in the chair all the time. The bad guy mode kicked in and whispered that the chair is too comfortable and tied her into a fold tie. Then the bad guy thought it was too hard to see her face and that chair is way too comfy. I dumped her on the ground, and she tried to kick me. Bad move ... soon poor Stacie was cinched into a tight balltie with her face wrapped in tape. She wasn't making much noise and she was moving even less. Every effort just exhausted her to the point where she could barely lift her head.

Some models hate ballties and some love them. Regardless there is one thing that is certain. It offers the most limited movement of almost any tie including the hogtie. It exhausts you quickly and done right there is no escape. Check out Stacie Snow in Roped Readhead Balltied in Blue Shoes and see how poorly she fared :)

Take-downs!

I love on-screen tying, and I love take-down scenarios even more. There is nothing more raw and dramatic than grabbing a gal, physically restraining her and then tying her from start to finish while she struggles. I've hidden around corners, popped out of closets and even been cut and bruised more times than a prize fighter. It's always worth it though because it makes for the best-looking video.

I used to work with Sammie Sparks a while back. She'd come through the area and we'd get in 4-6 hours. I almost cried when she moved to California, but the several shoots we had were some of the best for active video. She struggled like a hellcat, always said the best damsel lines and her husband was great with a camera. That meant I was free to grab, grope and rope without stopping to reset camera angles. There's something a bit primal about that method of shooting. The two actors can really get into the role. She's really struggling against me, and I'm really fighting to get her under control. And the bondage is ALWAYS tighter than normal.

The first sequence we ever shot was a short film about Sammie coming home from work. I always liked shooting outdoor sequences because the neighbor across the street had a thing for high heels, and I'd always film the models going up the steps. He'd see me raking the lawn or something on odd days and ask when the next shoot was lol. Anyway, Sammie pops in, is grabbed and then it's non-stop footage of her and I and a crap-load of electrical tape. Poor Sammie is eventually balltied and going nowhere while her captor rifles through her purse and gropes the hell out of her trying to get her to talk.

Sammie Sparks in He Just Kept Adding Electrical Tape is up now!

Bikinis and Belts

Back in April somebody suggested the idea of shooting girls in bikinis, straps and ballgags. It was a simple request for a girl in a bikini, ballgagged and struggling on a couch. Don't get me wrong, I love all three of those elements, but the way I shoot doesn't just allow me to pick things I like and throw them into a video. The idea sat around for months until I could figure out how to shoot it in the way that worked in my mind.

How the hell hard can it be Ted? Well, I used to write methodical scripts. This was huge fail shooting fetish material because you have such limited time with the models. The shooting is fast and furious and gives limited time for coaching on dialog and character. Detailed scripts slow down shooting. I learned very quickly that you needed to set up a scenario that was easy to grasp and could be explained while the model was getting dressed. The story, however simple, needed to make sense to me as well because we're shooting on-the-fly. The girl rolls off the couch? No problem, just stop, change the angle and start filming again. A strap falls down? No problem, just say something like, "that's why I should always go an extra notch and put it back on."

I'm also big on "whys" Why was this girl in a bikini and high heels? Why would she get tied up? The visual works but the "whys" always bothers me until they can all be answered. The task then was to let the idea percolate in my head for a couple months until I could justify the desired elements with a plausible story that could be shot on-the-fly. A favorite model of mine was coming by to shoot, and I asked her if she had a bikini. When she said yes, the entire idea just popped into my head. She had a body similar to girls in bikini contests and she had a sassy attitude on video. Everything just fell into place. She'd be a bitchy winner of many a bikini contest. Her rival wanted her out of the way for the next contest and hires someone to come by and take care of the problem. Anyone who's ever seen a girl's closet knows that there are a bazillion belts, and there you have it.

Kerri Taylor in Tight Straps Keep the Bikini Contestant Under Wraps is born!

She wore red and I made her ass cheeks match!

I sat down a bit back and decided on some themes I'd wanted to be consistent in all of my work. Spanking was one of those things. Am I a huge fan of spanking? I'd say not particularly, but I do so love to make a girl squirm. Spanking certainly does the trick. That's when I began experimenting with crops, floggers and mild spanking.

It's an element that works for me on a couple levels. The obvious is that in a damsel in distress video you can guarantee a lot of distress! Equally as important you now have a way to extract compliance or information from a damsel. "I'll never tell you where the key is!" WHACK!!! "The key is in that drawer over there!" Finally, man-handling has always been on my list and having your hand on someones cheeks is a great way to get that element.

I will fully admit that I'm not the greatest spanker. I will also admit that a favorite girl of mine is not the best at setting limits for me. We warmed her up, and I told her I'd spank until she said it was too intense. We set the limit and then away we went for the video. I told her to take as much as she could but say enough when it was too much. And so ten minutes later she said enough. The next day she emailed me about the bruising, the trouble sitting and some canceled shoots. Now before you think I just beat people's asses raw I need to say this was a test between two people that trusted each other and wanted to see how far the spanking could be taken. She wanted to know her limits as much as I wanted to push them. However, I have pulled back the level of intensity I use slightly since this :)

If you want to see a very pretty gal getting groped, mauled and her ass reddened like you'll never see anywhere, check out Angelique in Spanked and Mauled.

She Drooled All Over Herself

One of the things I notice about some models is that they drool .. a lot. Almost every one of them apologize for drooling and say something like, "I can't help it, the gag makes me drool and I try to keep it in but it leaks out." I then says something like, "no, let it flow and the video will be awesome!" They look at me like I'm a weirdo, and I can't blame them; it's an odd request.

Angelique did that the first time we shot. She kept swallowing the drool. A little while back she asked what people liked in clips, and I mentioned big gags as one of those things. She made a comment about not being able to hold back the drool with big gags, and the little guy on my shoulder who twists his mustache while a damsel is on the railroad tracks whispered, "jackpot" into my ear. I whispered back, "no crap!" Angelique said, "who are you talking to?" We have a lot of conversations similar to that.

The other day she got all dolled up and looked unbelievable. She asked for the big, blue ballgag purposely, and the second the camera rolled she started drooling. In the video you can see it streaming out of her face, glistening on her bosom and strewn across her thighs. It was everywhere, and it looked sweet. That gag is going to make plenty of appearances from now on, and poor Angelique is going to be drooling ... a lot!

Oh, and if you care to see proof check out Angelique in She Drooled All Over Herself.

I can see your face ... at least half of it

The interesting thing about bondage video is that everyone's hair gets in their face. It used to drive me nuts. You spend all this time finding cute gals and coaching them to make sure their face can be seen by the camera and the damn hair is always blocking the gag and their eyes. I suppose it's my fault for liking long hair and preferring positions where the girls are on the ground but even sitting positions have hair issues. The girl will throw their head around and push their chin into their chest. Sixty seconds later you have a tightly tied body with a clump of messy hair sitting on top of it.

My solution has always been to grab the hair, pull it back and do the gag over the hair. It holds the hair in place with the exception of maybe a tuft or two that dangle and look great. This gets into a great debate I've had with people over the years. I get emails and chat messages, "please put the gag strap under their hair." Everyone has a preference, and I respect that some folks like hair over the gag. My preference is born of personal like and professional need though.

Professionally I want to see the girl's face. The most important thing to me is expression, and I need to see those eyes. It's also much easier for the model to breath when their hair isn't tickling their face. Last but not least hair in the eyes is the number one reason I have to stop filming and help a model out. There is nothing worse than a active sequence that is rolling along and the model stopping and mumbling something about hair in the eyes. Tied up people are on a clock. Two minutes adjusting damn hair is two minutes of lost video.

Personally I just plain like it better. My icon is Sally Roberts. She defined the damsel in distress for me and the many images of her hair tucked into the gag strap is something I can never get out of my mind. Add my rampant use of tight gauze and tape wraps and you have hair under the gag almost every time. I do make exceptions: tape strips over wadding for example; but you're almost always going to have that hair tucked with my shots.

That comes to another thing I just adore. I call it half face. It's when the model has her mouth packed full with a rubber ball, a ballgag or wadding and then gauze or tape is wrapped widely over her lower face. All you see is the top of her face and you can tell she is dealing with a lot in her mouth. To me a great gag is as important as a great tie. Coincidentally half-face only happens with the gag over the hair.

A great half-face scene is with Amaya Solice above. We frogtied her, ballgagged her and then wrapped a whole roll of black gauze over the lower part of her face. It kept her quiet and lets you see those beautiful eyes. You can check it out at Amaya Solace in Feisty Frogtie Leads to Naked Hogtie if you like ... or not, it's a free world :)

Nyxon Double-Take

You might read this post and go, "hey, didn't we just see Nyxon on the last post?" Yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing. I do a lot of things that go beyond standard convention, most notably tying up pretty girls. I also tend to start sentences with "yeah." And I'm not afraid to post about the same gal twice. Now that I think of it I'm also not afraid to start a sentence with "and" even though I know it's proper to end the previous sentence with a semicolon. The moral is that I don't care. I just thought that Nyxon was cliptastic, so I went for it. There's another thing. I'm not afraid to invent words :)

There's a method to the madness though. I put up my first clip of Nyxon, and the response wasn't what I expected. Did I do something wrong? Do folks not like Nyxon? I know the second question isn't true. I've seen clips of Nyxon explode the second they go up. This might let you understand my conundrum a little more:

• Nyxon is hot and pulls off a vintage look like nobody else
• The clip had welded elbows, on-screen tying and a jacked hogtie
• The clips had groping and a tight gauze wrap over all ballgag
• Nyxon has eyes that pull you into the scene

After putting up another clip of Nyxon and seeing it do well immediately, I realized quickly that I needed to check into the other clip more closely. That's when I had my oh crap moment. The price was wrong. I had somehow put the clip up priced far too high. The fix for that was easy, I'd just jack down the price. Poor Nyxon was buried in the back of my store though, and I'd done that great scene a huge injustice.

The only solution I could think of that gave just to the clip and Nyxon's brilliant effort was to add a preview and bump it to the front of the store. I'll leave it there for the weekend, so it at least gets a second look from people. Nyxon in It Just Gets Tighter and Tighter is available for a second look before it goes back to it's normal spot in the store next week!

Nyxon wearing a double-sided nylon thong

I wrote a thank you letter to the folks at Fetishcon yesterday. Angelique had already thanked them, but they allowed us to have a suite and as I go through more and more video from the shooting I realize more and more how fucking awesome it was that they did that. I don't just drop the f-bomb lightly. They did me a solid, and I can't thank them enough. Mike and Vesta ... you both rock! The funny thing is I've only seen Mike in a hot tub and never met Vesta ... although I remember role-playing with her on yahoo chat a long time ago. I'm looking forward to getting to chat with them more!

I've already put up a clip that I shot with Nyxon in that suite, and today I put up the second clip we shot. She wore kick-ass vintage lingerie but with no panties. I made a double-sided thong for her which is what I call a crotchrope lol. Man that thing was tight, she probably hated me ... or loved me. I'm not sure how she swings on crotchropes. I brought her into the room in a tight reverse prayer, tied her legs and then left for a bit. She tried to hop away, but I carried her back into the room and made sure she stayed put by balltying her. I'd never done a balltie with a reverse prayer and it looked mighty uncomfortable. Of course the tape wrapping over her ballgag probably didn't help. Check out Nyxon in She Wore Nylon Stockings and Nylon Rope if your into vintage clothing, hot brunettes and rope that is rock-hard tight.

I do have a request though. I'm thinking of doing some webcam shows with Ms. Kithos. If anyone would be interested in that, please let me know at tedmichaelsdamsels@gmail.com and we'll schedule a showing sometime in the next week or so. I was thinking of doing 30 minutes where I show how our typical play sessions go ... 3 or so positions with a lot of roping and groping :)

I am "HENCHMAN"

I get to play the assistant to a super villain today which means I'm a henchman. It's not just the shirt that makes me a henchman, even if it does say "HENCHMAN" ... it's that I get to tie up two gals and be, um, henchmanish. As you can tell I'm a firm believer that it's fine to make up words. I'm also a firm believer that it's awesome to have people ask you to do rigging for them. It's great practice to capture (pun intended) the vision of others rather than tie in my own style.

All the intro footage is being shot which leaves me a lot of time before my scene. Well, intro footage if you count two girls tussling and then spanking each other. That gives me plenty of time for updating clips. I still have a bunch of re-masters to finish, but that's not stopping me from getting new things done as well. I showed a sneak peek from a clip yesterday, and it's actually up today. It stars Angelique Kithos and Kerri Taylor in They Wore Tight Skirts and Rope That Hurts. It was a fun one because tight spaces are always a challenge for lighting and filming. It requires models that know how to keep moving and are smart enough to let me see that their elbows are tied even though they're jammed into a tight corner!

Ever clip I shoot there's always a scene that I kick myself for not filming. For this clip I shot a short intro of them pleading. Then I tied their elbows and chests and asked them to move into the doorway. Why I didn't take a photo of them from behind with those arms tied is beyond me. I was just in a hurry to get the scene going. The moral of the story is that I have a small digital camera for candid shots for a reason! Maybe next time :)

Tight Skirts and Ropes That Hurt

The last couple of days have been fun and exciting, and interlaced with some oddness as well. We've been hosting the charismatic Kerri Taylor while she's shooting in NC, and that means we got a big chunk of her time. I shot a boat load of maxed out bondage before anyone else got time with her. Sorry everyone for the rope marks! We got in a requested set of a bikini and belts, a storyline video where Kerri gets tied up for an insurance scam, a hogtie variation that I think was tough based on her continuing to say, "ow ow ow" and capped things off with a pile of rope, electrical tape, duct tape and a stocking hood position. That was day one of of her visit!

Yesterday we shot for Angelique's store where Kerri Canary rescues Wonder Kithos from a vicious chair tie only to end up subdued and in a cranked hogtie. When there are no visible gaps from wrists to elbows you have a tight position. Later two rival crime fighters tussle over who will capture a villain but the villain ends up getting the drop on them. The reveal scene is priceless as well as their bickering at the end!

Tomorrow Jack McNaughton stops by with his big box of super heroine goodies. I get to play the bad guy. Experience has taught me that Angelique will most likely draw blood because she gets me back for all the tight ties when I play the villain in Jack's videos. I'll still have a chance to grapple with both gals and tie 'em up tight so I can't complain.

Other than that it snowed, I got to use my new lights, my ankle is hosed again, I ran out of gas taking Kerri to the car rental place; oh yeah, I almost forgot. I tied Angelique and Kerri together in a very unique two-girl tie. Elbows welded, they both dealt with a tough one. I'll put up the video in tomorrow's update, but I'll give you a sneak peek tonight :)

Tale of the Tape

Everyone has their strengths when it comes to bondage. There are girls who can wear ballgags and girls who can wear huge ballgags. There are girls who can drool and girls who have strands dripping off their chin like somebody left a faucet on. There are girls who can wiggle and girls who flop around like a fish on the deck of a boat. There are girls who moan pitifully and girls who sound so distressed you have to stop shooting for a moment just to be sure everything is okay. There are girls that do well with rope, girls who do well with straps and girls who do will with stockings; then there are the girls that can really handle tape.

Ultra-strict restraint is a challenge in itself both mentally and physically, but nothing really compared to ultra-strict tape restraint. Rope has several qualities that tape can never have. First, rope is fairly rigid; we call that a low coefficient of restitution. Second, rope isn't sticky as hell. Finally, rope breaths! Why does that make tape so challenging?

Skin gets uncomfortable when it can't breath. Rope, even tight rope, lets some amount of air in and increases the comfort level. Tape blocks air out completely. Your skin can't breath and you sweat like hell which is doubly discomforting. It is uncomfortable to be pinched. Rope shifts a little as you move but tape is welded fast. When you move the tape pinches and pulls. Last, and in my opinion the worst, some tape like electrical tape stretches and then compresses with a rubbery quality. This is called a high coefficient of restitution. Electrical tape wound tightly is like a huge rubber band. Let's combine all those now. Imagine a huge rubber band that squeezes into your flesh tighter than any rope could be pulled. Image that rubber band sticks to your skin like glue; every movement pulls, pinches and hurts. Finally, imagine that on top of this your skin starts itching from lack of contact with the air. It's not fun.

The easiest way to put it is that I've tied up a dozen gals that could have their elbows welded and be put in a back-arched hogtie and make it through a video set under hot lights. I've taken some of those same gals and done a tight tape restraint and they don't last 1/3 of the time. Tape wears you out and separates the tough from the down-right indestructible damsel.

That brings us to Elita. I have a TON of video of her. We worked together for about 14 months, and we ALWAYS used tape at least once. She loved take down sequences and for a quick tie-em-up, electrical tape is always a great choice. The picture speaks for itself really. Her elbows are smashed, there are no gaps at her knees or anywhere between her legs, her ankles are so close her shoes are flared out and the tape cuts in deeply. She never went away bruised. She never went away hurt. She just had the body and skin that could deal with that sort of thing, and I'm not talking about a couple minutes; she could deal with it for a long time. Need proof? Check out Elita in She Knew Too much ... apparently snooping around in the wrong files gets you taped up, roped up and far worse!

Some gals will do anything to stay out of a closet

I started doing this series that was based on girls afraid of the dark or being claustrophobic who would do anything to not be locked in a closet. Add a burglar needing a clean get away and these gals would beg to be tied up and gagged rather than be shoved in a closet.

Things start out like a normal tie-em up until the burglar decides he wants to be extra sure and gets a bit frisky. Before you know it electrical tape is going over the rope and the ballgag gets a hefty wrapping of gauze or tape. All the while he's he's grabbing the goodies because, well, why the hell not! At this point the gal is going nowhere, and this in some intense crap! The first version I did of this was with Kendra James and it was sweet. The next attempt was with JJ Plush and talk about upping the ante. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

JJ got thin rope, electrical tape over the rope and her tits bared. When she complains she is gagged with a 3" ballgag and has tape wrapped over that completely around her head. I'm talking stretchy tape pulled to max tightness. Then he ties up her tits and fondles them, adds duct tape over her bonds for extra security and completely wraps her arms in duct tape before wrapping it around her chest and waist. A bit drunk with the control he now has he pulls a stocking over her head, wraps more duct tape around her gag, wraps it over her eyes and then wraps it around her chin and head to crunch everything in place.

JJ flips, flops, sweats and groans in obvious distress in a position that she absolutely loved. Check out JJ Plush in Tie Me Gag Me Just Don't Put Me in A Dark Closet and you won't be disappointed!

Angelique Kitos, JJ Plush, Kerri Taylor, Savannah Costello ... Oh My!

I am in the middle of a satisfying week. Why is that Ted you may ask? Hell, even if you didn't ask we're going to invent a fake person named, um, Bob. Again I say that I am in the middle of a satisfying week. "Why is that Ted?" asked Bob. Why thank you for asking Bob, I'll let you know!

The very lovely Ms. Kithos was having a conversation with the very lovely Stacie Snow and suggested she come by to shoot with me. Before you know it we've settled on a weekend in February and are almost done hammering out the details. For those of you that do not know, Stacie and I share the same birthday and get along like peas in a pod. The shoots are always fun and she never fails to deliver on the type of content that I do. If that's not enough, Ms. Kithos also set up a shoot for me with Kerri Taylor. Kerri is incredible to work with, and we have this odd working dynamic. I can get her into just about any bind without issue or without her needing pain-killers for the next week. It always brings a smile to my face getting a model into a predicament that others cannot seem to convince her to do!

On the equipment front, I tested out my new lighting and love it. The easiest way to light is to use shop lights. They're cheap and pump out a lot of light which is great for video. They also pump out a lot of heat and roast the model like a turkey! The new lights are cool lights (no pun intended); they generate next to no heat. That means the models will last longer in the ties, I won't sweat like a pig and I'll be doing less color corrections in the post-processing. On top of that, I finally did some test video with my main camera. Yes, a couple years ago I bought the first SLR digital camera that also shot HDV 1080 video. Holy crap does it shoot great video! We'll be putting that baby on a tripod for extra angles and footage in the future. Ms. Taylor will be the first to be filmed with it.

On the health front, not many people know that I severely sprained my ankle and had a minor sprain with the other ankle. The short version is for a week I couldn't walk. I had to cancel two shoots that broke my heart. Well, I can walk again, have no more bruising and the swelling is down enough to allow full mobility which means I'll be doing on-screen rigging by Friday.

Last but by far not least, I just finished the most successful online month of my very short career. My sales hit an all-time high, my C4S store has quadruple-digit hits each day, my website is almost up to the amount of hits where I will start updating it bi-weekly, I finished my store-front revamps (that almost killed me) and I released my first DVD video.

Since I've blathered on a lot today, I'll make the rest short and sweet:

Best of the Breast: Big Titters in Bondage is available at http://www.videos4sale.com/38048 if you happen to be a fan of Angelique Kitos, JJ Plush, Kerri Taylor or Savannah Costello. It features lots of drooling, breast bondage, crotch rubbing, groping, welded elbows, on-screen tying and pure hotness! It was shot in 1080 HDV and the quality is stellar!

Nyssa and Taylor, Double the Damsels Double the Fun

I tend to avoid two-girl shoots because of logistics. I have to move the camera around a lot and paying attention to who might be struggling out of frame is fairly taxing. Then I have to combine that with moving the camera around a lot and it becomes a bit tricky to make sure you have two damsels struggling in each frame as opposed to a damsel and half of a damsel with her head sticking into the unknown.

I had some trepidation about the idea when Nyssa Nevers suggested I work with her traveling companion Taylor Rae, but Nyssa won me over when she said that if I told her where to stay she'd flop around but always stay in frame. And she did! The exotic beauty was always in frame and struggled like hell. She made it easy to concentrate on Taylor during her bondage sequence with no worries that Nyssa would get cropped out somehow. The video was one of the better sequences I filmed that year. Two girls very different: one blond and one brunette, one exotic and one girl-next-door.

It was a fun shoot on many levels. Both girls were charming to work with, I got a great struggle sequence with Nyssa in the beginning, I used panty gags for the first time, I got to man-handle two-girls at once and I did my first on-screen forced orgasm with Nyssa. It is a LONG video that demands a DVD release and the clip may have to be cut down to be palatable to some. However Nyssa Nevers and Taylor Rae in Trouble for Two: Ropes, Gropes and Orgasms is now available as a clip. Warning: If you don't like two beautiful women stripped down to just shoes getting panty gagged with tape head wraps and then worked over stay away from this clips. Great job Nyssa and Taylor!

Kendra James what were you thinking?

It's always fun to go through video and pull out the odd things that happen during a shoot. Like when the dog gets loose and gets into the scene or UPS picks the the perfectly wrong moment to need a signature on a delivery. I should do a blooper reel someday! I do actually have a piece of video where the model told me her boyfriend would be checking up on her once an hour and if she was indisposed I should pick up and tell him she'd call him right back. Sure enough in full restraint and tape-gagged the phone rings, I pick up and I say the classic, "she's a bit tied up at the moment, she'll call you back." He said to put the phone by her ear and she mmmphhs four times. After the shoot she told me they agreed that any number of mmmphs other than four would mean call the cops. I find that funny until this day! Why four? Who knows, still damn funny though.

My first shoot with Kendra had some funny moments as well, mainly because she's a hoot to be around. I still have a vivid recollection of her in a naked lotus tie, neck to ankles, and hearing, "little help please." I know I've told the story but turning around to see nothing but feet and you-know-what was a bit shocking, very funny and just plain awesome from a perv point of view.

Some of the things that really get my wheels turning though are when I see expressions and wonder what is going through their heads at the time. It's fairly obvious when the expression means "just get this over with idiot!" Other times it's a bit harder to read. I was working on screen shots and just had to put up this one from Kendra James in Vintage Vixen Hogtied. I had recently re-mastered it for better color and a higher bit rate. I took the screen shot because it had drool, and I LOVE drool. Nobody plays a character in distress better than Kendra, so it could just be play-acting. The more I look at it though the more it seems to say that she knows the only way I'll get the camera out of her face is to drool. I can't even view it anymore without knowing she's thinking, "here, it's all over my bra now, happy, now film something else already!"

There are bees in my head!

My brain is buzzing today from working it at all levels. I'm in the middle of a complete re-mastering of my C4S store front, and the level of activity has been full throttle. I'm having to create new preview images, stay in email touch with tech support, update descriptions, re-master videos and create new sample images. Since re-masters can take anywhere from 5-30 minutes, I'm trying to stay busy while those churn by working on all the rest. This means that my brain is switching between lobes constantly, and I'm burning on about 8 things at once at any given time.

I needed a bit of a break to let the buzzing in my head calm down, so I'm updating my blog while I sip wine and have a couple of slices of cheese! I will say that Shannon at C4S is a God-send. She acknowledged a tweet I made within minutes and jumped on the problem I was having. The short version is that previews sell clips and they were broken for my store. She's hand-generated previews for me and cracked the whip at programmers for several days now and after 8 days of issues my store is acting like normal. Phew!

I always like to make whiskey sours when life throws me lemons, so the revamp continues and I'm loving what it's looking like: better formatting, clearer descriptions, less typos (so unprofessional) and FULL-RES previews. I'm not done though. There are still more images to generate, more previews to render and more full clips to re-render. The end result though is bigger clips at higher bit rates, better color and no more issues with people having codec issues with MPEG2.

My second favorite video clip I've put up just got remastered. It's Angelique in Hooded Hottie Groping Hell. The clip was put up while C4S had stricter guidelines on clips dimensions and file sizes. Those have changed and I've re-mastered in 720x540, 2000 Kbps and stunning color. Oh, and poor Angelique gets the lotus tie of her life and my hands all over her tenders. I love my job!

Finding the groove

Does anyone else constantly fiddle with things? I do. I think it's an integral part of the creative process. Sure, I need to brand myself but evolution of style is important as well. When I started publishing it was after a period of trying to decide what was the best resolution, post-processing effect, bitrate and such. It turns out I was wrong on just about everything lol. The viewer of the material always shows you what works best. Hey, the clip with that lighting sells the most and people prefer this format over that format.

Viewers like 720x540 and 720x480 better, and that is what they should get. Viewers like higher bit rates, and that is what they should have. Additionally, I found a nice way to get lighting similar to how I edit my images which I love. Why shouldn't all my clips look the way I prefer? That creates a dilemma though because I already have dozens of clips up. Do I just leave them and put up new stuff with the revised quality? Do I take the ones that sell the most and re-do them? Do I take the ones that sell the least and re-do those in hopes that the higher quality will get them selling.

I didn't have to face any of those choices though because fate intervened. A number of people who like my clips have been asking for special versions of clips in WMV format. On top of that my previews keep going down which is KEY for people getting a glimpse at the clip. I'm not the type to sit on a broken system or ignore a valid request. The only way I could have reliable previews is if I provided them. This is great for viewers; they get to see full quality previews that contain snippets from a larger portion of the clip. Talk about try before you buy!

In the process of doing previews I realized I had the opportunity to remaster ALL clips while I was at it. I mean, I needed to do previews of EVERY clip so why not spend the time remastering all the clips in the new format and quality. And that's what I'm doing. Slowly, surely I am remastering and swapping out EVERY clip that isn't 720x540 or 720x480 and isn't 2000 kbps. It has taken days so far and will take a couple more, but the long hours are worth it. By this Wednesday I will have 100% revamped my entire storefront on clips4sale. Was it necessary? No, people would have kept buying clips as long as I kept putting them up. But it was the right thing :)

The first clip I remastered and put back up was Angelique in Bed Bound & Busty. It was a snippet of a play session that we decided to film where she is jacked out in brown rope, red panties and killer heels.

How to know a gag is tight

I've been waiting on resolution of an issue with my C4S store for a couple days. It seems that the previews are breaking left and right, and I'm having issues when I update the store. They're working diligently on it, but I need to find something to do when C4S slows down. Luckily for me I keep a list of things longer than I'll ever be able to complete.

Something that's been hanging heavily on me for a while is that the Hogtie from Hell series seems to be very popular. The reason it hangs heavily is that the most popular clip of all with Angelique Kitos only has the ending portion where the hogtie is final. Imagine 20 plus minutes of binding and gagging something so delectable as Angelique sitting on a HDV tape gathering dust. When the store issues cropped up I decided it was great time to resolve that issue.

The clip was originally a custom request that for some reason fell through. The request was to show the tying, gagging, interaction between model and rigger and finally the completed position. The two things I noticed in reviewing the footage were just how long she had to deal with something so tight. This wasn't a case of quickly tying someone up and getting the footage. It was long and languishing. Her arms were red, and her face was red.

That's how you know a gag is tight. The ballgag was bad enough but a full roll of co-flex was stretched out and wrapped tightly over her face. That stuff is like rubber, and it squeezes when it's stretched out. After six or so layers your face is in a vice, and that ballgag is in the back of your throat. The worst part is the strain of not choking. The saliva builds up with nowhere to escape making it a true physical and mental challenge. Face red, veins popping out, eyes closed and dimples not only between the eyebrows but over them. Than my friends is how you know a gag is tight. I quite frankly don't know why the gal still gives me the time of day! Regardless check out Angelique in Hogtie from Hell - Full over at C4S ... if things are functional enough to let you :/

Nobody gets away ... most of the time

My motto of tight tight tight means that nobody escapes until I let them get out. I mean, what good is strict bondage if the ropes fall off or the gal gets loose somehow? Of course, that was before I found out a lot of folks like a nice escape video.

I tried to put my head around it and decided that the best way to do it was to make the model work for it. I'd make things a little easier by not totally jacking the position. Don't get me wrong, the gals are tied tight, but I wasn't a complete bastard by tying them up into a hogtie and saying, "get loose, I'll be over here by the camera until you do." Another aspect was to use dull scissors; I'd make the girls saw their way out and get a nice little reaction to the scissors not working as well. Finally I decided on a frogtie. There's really no comfortable way to sit upright on a hardwood floor in a frogtie, and sitting upright is the only way you're having a chance of getting loose.

Kerri Taylor wasn't the first model I've "allowed" to get loose, but her attempt was a fun one to film. She was all over the place: sitting up with knees splayed, on her side and even arching on her back to get at her ankle ropes. She certainly made it dynamic. With her elbows tied using her hands to work the scissors was a challenge, and it took her a lot longer than she expected. She asked at the start if I'd get enough video, and I assured her that I would. After 12 minutes of struggling before even getting the elbows free, she saw my point. I called it Hurting to Be Free because a model can struggle and stay within a certain comfort zone; however it is impossible to cut yourself free from an elbows-tied frogtie on a hardwood floor without it stinging a bit. Kudos to her. Despite the veins popping out of her forearms she eventually go out ... I did give her the scissors though.

The rest of the day is a busy one. I need to render out a lengthy video of Angelique Kitos, a version of her Hogtie from Hell where all the restraint being applied is shown. I'd forgotten there was a portion where she felt woozy and meditated her way through it to finish the video. Add to that photo samples, promotional work and some DVDs and it's going to be a slammed couple of days.

Where did she go?

So many people waft in and out of the business. It's no different that any other business, but I've worked with people that just model for a month. For that matter, I've heard of people leave after their first shoot. I can't really blame them though. You think it's one thing and then you get the ropes on and you decide that going back to school isn't such a bad idea! Then there are people that cycle in and out.

I met Renee years ago when I was shooting stock photography for comic books. She had never shot bondage before but had done some wrestling videos. I remember laughing to myself because she said the idea of being tied up seemed a bit rough but had already told me she'd done a dozen or so female wrestling videos where breast punching was involved. Call me crazy but I'd go for jacked restraint over getting punched in the Jimmy a dozen times. Regardless, after several emails we had our first shoot set up and ready to go, and it went great. Not only did her elbows touch, but she felt is was much less rough than she had originally thought. The material looked great, she was a great wiggler and the camera loved her. I immediately signed her up for a second shoot with video.

Then she disappeared. Well, she didn't disappear, but she worked under a manager (I can picture all the producers out there rolling their eyes) and they parted ways. And so our second shoot was foiled. To my surprise, I sent her an email just to touch bases about two years later and a shoot was back on courtesy of her new manager lol. Manager or no, we had two more shoots with some fun video. My style back then was based on cuts to provide drama and minimal moving camera work, mostly due to a crap motion sensor on my camcorder. I sometimes go back to that style because it really does make for good drama. I also tended to add more story to the shooting, so Renee got to play the part of a model that continually promises a bondage shoot but never comes through. Unfortunately this tactic only works so long before she becomes an Unwilling Bondage Model.

New twists on old favorites

The first four or so years I shot I did what a lot of people do when they shoot bondage. I had my favorite positions and relied on the models, clothing and settings to provide variety. Everyone got the same four or so stock positions with something unique thrown in for flavor. And EVERYONE got a hogtie. That gets a little boring as a rigger, so I started experimenting and that continues to this day.

Symmetry has always been in my nature. I wrote recently about loving elbows that touch because of the look. I was referring in part to the symmetry. Going against that was very out of my nature but when you challenge yourself artistically that's when you often get the best results. I started experimenting with asymmetry. Wow did I love the results. Bondage is about drama and a nice, tight tie can certainly bring that, but the angles of an asymmetrical tie do the trick nicely when done correctly. Since then everyone has been getting a mix and every shoot is an experiment in what I can do with lines.

I've been doing my "hogtie hell" series with a number of models, and Kerri Taylor was no exception. She's done it twice in fact. The first one was a sweet asymmetrical hogtie that was far more taxing than the tightest hogtie. It cinched her in 3-dimensions and pushed her flexibility to the max. Her exact words afterward were, "I'm going to hate you for about ten minutes so just leave me alone. After that we can be friends again." That only lasted about a minute, but it's a great way to let you know that it wasn't an easy hogtie. Kerri Taylor in Hogtie and Strappado from Hell was a fun one!

All Tied Elbows Are Not Equal

I know that everyone has a liking for different ties, and I myself like a large variety of restraints. I don't mind if someone's elbows don't touch as long as it looks tight. You can see when someone has them back there as much as they'll go, the shoulder shape and the slight color change always give things away. I do have to admit though that I find nothing cooler than when elbows touch. From an artistic standpoint there is a symmetry that is visually appealing. From a rat bastard point of view there is just utter helplessness there. When the elbows are tied touching you lose so much mobility. You can't twist your arms, bending is severely limited and the hands can only do so much. Love it!

All elbows are not equal though even when they do touch. Some people have great flexibly which allows their elbows to touch. Every so often you run into someone who's elbows just plain touch and by this I mean no tugging, no cinching of the rope or any external force is necessary. What does a rigger do in this case. You crush them of course. I'm not talking pain or damage or being an irresponsible ass. I'm talking about arms so close together there are no gaps and no spacing; skin touches skins from wrist to elbow. Holy crap it's a nice thing to work with I'll tell you.

I had the pleasure of working with Victoria Ashely on a video I called Date With Welded Elbows now up on my store. I plan on putting up several screen shots at www.tedmichaels.com very soon! The first shoot almost didn't happen because she got lost, but I drove out to lead her to the shoot when she got twisted around. I told her to put her arms behind her back when the first set was going and to my amazement they just touched. No ropes, no help from me ... just two unbound arms side by side. I couldn't believe it.

We did two shoots over the next two weeks and those elbows were welded 90% of the time!

Old treasures shine just as much!

Yesterday I spoke of going through the archives of material from a decade of shooting. The best decision I made ten years ago was to drop a grand on a DV camera. When everyone was shooting VHS and Hi-8 I was shooting material that holds up to a lot of the cameras today. If you can show me a VHS or Hi-8 that can be published as a 720x480 clip with no downgrade in resolution, then you can convince me otherwise.

Glamour models that discovered they liked bondage, a porn model that decided that rough oral was easier to do than my rigging, countless girls-next-door that never knew their elbows touched, models nobody has footage of but yours truly, capture sequences, vibrator sequences and full mini-movies going years back. I thought what I'd shot the last couple of years was a gold mine, but the mountain under that is just as shiny!

And so it is that I give you Ivy. She had done some mild bondage, had refused to work with some other producers and agreed to work with me because she was close and needed a content trade. I remember vividly that she changed when the ropes started going on and became very submissive. I had her elbows crunched, and she didn't care. By the time we shot a second time, I had her breasts bound and a vibrator in her crotchrope ... she progressed quickly! I'll hold onto that one for a little while though to see how her first clip, Ivy in Roped and Groped Glamor Gal, does.

New formats and old treasures

I love that the video of Amaya has been selling so well. She struggles great and has a girl-next-door look that just makes root for her to get loose ... she never does, but it's damn fun watching her try. Thank you to everyone who's been picking up the clip of her. I've done two day shoots with her, so there are plenty more clips of Amaya to follow in the coming months.

My home site continues to get more traffic, so it will be time for some updates over there soon. My goal is for it to get 100 hits a day before I do weekly updates. Check out www.tedmichaelsdamsels.com and make me do updates!

The biggest challenge I faced putting up a clips store wasn't material, it wasn't the balls to do it and it wasn't any concern about how things might go with the store. Oddly, the challenge was figuring out the best format to use for the clips. I originally planned on several formats to accommodate PCs, Apples and mobile devices. Then I decided on MPEG2 because it works "everywhere." I get great results, but I've had a couple people indicate some codec problems. So much for working everywhere. So now what? A friend over at FetLife specifically requested a WMV version of a clip with Stacie Snow, so I put up the WMV version today just so he could see the clip. Wow, the quality is a lot better than what I'd expected. No wonder so many people use it for their clips lol. I'm actively considering putting up WMV from now on.

Yesterday I cataloged "old treasures" for a couple hours. How do I put this? When people were shooting for image sites a decade ago I was shooting DV video. I have a lot of tapes, and those tapes have a lot of bondage on them. I wanted to start putting things out with my recent work, but I've always planned on interweaving that with the early material. Out come the old treasures! Look for an update from the archives tomorrow :)

Bound and gagged blond

This morning I needed something to do while my brain woke up, so I sorted and cataloged my DV tapes. I learned some things. I learned that I have a lot of video shot. I learned that I'm terrible at labeling and providing descriptions with the tapes. I learned that my obsessive need to keep all model releases filed and up-to-date is a huge thing. learned that I have some kick-ass video with capture sequences, transport sequences and multiple positions where the restraint is changed on-screen. Oh, and it's all tight as a drum rigging! I also learned that I used to use vibrators ... A LOT. I can probably do daily updates for 6 months and not have to shoot lol. I will of course continue shooting though ... I finally have a formula that I like and there's no way I'll pass on talent like Kerri Taylor, Nyxon, JJ Plush or Lola Lynn when the roll into town.

This afternoon I'll need to focus on putting together some DVDs though. I've had a goal of getting a couple full-length films up to see if anyone has any interest in HDV format of my material or if they just prefer clips. Time will tell. My top priority is finishing up a custom DVD and shipping it off. That gives me time to start a new one if anyone is interested (wink).

The bound and gagged blond pictured is Amaya Solace. I've seen her at a lot of sites, but I've never seen her in quite the style of rigging that I perform. I have this knack for getting people into a real bind without them getting pissed off at me. We've shot twice, so there's much more video to come. Amaya is very vocal and a constant wiggler which makes for great damsel video. You can see her first installment as a Ted Michaels' captive in Feisty Frogtie Leads to Naked Hogtie.

Superheroines and Spandex

The last couple of days have kept me hopping, and it's hard to believe that I couldn't find the time to update the blog the other day. That's the case though. On top of domestic items and a hockey game, I shot a custom with the lovely Angelique Kitos where she played a ravishing masked crime fighter. In this case though she was pole-tied with about 2oo feet of nylon rope and fought the vibrator in her crotchrope. I'll put some pictures of that up after the customer sees them; it's a bit gauche to show everyone before you show the person who paid for it! Ms. Kitos does make a great superheroine though, and I think we'll work that into the rotation in the future for her C4S store.

I do have to admit though that most of my time has been spent on "domestic" issues. My fellow photographers and models out there can attest that life is not always ropes and struggling. The laundry needs to get done, the dishes still pile up in the sink and the floors get dirty. How's that for glamorous?

My excitement for the week is with my new continuous lighting set up. The last time I looked at anything other that halogen lighting the cost was in the 4 figures range. When a shop light at Lowes costs $35 it's not a hard decision to make. AK kept telling me my lights wash people out (which adds to my post-production time), and I finally listened to her and checked out prices. The big conversion of everyone over to fluorescent though means the bulbs have come down drastically in price and the rigs are much cheaper now that more people are making them. The short version is that I am now the proud owner of 3000 watts of cool, soft-boxed lighting. Every model out there that has ever baked like a trussed turkey under my lights is rejoicing lol. I am just dying to get a clip shot with them too!

The image today is Angelique. A little-known secret to everyone except those that read my blog is that I have terrible grammar and like my hero Christopher Walken I refuse to change. AK pointed out my tendency to begin sentences with "however" when I fully know that I should end the last sentence with a semi-colon and then use the "however." However I don't like to do that (smile) and the image is because when she corrects my grammar is always want to get out the bit gag and nipple clamps! Oh, and the image is from Angelique in Mummified and Vibrated.

Just Hanging Around

I absolutely love a video I shot with Maria Shadoes some years back. I had a little different formula back then since I was working mostly on a tripod for the camera work. Sure, I had a DV camcorder but it still produced somewhat shaky results when the footage was hand-held. I even went so far as to make a steady cam, but it was useless for shooting in tight spaces. Where was I? Oh yeah, I shot mostly on a tripod. The problem with shooting on a tripod is my style has always been about drama and the best way to get drama with static angles is a lot of camera cuts. The change in scene tells the brain that something is happening and makes it get "re-interested" in what is going on.

The big lead-in is basically to say that a lot of cuts means a lot of editing! I've wanted to put up this video for a while, but it's been a real bear to edit into something I am comfortable releasing. I could just throw up 35 minutes of Maria wiggling with her elbows welded the entire time, but I demand drama. My post-production motto is the same as my restraint motto. The editing has to be quality; if it's not tight it's not right. My editing software isn't helping either because it keeps choking on empty frames I forgot to fill (technical blah blah).

Regardless, I will figure it all out and get a clip up soon. It's going to be called Maria Shadoes in Do Not Disturb and will feature a tight chair tie, callous man-handling, jacked hogtie and a door suspension in a hotel. The entire time poor Ms. Shadoes wears my fattest ballgag and a tight wrapping of gauze over her entire face. Wish me luck ... this edit has been fighting back harder than Maria did during the takedown at the beginning of the video!

Don't Go Anywhere

I pulled out the big kitten eyes yesterday and suggested a tie-em-up. Angelique had an outfit on that just said to me that she should get grabbed and tied up. It wasn't like it was a vampy outfit or anything; she just looks hot in anything and it made me want to do an impromptu clips. Imagine my surprise when she told me that the big, pleading eyes worked and I should try it more often. After shooting the clip I plan on just that. It wasn't long before she was tied up on camera, had a vibrator jammed against her most protected areas and was hogtied to struggle, drool and, well, do things that vibrators help make happen. I'll have it up on the store soon.

A big thing off of my list was getting an iPod clips store up. It only has five of my best-selling clips so far, but I'll let you know that they look wonderful on my iPhone. It's great to have portable, um, entertainment! I plan on updating this store just as regularly as my regular store! I also want to thank everyone who has visited my regular C4S store and most importantly purchased clips. This has been my best month so far, and I'm encouraged enough to continue putting up content :)

I managed to shoot a custom with Angelique and will go into the editing phase soon. I keep mentioning customs, but this was one that was really fun to shoot. Nothing against anyone, but the communication aspect of shooting customs is the most difficult aspect. The customer always has a very real image in mind and my translating that image properly is a challenge. This last custom was a case of me and another person thinking in the same way ... we communicate visually and through storyboards I was able to nail it. I'm sure he'll be overwhelmed with the results. I'll put up a sneak peek of it as I get time to work on things.

Last but not least, my top-selling slip is still Angelique Kitos in Hogtie From Hell. Others are coming close, but she reigns supreme as the overall clip champion and the champion in total sales!

Left Elbow, Meet Right Elbow

The first time I saw somebody's elbows together behind their back I couldn't fathom how it was even physically possible. I grew up in a small town. Hell, we didn't even have a gymnastics squad ... sure, some of the cheerleaders could do splits but there was nothing like this in the routines. These were the innocent years before I knew about forward and backward facing shoulders, double-jointed gals and overall flexibility.

As I became exposed to more bondage material though it became obvious that it was possible and that it looked shit hot. The majority of your hand mobility comes from the shoulders and the elbows. When you weld them together that equals a whole lot of helplessness. The first time I ever got elbows to touch on a gal was with Julie Simone about 12 years ago. I looked so young she actually joked about wanting to see my ID. She said she needed some tight stuff for possible work in California, so the floodgates had opened. Over the next two days we shot and her elbows were welded every which way: strappado, hogtie, chair ties and even taped wrist to elbow. That sold me on the concept, and it's been a staple from then on.

Angelique introduced me to Kerri Taylor a while back and I've loved shooting with her ever since. Tough as nails, her elbows weld without any issue and she can hold it for a long time. That makes for great video. As you can see I seldom miss an opportunity to get into the shot and inspect my handy work. In the clip this screen shot was taken from she struggled so hard that the chair did a complete 360 and moved all the way across the room ... but those elbows stayed glued the entire time. Check out Kerri Taylor in Chesty and Chair-tied to see for yourself ;)

In other areas, last night I managed to get an iPod store up on C4S featuring five of my best sellers. All of them are on my iPhone and the quality is incredible! Check them out at Ted Michaels Damsels - iPod ... or don't,

The Miracle of Modern Medicine

Where would we be without modern medicine. Yes, there is compelling data that life expectancy has not gone up because of medicine but more likely to improved access to quality food and living conditions. However I do like that my sinus infections go away faster and I have something for aches and pains other than just alcohol.

Regardless, modern medicine has brought the bondage word countless advances. I thought nothing could get better than co-flex with all it's stretchy, self adhering goodness, but then those medical folks had to invent a tape that adheres like glue but doesn't rip off your skin. Even better it doesn't stick to hair. Now all my captives get a full head wrap at least once with tape all the way around. Take poor the poor girl here for example. The ballgag was bad enough but then we add several layers of tape around her head. First, the gag is going nowhere. Second, saliva leakage equals zero ... try choking on that while sitting on a hitachi magic wand. Finally, it's like rubber. It stretches and then squeezes even more than co-flex. And so medical profession, I salute you. Oh, and lest I forget the poor gal gagged to the max and having multiple orgasms is the talented Randy Moore in Taught Bondage and Bad Vibrations.

I like drool

I'm sort of fascinated by how things change when it comes to fetish tastes. The term I use is that your tastes will "graduate." I say that because my experience is that people's likes start at some base and then evolve; they tend expand and intensify. What do I mean? I used to like simple bondage that promoted a certain innocence and that graduated into ultra-strict bondage as I realized that it's not really being tied up if the girl gets loose. I'd have people wiggle around, they'd get loose and I'd think, "damn I'm a really bad villain, let's fix that." I felt a little guilty at first, but I started to enjoy the intricacy with rope work that strict bondage allowed. Where am I going? Well, I used to not like drool until at some point my tastes graduated. What could be more helpless than a damsel in ultra-strict restraint, her jaws straining with a huge ballgag and so helpless she can't even stop from drooling all over herself.

With that in mind I give you Wenona in Weld Her to That Chair and letting loose some strands of drool that would have made it to the floor if the chair and her crotch hadn't gotten in the way. Wenona is a gal in total control of her body. She is tanned, toned and can kick your ass. About 200 feet of ultra-cinched rope and a fat ballgag though, and she had zero control ... a helpless lass able to do little more than wiggle ... and yes, drool all over herself!

And now I'm back to getting a custom script out for a look-see, working on samples and as always editing clips!

Tomiko in Tight Trouble

When you have so much backlog of material, the process of coming up a new clips to put up can be an interesting process. Do I put up something from this year or do I dig into the archives and go back eight years? Do I want on-screen tying, abduction fantasy or just a really tight position with fervent struggling? Sometimes though it is just random.

I was tweeting yesterday and it was suggested I might want to follow Tomiko. I knew I had footage of her from last year, but I couldn't remember all the details. After reviewing it I felt like a fool for not having put it up already. Tomiko is a great model and a superb actress, and the clip had it all; there was tight restraint, forced stripping, groping, on-screen gagging, on-screen tying and a ton of struggling. It's difficult to get so many elements into a clip sometimes. Either I forget something or the model gets tired or there is an equipment issue. This shoot though we got it all, so I'm putting it up today.

As for other news, the super-heroine custom is still on for this week, Angelique had the coolest idea for a shoot I've heard in a long time (you'll have to wait, I'm not giving it away) and I'll be putting together not one but two DVD videos with all footage shot in smoking hi-res HDV. As for DVDs, I have a story I've wanted to shoot for a while and I'm going to work on Angelique to help me out with it when time allows.

Finally, what a difference a day makes. Two days ago I was doing back flips because I got a web site up and going. Yesterday I was crest-fallen because a couple serious issues with the site popped up, that I did not think could be resoled; however yesterday a solution presented itself, and I am happy with how things are working now. That doesn't mean I'm done though, not by a long shot. Everything is a work in progress!

Still champion ...

Today has been a cluster of odds-n-ends. After being sick for 3 days with some sort of crud, I've still been muddling through on a dozen projects at once, all high priority. I got the site up and live only to discover that the way it was being handled sucked big and hard and needs to be reworked. I have a work-around and have my fingers crossed it goes into place before the site actually gets crawled ... otherwise the search engines will see two duplicate sites and I'll look like a spammer (and I hate spammers).

I did manage to finish the pole tie rig or more specifically the mechanism to attach it without marring the walls. That baby is gonna get some use! I also took some pics of it for the custom requester along with the outfit he'd like to see. I dropped the ball on contacting him about things this weekend, so I hope he'll still want to proceed. I'll shoot it one way or another, either for him or for a video and some C4s ... I'm hoping it's for the customer though. I hate when things fall through because I get away from my checklist.

As usual I did some stats checking and my #1 clip from week one of the store and every week following is still Angelique in Hogtie from Hell. I don't see how anything is going to dethrone it because it sells once a day.

www.tedmichaelsdamsels.com is LIVE!

My website just went live. You can visit it at www.tedmichaelsdamsels.com and check it out. For the moment it is primarily a vehicle to show screen shots from recent clips, but I will add photo samples and perhaps paysite capability down the road to showcase the billions of photos I've taken (I've shot for over 12 years).

I'll warn you, it requires JavaScript as it is geared towards presentation and not compatibility. As time warrants I will work on an HTML only version, but for now it remains a portfolio.

Let me know what you think!

Suckin' hind wind

If you're not from my part of the country the title probably doesn't mean much too you. If you are then you know it means being way behind in the race, the race today being my task list. I've gotten a lot done but nothing from my primary list. I guess I should be happy finding a spun aluminum pole with no wobble for the post-tie rig and coming up with a no-marring fastening system that relies about 3 bucks in hardware. I had hoped to be working on some RM versions of clips based on a request from a frequent customer (why RM I don't know, the quality is such bleh). The customer is always right thought, so he'll get his wish.

I'm also way behind for my clips for today, but I did get some work done on my first video release. I don't have a name, but it focuses on 3 gals with ample breasts, so don't be surprised if it has "Busty" somewhere in the title. The first gal will be Kerri Taylor who I work with often and appears multiple times on my clip store. Her work on Chesty and Chairtied is the update today which will also appear in all it's 1080p, hi-res glory on the first video over at C4S when it's ready. I'm thinking of adding a bosomy blond and the wonderful JJ Plush as well. Time will tell!

Before that though it's back to the pole tie rig for the custom shoot where Angelique Kitos will appear as a plucky and yet unlucky heroine that gets caught snooping, tightly tied to a vertical pole and made to suffer the indignation of a big vibrator welded to her sensitive areas. After that, I'll work on some classic material of Maria Shadoes being abducted, man-handled, put in one hell of a hogtie and then hung from a hotel door like a side of beef in a meat locker.

Chop saws and powerdrills

Custom videos get done on weekends around these parts. Since yesterday was date night (Barbecue following Paranormal Activity 2) that makes Sunday get 'er done day. Angelique is dealing with mutant activity in Fallout while I'm prepping for a super-heroine request that came our way.

I've already ordered the missing materials for the outfit but still need to hit the party store for a harlequin mask. Earlier I had the fun of bringing out the miter saw and the drill press to put together a post rig. Now I don't know about most of you but I like to keep my home, well, a home. As such I don't bolt poles into the floor for the sake of cinching damsels up to them. That requires making rigs. The new place has the perfect door way that only required making a brace for the top of the door jamb, a brace for the bottom and a pole to go between them. The sawdust flew, the whir of the drill driver echoed in the garage and 20 minutes later we have a post for a tasty pole tie that is rock-solid and damages nothing in the house. Even better I got to use some old two-by-fours that came on a shipping pallet for our treadmill ... I hate wasting good wood (pun intended) and was glad to get the entire rig done for free!

With permission from the requester I'll put up some peeks at how things went later. Until then I'll put up something from a clip that went up last night. It stars the wonderful Kendra James. It's notable in that it is the very first clip I ever shot of her and that it contains more dialog from myself than any clip I've ever done. I'm the strong, silent type when it comes to "bad guys" but it was necessary to be a loud-mouth to make this clip work. All the rigging was done on-screen which is always a bit tighter than when it's done before the camera rolls, and Kendra had to deal with a gag consisting of a large ball, duct tape, a gauze head wrap and then electrical tape over that. Again, those in-the-moment gags tend to end up with a full stretch on the gauze, so she really had to deal with some discomfort. Notable as well for the longest title I've ever used, Kendra James in I Can't Get Away If You Tie Me Up Tight! is available now.