Don't Leave Me Hanging

For years before I made Do Not Disturb I'd had this crazy idea of a girl hanging on the back of a door struggling while outside anyone who heard noises would see the sign on the handle and assume it was a couple having a good time. They'd be partially correct. Although the girl was having no fun at all at least her captor would have something to enjoy!

The problem the idea posed is that suspensions aren't just something you throw at a model or even yourself. It takes a firm grasp of what you're doing and a model confident in her abilities to handle the suspension. More than that, suspension with a rig is totally different than using what is available. And that is what my work is about. My heroines face perils that are born of the immediate surroundings and items that will fit in a small bag. Who carries a suspension rig around for crying out loud?

Then I got the chance to work with Maria Shadoes. We did the usual capture sequence, a chair tie, a hogtie and an aggressive mauling scene but I hadn't tested poor Maria enough. I'd seen her work and knew if I didn't do a suspension or put her in a split I was wasting a great opportunity. That's when the door idea started to form. Before you knew it I had created suspension points out of nothing but rope and a closed door. Poor Maria was upside down with her ankles spread, gagged with a 2-7/8 inch ballgag, head-wrapped, elbows crushed and her head pulled back by a hair knot.

The position was everything I strive for in a rigging. Every struggle was agony and effort. At the end she is completely exhausted, and I don't mean tired. I mean she couldn't move and just hung there motionless as she was untied, her gauze hood frothed with her own drool. Even more delicious is that I was her only rescue. The position relied on the door being closed. If anyone opened that door the suspension would fail and she'd fall face-first into the floor. The position tested her to the very edge, the effort totally broke her and the predicament prevented any rescue. In every sense she was totally dependent on her captor and that my friends made her a true damsel in distress.

Time Out

I get into these periods where I feel ultra-creative. That sounds like a good thing, but it's usually a nightmare. I'm the type of person that isn't a bull in a china shop. When ideas pop into my head I get a lot of them. That's generally disruptive to moving forward on any idea. That's why I try to write down everything. It can take 30 seconds for something cool to be forgotten forever.

I'm in that period right now. I have a great idea for a photo campaign. I'm working on some interesting ideas for new videos. I've gotten back to 3D modeling and drawing again. On top of that I've been programming. You know what they say about trying to be a jack of all trades ... you end up being a master of nothing.

That means the goal is to simplify. I still want to do everything, I just can't do everything to the scale I'd like. That's the key to pulling off being a jack of all trades. I don't want to be the best comic artist in the world. I'd just like to have a comic. That means doing pages at a level I would consider terrible for a commissioned work but totally exceptionable for a comic page. Being a perfectionist and a jack of all trades never works.

I will not however accept sacrifices in my main areas of film and photo. Those are the areas where my ideas are the richest. I have a video series idea that is fresh for me and I feel compelling to fans of the genre. As with everything though my original scripts are technically complicated. That's why this week I'm continue to work on keeping the spirit of the idea but in a form that can actually be accomplished! While I do that, updates have begun again.

The other day was a sampling from a "lost" tape. Every so often I pull out a tape to file it away. Since I suck as cataloging up front I have a process where I run through all 63 minutes to make sure I ripped everything worth showing. Every so often I find some footage as I did the other day. It's of Kerri Taylor in a taught chair tie. We were having trouble with some dialog, so I said the hell with it. We started with her gagged and just showed things getting worse and worse. Finally she's tied with ankles up, elbows together and raised and her neck pulled down. Normally she'd have the chair moving all over the floor but the position made her feel like she'd fall on her face ... it's nice to have a little psychological restraint every so often. She knew she was in trouble, she was facing a corner ... she was in Time Out.

That my friends is the face of someone who realizes they are in it deep. Lydia Lael is everything you want in a damsel: feisty, vocal and just sassy enough get herself into trouble.

The first thing she said to me before shooting was not to be shocked if a knot came undone or she got loose. She boasted about being a bit of an escape artist and a fervent struggler. Um, she didn't get out of anything. She tried like hell though that's for sure.

The expression on her face is half play-acting and half realizing that none of the ropes were going to come loose. She wriggled, wiggled, tossed and thrashed until she had nothing left in the tank and it got her nowhere. She is non-stop motion, and I can see why she'd boast of her abilities. Ropes can only hold up to movement for so long before a knot pops loose; however, she started on a couch and ended on a couch, with all ropes in tact. In the post-interview she was even a bit sheepish about her failure to come through on an escape. I will however admit that I cheated just a little bit. You see, naked ties are harder to slip out of that clothed ones. Poor Lydia didn't know that though. And such it was that the ropes dug into her skin and stayed on snugly.
Houdini no more, she had met her match when she faced the Barenaked and Boxtied Hogtie.

Tatyana's Only Bondage Appearance

I like to push boundaries. I guess it's good that I'm into bondage! One thing I'll always say to a model is that I'll bend you but I won't break you. Everyone has their own physical and mental limitations. I love to find those and see if I can get the model to exceed them.

No, this doesn't mean tying someone up until they can't take it anymore and then leaving them there for 5 more minutes. Forcing someone to endure a predicament past their comfort level has nothing to do with the model pushing themselves. There is a huge difference between having a choice and having no choice. When a model knows they can bail and still agrees to go that extra five minutes that is a self-discovery. That is also trust.

It takes a lot of trust for someone to allow themselves to be tied up by another. Trust is a huge element for me. You establish a dialog, work someone up to a certain level and then hopefully have a chance to work with them again and push things further. I've worked with many a model several times and by the second or third shoot the trust level is high. They know I'm not a maniac. They know I untie quickly. They know that if they push it right to the edge I can get them out in 30 seconds. The trust level allows them to do things they never would have thought themselves capable of and the results are exquisite. The highest compliment I receive is when seasoned fetish models tell me I tie quickly but comfortably for something strict and I release them quickly but gently.

There is another level of this though that I really enjoy. The level of trust and bravery that someone has to undergo to allow themselves to be tied up the first time. Imaging never being tied up and your experience with the subject being the mild ties seen on television. Now imaging a giant rubber ball in your mouth, your elbows welded and your back arched into a severe hogtie. What goes through your mind? How to you know you should continue? It takes a dialog between photographer and model. Just like any shoot, if you know how to talk to someone they will be more comfortable and push themselves past limits.

That happened when I worked with Tatyana. When I first contacted her about bondage she was unsure. I didn't push. I just left it open, offered her references, allowed her the option of an escort and was honest that it would be a challenge. She contacted me a couple weeks later and we did a test shoot. She came in a bondage virgin and struggled her way through two sequences that left her sore and exhausted. She could have bailed at any time, but she gutted out two video sequences and 4 photo sets. Bondage wasn't for her, but she still tested her own limits to see what she could get onto film.

No story, no plot, just two sequences of her with her elbows jacked and showing off a wonderful arch that those oh-so-flexible Russian gals can achieve. See her only appearance in bondage in Russian Beauty Rushin' Nowhere.

Auburn Arachnid

I've dabbled in comics for as long as I can remember. I drew a lot before photography kicked into gear and did a number of bondage portraits, a ton of bondage drawings and a fair number of bondage comics. I even did a portrait of Ashley Renee she had hanging at her home for a bit. I'll post that up at some point if I can dig out the scan!

During the comic days I had a number of staple characters I created and one of them was the Auburn Arachnid. Unfortunately my naming conventions dated back to when I was eight when ham-fisted monicers ripe with alliteration seemed oh so awesome. This heroine was a reporter by day and a red-haired fighter of crime at night. She did a story on a meteorite impact and found out the thing gave her enhanced strength and balance. Her room-mate was a scientist and harnessed the power of the stone with the electronics in wrist bands. Yes, the room-mate got tied up a lot :)

Anyhow, the character has been around for decades. She started tied up in burning warehouses, to bombs and to other manners of diabolical devices. By the time I was in my late teens and early 20s she usually ended up gagged with her panties and tied with her ankles up by her ears. Funny how things like that change.

Flash forward to today. Now keep in mind that I enjoy developing bondage material. I have no plans on developing super-heroine material, but when Kendra James came to visit I couldn't resist. She was doing material for a friend that has a super-heroine site, and I've always loved Kendra's super-heroine work. After a bit of my usual material I decided the opportunity to have Kendra and a trunk full of costumes would never come again. To my surprise, all the components were in place and with Kendra being a redhead the Auburn Arachnid came to life ... an then got tied up, groped and yes, had her ankles tied up by her ears.

Here's the teaser:

Kendra James has gotten herself some power bands, a belt, high-heeled boots, a black spandex catsuit and a mask. The redheaded reporter decides it's time to fight crime! Her first foray into the field though breeds disastrous results. She finds hidden files on a phone but not the taser built into it. Shocked into unconsciousness and her power bands fried, she is tied, groped, gagged, stripped, spanked and finally unmasked. It seems someone collects superheroines and naked on your back with your ankles tied to your neck means your going into the collection.

Here's the video: Kendra James in Superheroine: Roped, Groped and Revealed.