Models Plus Science Equals Mummification

If You're My Mummy Then Who's Your Daddy?

Over the last year I have undergone an extensive set of tests to prove to myself that I am not allergic to tape. It has never concerned me. I do not have nightmares about swollen red hands itching from contact with tape. I have never woken up in a cold sweat, sat up and screamed, "Great Scott! What if I am allergic to tape?!?!" Come to think of it I've never screamed, "Great Scott!" ever as well. That is most likely because I do not give two s**ts about how many gigawatts it takes to travel through time and think Delorians are stupid. You made a car out of a kitchen sink. Congratulations.

The point is that I am very scientific. Oh, you want proof? I wore a lab coat and held a clip board in a video with Angelique Kithos and Kendra James. Still not convinced? I was wearing glasses and nodding my head most of the time. That is right, it was scientific bitches! The only way to know something is through empirical evidence. You develop a hypothesis and then test that hypothesis rigorously through the scientific method. Years of contact with tape were not enough. There were too many variables, too many unknowns. I had to do this right. I could not let Angelique, Kendra or that pristine white lab coat down!

Fetishcon was the answer. It was the only place that a non-electrician can walk into the lobby with almost 30 pounds of tape and not get funny looks. It was the only place where I could explain my experiments to a host of beautiful women without them pointing in a random direction, saying, "Look, flying monkeys!" and then disappearing before I turned back to them. In fact these same people were telling me to bring it on. They said, "Bring it Ted, bring on the science. Do your tests, gather your data. You can count on us!" Whitney Morgan brought a protractor. Ashley Graham donated some beakers. Star came to town with an Erlenmeyer flask. Gigi Lynn reminded me to wear glasses because, and I quote, "Science is about smarts and you look dumber without your glasses." The girls knew I needed answers, they appreciated the empirical method and the science could commence.

We went through a lot of tape at this year's Fetishcon. I am not exaggerating, I finished off a full box of electrical tape, three boxes of microfoam, a box of blenderm, two rolls of transparent electrical tape, three rolls of duct tape and a various amounts of four other kinds of tape. The electrical tape alone weighed over 22 pounds according to the shipping manifest taped inside the box. Yes, they taped the shipping details for a 22 pound box of tape inside the box with tape. Fortunately for the world i\t did not open up a wormhole. I did four full mummification sets, 2 partial mummification sets, 32 wrap gags and 11 layered restraints that utilized electrical tape or duct tape or both.

The testing was done. We all sat around my laptop nervously as the data ran through a series of algorithms developed solely for the task at hand. Each girl underwent mummification, brutal gagging and layered restraints. This was more than money. This was more than bondage. This was science. After the programs finished running the results were finally ready. We broke into cheers and danced around the flickering screen. I was not allergic to tape. The science was there, the science was sound and the science clearly said that the mummification and tape gags would continue!

Image courtesy of Ashley Graham in Mummification Country Club Initiation.

Spam Filters Eat My Custom Requests

Ruler of the New Ottoman Empire!

Every 30 days or less I have the highly enjoyable task of weeding through my spam filter. Since text lacks tone re-read the previous sentence and apply the highest amount of sarcasm possible. In the early days of my store it was quite easy. There's a handy button that gets rid of everything in my spam filter. Those days are long gone though since my email address is now known to the Internet in most part to me using it to advertise customs.

This leads to the creation of a monster that subsists solely on nourishment from my custom requests and other business opportunities. Don't get me wrong, I worked for an ISP before and spent a lot of time with filtering. It basically works like this. You watch for suspicious emails, pull out items that can be used to flag those emails in the future and then you have a spam filter. Spammers aren't stupid though, so they start sending emails with headers saying things like, "Hi honey, your Gramma wants to know how you're doing."

The end result is a random collection of emails getting caught in the spam filter without any rhyme or reason that I can see. This person has a yahoo email address, and this one has a hotmail. People spam from those, get rid of them. This person is mentioning a link exchange, that's spam. This one mentions a viable business opportunity. Wait, viable opportunities are spam. This girl wants to model for me but her interest in my portfolio is obviously spam. The monster is loose and it's easing my emails.

Every two weeks I try to go through all my spam because interwoven within every 50 emails are 3 custom requests, 2 link exchange requests, several offers to trade, buy or sell content, a couple model requests and several attempts by fans to just say hello and comment on recent clips. I salvage a lot of them, but I don't get all of them before the 30-day timer ticks down and eats valid emails. Welcome to the modern age of convenience! That my friends is the glorious morning of a bondage producer and even worse the better part of a day for models.

As such we're going to pretend that poor Ashley up there is spam, and I've put her in a very uncomfortable spam filter. It's the tightest balltie I've done in a while combined with the tightest breast bondage I've done in a while. Since spam filters seem random to me I'll do something random as well. When my Twitter followers reach 252 I will put up a free preview, free samples and then offer the clip for sale on both of my Clips4Sale stores. Tweet this to your friends ... or don't ... now that's random!

My New Only-Restraint Strict Bondage Store

Stay put while I grab my camera!

A cool thing about running a bondage store is the feedback you get from everyone about their likes and tastes. Although everyone I hear from likes bondage, they tend to have very different tastes in almost everything including the format of clips. I pay close attention to this feedback because it is always the reason why a clip is purchased or pass on by a fan or potential customer.

In the beginning, my clips were short because they were shot at the end of photo sets when the model was very tired. I started getting requests for longer clips, so I cut out some of the photos and got more of the model struggling. I then got requests for the restraint being applied, so I began filming that. The result is a good amount of time for most clips which has done very well for me.

I still like shooting shorter clips though, and I'm very happy with how focusing on just the final restraint allows for some very crisp bondage. I want vehicles to showcase both on-screen restraint and final restraints. Since my major vehicle now is a clip store I decided just to open another clip store.

Strictly Business focuses on what I call the damsel at her most helpless. She is fully restrained and struggling with all her might for freedom. She knows there is no escape, the ropes are too tight and the position is too immobilizing. That is her only option though, so she struggles. Her captor will return to take fuller advantage of her helplessness, a bet has been made or she has brought her plight on herself. Regardless of the reason for her captivity, useless struggling is her only option so she struggles.

That is the core of my new store but it also focuses on two elements that I find important. Some fans only want a short clip that are fast to download and affordable. There are so many stores that offer that, I've been happy with my current niche. I get too many requests for the shorter format though, and demand should prompt supply. And it has. I'm still offering my larger format clips. I will be offering more episodic content (larger clips broken into parts) and now I offer clips from 3-12 minutes max.

The bondage fix is only minutes away and guarantees 100%, no cut full restraints.

Image courtesy of Bachelor Party Bondage Audition with Ashley Graham.

Strictly Business can be viewed at http://www.clips4sale.com/42039

Enjoy!

I'm Stuffed ... at Least My Face Is

Ashley bit off far more than she could chew!

I've become fan lately of mouth-packing and clear tape gags. I shouldn't say lately though. I started doing mouth-packing exclusively and then moved away from it. So many people couldn't handle it or refuse to do it that it wasn't worth the effort of gagging someone and then having to end the scene too quickly. I'm nice as well as pragmatic. A limit is a limit, and I will always respect that.

The game has changed in recent years though. With the discovery of hair-safe tapes it's easier to convince people to let you wrap that damn stuff around their face over and over. Similarly panty gags have taken off quite nicely and most models have to keep it in their arsenal of "will do" in order to stay competitive. Once you can stuff a pair of panties in someone's mouth they mouth-packing arms war escalates. This model will do full-bottomed panties and not just thongs. This model will do 2 pairs of thongs. This model will do two socks. Before you know it you're working with people that are willing to test their cheek-stuffing boundaries.

Ashley Graham is a wonderful dichotomy in the mouth-packing arena. She does not like it. Conversely she's up for almost any bondage challenge. I've been lucky enough that she lets me jam a lot in there. We start with one cheek, then we pack the other cheek and then fill in the front. The part that's great is she can take a really tight tape wrap which means none of that wadding is coming out. As the villain that did this to her and got to display her face on camera I can safely say that her cheeks were like rocks they were packed so tightly.

That makes this one of my favorite mouth-packing sequences of 2011. This was a real, challenging, brutal and silencing gag. And her face attests to it. The redness, furrowed brow and building sweat never lie. She had to fight to handle this gag and gave me a great sequence because of it. Well done!

Image courtesy of Nylon Encasement Nightmares: Babysitter Bound and Bundled with Ashely Graham.

Nylon Encasement Nightmares

Babysitter Bound and Bundled

After not having a reliable computer for over 5 weeks I am so happy to be blogging again. It is unbelievably frustrating to have your computer crash and reboot anytime you run a program or a browser for more than 10 minutes. A complete wipe and re-install of everything fixes a lot of problems though!

Clip descriptions are my chance to paint a picture for people. The stage is set, the heroine is introduced and some of the drama about her circumstances unfold. I can give people a little taste of what the clip will hold. Blog updates however give me a chance to tell the tale behind the story. Where did the idea come from? What was it like to make the clip? What did the model have to endure to make the clip? Strict bondage makes producing a clip a story within a story. She portrays a character but she's still a stunning model desperately trying to endure incredibly challenging bondage and gags.

The image above is from my current take on "babysitter" predicament clips. I love the concept people have been doing. The babysitter lets her charges play a game and soon is in far over her head. It's playful, fun and full of tight restraint. A recent take on the concept from my perspective though turns things to the perspective of the Father. He knows what the kids do and feels it necessary to prepare the babysitter for what is in store. Unfortunately for the babysitter he is far rougher with them!

I recently shot the concept for the first time with Ashley Graham, and it turned into one of the strictest and most punishing sets I've done in a long time. She plays prissy so well which gets a gal into trouble during on-screen restraint. She had to endure being stripped, having her face stuffed with cloth that was taped in so tightly her eyes bulged, the tightest breast bondage I've ever done, full nylon encasement, a blindfold, a punishing gag and tape digging deeply into her flesh almost everywhere.

Being fully nude doesn't help the nylon from making you hot and sweaty. The bulging breasts crushed against your thighs ache. The electrical tape crushes deeply into your skin. Your elbows are taped so tightly your shoulders are aching. She was in a real predicament. In a post-restraint chat I thought for sure she'd say the breast bondage was the worst part because it was absolutely brutal. I was wrong though. She said the tape on her was so tight her knees were crushed together in agony and she could barely breath. Worse though the tape over her face was so tight it pulled between her lips driving the ballgag deep into her face and pinching her cheeks against her teeth. No wonder she whimpered and barely moved the entire time. She was struggling just to endure!

Image courtesy of Nylon Encasement Nightmares: Babysitter Bound and Bundled with Ashley Graham.

Everything but the kitchen sink

I have a lot of boxes in my office, and each has a tiny label on it. I used to keep everything in boxes without labels which sucked a lot of time out of my life. Where did I put those stress balls? Damn, I know I bought some cotton clothesline. I could swear I made a larger black ballgag. Moving out of my last house gave me the opportunity to change that. Normally if you empty 60 boxes onto the floor you make a gigantic mess and end up with a non-functional house. When you move though you don't really care about the mess because the house is non-functional anyway. I said the hell with it, brought box after box into the living room and started making piles. I went through every box, sorted things into logical groups and then re-boxed everything with labels. It took a long time, but when someone stops by and I want to do a nylon encasement I know EXACTLY which box has all the extra-large pantyhose. Yes, I'm referring to you this coming weekend Carissa Montgomery!

My shooting boxes have some mundane names like chargers, tape, cables and of course rope. A couple of them though have some interesting names. One even has a label that says, "Throw This Stuff Out Packrat!!!" Another says, "Quick Kit" and to no surprise has about 100 feet of rope, a roll of tape, a ballgag and a blank DV tape. One in particular has become my favorite. It has the label kitchen sink because when it comes to tying someone up it has everything but the kitchen sink. As you tie people up over and over you amass odd collections of small bits of things that can't be used for a full restraint. I don't want to throw out those two red ropes, or those three brown ropes, or that one black rope. That electrical tape roll still has a couple yards left one it and that belt needs to go somewhere. Before I knew it I had a box full of enough bits and pieces that alone made for a lame restraint but together made for a sweaty and wiggling bundle of going nowhere.

My last couple of shoots that box has gotten a lot of use. I've grown fond of seeing someone in crisp, neat restraint made from odds and ends. My latest clip with Ashley Graham, The Robber Stole More Than My Television, has made the best use of it yet. Instead of just tying her up with contents from it I cycle through as many of the odds and ends as I can. Four types of gags, five colors of rope, a couple belts and some tape on top of that made for a challenging 30 minutes for the poor gal. She got to appreciate the difficulty, but I got to enjoy the fun of restraining her with a realistic hodgepodge of items that a real burglar might cobble together. I don't think I'm the only one though because the second I uploaded it has become one of my more popular clips. Of sexy lady in a classic blouse and skirt combination certainly doesn't hurt!

I've got questions, do you have answers?

I haven't mentioned it but my garage is being converted into a true studio space. This has taken up a lot of time over the last week, but it will be worth it. After a lot of moving, shifting, toting, lifting and trashing of things we are on the verge of framing the studio walls and hanging lights. It will allow me to hang a green screen, repaint when I'm feeling peckish for red walls and not trash the living room because that Victorian chair looks better for photos than the blue couch. There is even a high-output portable air-conditioner so the ladies can be comfortable while I make them very uncomfortable.

Speaking of uncomfortable the first guest at the studio will be Deanna Deadly, and I'm really looking forward to her visit. She has a super personality, an extensive latex collection and a look that I haven't gotten to work with in a while. She'll be shooting super-heroine for Angelique Kithos' store and jacked bondage for myself. The exciting thing is she has done tight bondage before but never anything ultra-strict. She's looking to delve more into that type of material so I get to be the first to really turn up the heat on the rigging. I'm already a fan of her work as the bound and gagged damsel in distress, and I get to see just how she deals with a real physical and mental challenge. Yes, I've been wringing my hands a lot thinking about it.

I'm currently rendering my second compilation focusing on hogties. As I do so I can't helping thinking how sweet it is to have enough material posted that I can't start doing compilations in the first place. You need a variety of people and enough footage that you can do themes. It's kind of cool to be able to rummage through a myriad of restraints and cherry-pick scenes. And by kind of cool I mean really damn cool. I know I've got a long way to go before I have some of the backlog that others have, but having started with 5 clips I think things are moving in the right direction. The reason I started putting together compilations was a request for a custom blu-ray of select scenes. This second one made me realize something though. Shooting on production-quality equipment means I'm not up-sampling DV footage to grainy blu-ray. I'm taking blu-ray footage and down-sampling for my clips. That means I can do hi-res blu-rays as well as high-quality DVDs.

The question then becomes is there any interest in that type of format. Are people content with clips and streamed full movies or does anybody out there want full movies in DVD or even Blu-ray quality format? I'd love to know your thoughts and will be happy to get some emails on the topic. Please don't hesitate to drop me a line at tedmichaelsdamsels@gmail.com about it or about any other suggestions you might have.

Tale of Even More Tape

I used a heading a bit back called "Tale of the Tape" referring to ultra-strict tape bondage. It had one of my favorite screenies of a very tight restraint using electrical tape. I've had a few shoots since then where the tape bondage crown has been taken away. Every time I think I've gone back for another roll of electrical tape I think there's no way I'll ever use more than this, and then there's always another shoot where I use more electrical tape.

Back when that first screenie video was shot my scripts focused on a lot of bondage and quick restraint sequences to set the scene. The mantra was tie 'em quick, tie 'em tight and let 'em struggle the rest of the night. I had no idea though that there were so many fans of on-screen gagging and restraint. I started adding more and more of the restraint elements and received more positive feedback.

The only problem with showing more restraint for me is that I tie very fast. I've tried and it's almost impossible for my muscle memory to allow me to tie slower than I already tie. I've done rigging work in other producers videos and they keep saying, "tie her slower, I need more of this footage for the fans." The way I solve this for my videos is to use more rope. I mean, it's a great solution. I want more on-screen tying time, I don't like slowing down how fast I tie so I'll just pile on the cordage. Unfortunately for the damsels I've gotten better at getting them into a mile of rope, so that gives me time to pull out some tape to top it off every so often.

It's been mentioned before but electrical tape is somewhat elastic. It stretches and then contracts to make a nice seal for wiring, plumbing and the occasional damsel. The image illustrates just that. I didn't smooth the tape at all and you can not only see the individual coils of rope but the weave of the rope as well. That equals challenging for anyone. I used to say strict tape restraints are challenging, and they are just that but on a level far below a strict rope and tape restraint! The old mantra still applies at times but when a model sees me plop down tape with the rope they know the mantra is tie 'em strict, tape 'em right and they'll hardly wiggle the rest of the night.

No wiggle room

I've always loved the expression "not a lot of wiggle room" because it rarely ever applies. You can use 800 feet of rope on somebody and they'll still wiggle around, quite a bit in fact. I've done so many things with so many people to get them to wiggle as little as possible. I hung someone from the back of a door with their hair tied back to welded elbows and the damsel still thrashed around. I've done strict hogtie after strict hogtie and the hogtied damsels still managed to roll onto their sides. I've welded people to chairs and they still get the chairs to spin. I've even completely mummified people in vet wrap, saran wrap and even duct tape and they still roll around. I'm firmly convinced that you could encase someone in plaster or foam and they'd still be able to wiggle more than enough to be more than "not a lot." I'm looking for volunteers to test that out though.

I've found that "not a lot of wiggle soon" to be so much more appropriate. By that I'm referring to what happens after you thrash, sway, swing, roll, spin and rock as much as they can. What happens after every muscle is exhausted and the restraint makes you feel like you've run a marathon? What happens when your skin is so sensitive from the pressure of tight ropes that you feel like you're tied with barbed wire and gagged with sand paper? What happens when staying still is preferable to discomfort of moving at all. That is a predicament. You're in no physical danger, but you are totally helpless. All you can do is wiggle your toes, moan a bit and just lie there and wait for release.

Restraint in a damsel scenario is about making sure the damsel stays put for an amount of time. You can tie someone, chain someone or tape someone into helplessness but they will eventually get free or remove their gag. If the goal is to make sure the damsel stays put until you want them to get loose, the goal is to exhaust them until they stay put by choice. No threats, no violence ... just a pure physical and mental challenge. Just ask Ashley Graham after shooting He Tied Me So Tight I Had to Tell.