Currently Browsing: Teaching

Teaching the Cane

Canes have a very dif­fer­ent effect from any­thing else wooden. Rat­tan canes are far dif­fer­ent from bamboo.

I order mine six or ten at a time from Han­son (now Pad­dlew­erks). They need to then be soaked, and if you like a more “nor­mal” fin­ished look, sand and stain or var­nish them.

If anyone’s seri­ously intend­ing to exper­i­ment with canes, send me a note. I can give spe­cific advice for avoid­ing the hor­ror sto­ries. I myself prac­ticed an hour a day, five days a week, for three months, to become proficient.

In the hands of an expert, the cane is unlike any other instru­ment. There is noth­ing to com­pare it to.

Okay, so you’re curi­ous about the cane. Now what? (more…)

Understanding the Cane

A Work­shop by Tom

About the Workshop
In this work­shop, I make no attempt to actu­ally teach my can­ing tech­nique. The tech­nique requires many hours of prac­tice. Rather, what I teach is my method of inter­ac­tion with the play part­ner. I hope to work with a vol­un­teer new to the cane, tak­ing her as far as she desires to go and no fur­ther, and also per­form a full can­ing scene. The full can­ing scene should be with some­one who has worked with me before.The cane is a tool. In fact, the scene itself is just a tool — a means of get­ting her (the play part­ner) where she wants to go. It does not specif­i­cally mat­ter how “heavy” or “light” the scene is; the point is to take her as far as she is ready to go. My role, as I see it, is to take her places she can­not reach by herself.A heavy can­ing scene can appear quite fright­en­ing to the out­side observer. Thus part of my role in a pub­lic scene, is to show that the scene remains within “safe, sane, con­sen­sual” bounds. Nev­er­the­less, the cane can be fright­en­ing, and work­shop par­tic­i­pants need to be pre­pared for this. (more…)

Proposed Black Rose 2003 Seminars

Receiv­ing the Cane; Or, Can­ing from the Bot­tom Up

Sum­mary:

Bend over, and hope they know what they’re doing. That is not how to take respon­si­bil­ity for your own safety! This sem­i­nar teaches you what to watch for, and how to eval­u­ate, whether some­one can safely con­duct a can­ing scene with you. By the end of the day you’ll know more about the cane than many so-​​called experts! And, our common-​​sense tech­niques will help you more safely “bot­tom” in any BDSM scene.

Tom is accom­pa­nied by Sarah, who can answer ques­tions from the recipient’s per­spec­tive. She is his col­lared sub­mis­sive, and has par­tic­i­pated in, or observed, all of Tom’s can­ing scenes. (more…)

Ropecraft as an Art Form

I have been asked to teach some bondage ropecraft. Before again touch­ing a rope, I decided to stop and think — and think. This essay is the result, and stands as my prepa­ra­tion for touch­ing rope once again.

The Phi­los­o­phy Behind the Technique

This essay is not a how-​​to. This is more a phi­los­o­phy of rope bondage. It’s these con­cepts that I hope will stim­u­late your think­ing, and encour­age you to take your own craft to a higher level.

I’m writ­ing this from the artist’s point of view. If you’re the model, will you be bored? On the con­trary, I hope this will be at least as use­ful! At a cer­tain level, bondage ropecraft is a coöper­a­tive effort. If you the model have no under­stand­ing of your role, you are pos­si­bly keep­ing the artist from his high­est and best work. Even more impor­tant, though, is your safety fac­tor. With­out under­stand­ing the craft, how can you know he is as good as he claims he is? How can you trust, and know you will be safe? (more…)