Flogging workshop at Dream Visions studio – Instructional video 05/10/14

Once more, I popped along to the Gatwick Dungeon in Surrey to teach a flogging workshop. Due to the amount of new people, I found myself repeating a few techniques that were shown in the previous workshop that was hosted 6 months ago. However, in this video there is a couple of pointers on sensation play and rest techniques that I often overlook in a workshop but which tend to come in really handy.

Let me point out again that nothing compares to actually going to one of my workshops and learning from me personally, there is an insane amount of information that simply cannot be covered by watching a few videos or having me there to guide you through the steps and nuances when I finally stop talking. But for those people who are overseas or who are too nervous to attend one, I hope this helps a little.

A big thankyou to Dream Visions Studio for filming this video at the workshop and to my play partner, Jinx, who did a little bunnying for me.

And, of course, if you want to get yourself a decent pair of floggers or a Dragons tail, check out my Kabunza Etsy shop!

The Swindon Advertiser: Corrections.

Not too long ago, I was interviewed for a local newspaper article. You can see the article here:

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11361368.Dominatrix_rules_punishment_business_with_a_very_firm_hand/

It was published today and while they have captured most of the information that I was trying to portray, they did get a few things wrong. This blog post is just to correct those few little things so that there is no misunderstandings.

LIZ MACKLEY meets lifestyle dominatrix Aemilia Hawk… 

I am not a Dominatrix. I do not charge people for BDSM orientated “sessioning”. But I am a lifestyle practitioner of BDSM.

The 36-year-old, who also runs her own online business selling chainmail jewellery and leather floggers, is one of the leading teachers in Kimbach – a particular type of Japanese rope bondage.

My business is more than just online. But more importantly, it is pronounced “Kinbaku”, and while I have been taught by and have had experiences with many leading teachers, I have not proclaimed to be a teacher of it myself.
I practice it, I do not teach it.

In fact, there are two phrases well known throughout the scene – ‘RISK’ – risk aware consensual kink, and SSC – safe, sane and consensual.

It is R.A.C.K.

“When you use a bull whip you never actually touch the person, you just crack it near them. It takes a lot of skill.

You generally do not “crack it” directly on the person, but wrapping it around them after cracking it at the side of them is often done.

She also holds regular workshops to show customers how to use the equipment she makes safely, as well as how to do Japanese rope bondage.

Mostly workshops on flogging, whips and dragon tails. Anything I build. But not rope!
I do NOT teach rope! I just have a major interest in it and practice it regularly!

I hope this clears up any misconceptions. Part of the reason why so many people have the wrong idea about BDSM is purely because of inaccuracies and misinformation.

 

 

Kabunza: Headquarters!

Kabunza has finally moved into it’s own headquarters!

We moved in last month and aside from putting up some room dividers (which I am hoping to do as soon as possible to section off our areas), we have pretty much settled in and made ourselves at home.

Our workshop and office is located in the heart of Swindon (the address can be seen on the Kabunza Facebook page, or you can message me and I will relay it to you) and is open most weekdays (depending on what events we will be attending) for visitors to come along and browse our current stock or even have a look through our leathers to order something custom to be made. I am also willing to give tuition at this location for anyone wishing to learn techniques from me privately.

Because we share a building with a kink friendly publishing firm, we have access to a lot of space, so with a little luck we will also be hosting a few workshops and events here (I have even been thinking about hosting a small but regular peer rope event). I will keep people posted about these through my Kabunza page on this blog as and when we plan them.

Of course, you will still be able to purchase our items through our Etsy shop, but now everyone has the added option of popping by the place where everything is made, having a look at our construction process and browsing through it all in person!

Officially open to the public! Come along and check us out!

Photos courtesy of Dark Desires photography.
Photography by Dark Desires photography.
All images are copyright © Dark Desires photography

Flogging workshop at Dream Visions studio – Instructional videos 06/04/14

Let me just point out that nothing compares to actually going to one of my workshops and learning from me personally, there is an insane amount of information that simply cannot be covered by watching a few videos or having me there to guide you through the steps and nuances when I finally stop talking. But for those people who are overseas or who are too nervous to attend one, I hope these help a little.

A big thankyou to Dream Visions Studio for filming some of the technical explanations at the workshop.

And, of course, if you want to get yourself a decent pair of floggers or a Dragons tail, check out my Kabunza Etsy shop!

 

Flogging, dragon tail and impact play workshops for 2014

Every year I tend to get many requests to do workshops where I teach people safety and techniques on various styles of BDSM play.

I do not charge anyone for doing a workshop. All I ask is that my fuel/travel expenses are covered and that I am allowed a Kabunza trade stand at the event in question.

Having a trade stand at a workshop/event allows me to earn the money for my time separately as well as allowing me to share safe knowledge as freely as possible. Essentially minimising what an event needs to charge people for having the good sense to actually do the research and learning in their BDSM interests.

My events page has been updated to include all events that I will definitely be attending in 2014.

This year seems to be filling up unusually fast and I still have several requests to consider, so I thought it might be best to publish a blog post reminding people to get their requests for workshops in as quickly as possible.

My contact details can be found: Here.

Don’t delay if you want me for a specific date or event. Once I place an event on my blog page, it is pretty much set in stone unless the event itself is cancelled.

A Velvet Thought – Mistresses Musings: Blue Skies

As some of my readers will know, I have been lessening my availability for professional domination sessioning.

There have been a lot of reasons for this, but the final proverbial nail is now being hammered into the coffin and I am ending this half-hearted profession in order to concentrate on my own blossoming business: Kabunza.

To be honest, I have grown very tired of the profession and my opinion of it has degraded substantially over the past three years of doing it (I no longer have the time to waste on timewasters).

I will now be devoting my attentions (and my blog writings) to what I consider more deserving; my personal lifestyle and passions of BDSM. however let it be known that I have no regrets. I have learned a lot in doing this kind of work, I have nothing but respect for those who enjoy it and I have even met a handful of decent people in the process of doing it myself.

It has been swell, but the swellings gone down…

Nothing but blue skies from now on.

A Velvet Thought – Mistresses Musings: An overdue update

As some of you may have noticed; My blog has been lacking in posts this month. There have been several reasons for this and I am going to attempt something of an explanation before rebooting my regular posting.

If you look back over what I have written here this past couple of years, you will see the changes in my writing. When I started my blog it was primarily from a professional Dominatrix point of view; Ergo, it comes across as such. As time progressed, I started to include more and more personal experiences and opinions. I started to include more of my lifestyle and less of the profession. But I have never really posted anything more than things that borderline on ‘feelings’. This is because I closely guard and control those aspects. People will only ever see what I allow them to see, only know what I allow them to know, and I let only a precious few people see the whole picture.

This past few months I have been in deep reflection and meditation. Cracks in my usually steel-like exterior have been apparent to me, comments and actions from people closest to me and unfortunate circumstances of play space or funds have been heavily influential and I have been asking myself questions. Many of which I still do not have answers for. I have been questioning things like my self worth, skill, dynamic, orientation, profession; the list is rather extensive and I have been frustrated and confused by a lot of what has been popping into my head. To say this process is causing me stress is quite an understatement. Hence the silence of my blog.

Inevitably, I have reached an impasse and I am still trying to decide my next direction.

One direction leads down a road that would mean virtually giving up professional Domination, concentrating on Kabunza and on my own BDSM whims and desires. Part of my conflict is that I am feeling a desire to relinquish being the dominant and playing on the other side of the fence (if only for a while). It takes two to play and one of the conundrums is that I am not sure which side I would prefer to play on at the moment. My mindset has apparently reflected this (hence the reasoning for some of the aforementioned questioning). Activities where I have been taking a dominant role have been lacking coordination, despite a complete confidence in myself that I am doing nothing differently. I have experienced similar in the past and have noticed a recurrence of these ‘feelings’ every 3-4 years; I have found that taking a break to get it out of my system by switching helps somewhat (before my Dominant instincts kick back in with a vengeance). Trust me when I say: this is not an easy thing for me to explain, especially on my blog.

The other direction is to do what I do best: Bottle up my emotions, swallow hard, give myself a slap on the face and shout to the heavens “What am I thinking!”, before crushing said whims and forcing myself back into doing what I have always enjoyed; hurting people (with skill, flair and style). Cold to the feelings currently raging, probably fracturing a few heart strings, reverting back to the evil bitch that seems to be known, loved and desired, and basically caring little about the opinions of others because “I am the Mistress and I bloody well know what I am doing!”

Of course, I am unaccustomed to venting randomly or ‘sharing’ thoughts of this nature. I am summing all of this up as simply as possible in order to put it into a blog post. There are hundreds of factors and nuances which I am not going into or which I refuse to share because they are personal or would take too long to explain; But I hope I am portraying a decent enough idea of my current meanderings.

Regardless of what I decide to do; my blog will be undergoing some alterations. I plan on putting a section in here which is dedicated to Kabunza, compressing my galleries back into a single collection of photos, drastically reducing the amount of information in my ‘bookings & sessions‘ section in order to make things incredibly simple for those requiring it (because for some reason the people who go to that section cannot seem to read past my phone number) as well as numerous other changes which I will elaborate on as the decisions are made.

For the moment; We will resume our regular broadcasting schedule…

Floggalicious

If anyone has been following Kabunza on Fetlife or Kabunza on Facebook, it would be apparent that I recently designed and built my first sets of chainmail poi floggers.

I decided to promote their introduction and release at the Bristol SWAMP on the 12th May and due to the fact that I only had enough leather to make 6 in total and the fact that I would never be getting any more of that type of leather; I released them as a limited edition.

2 days before the event, I advertised that we would only be selling them at that specific event to see how people would react to the design, look and concept.

To say that I am surprised by peoples reaction to them is an understatement. 4 of the 6 had sold within the first hour of opening our trade stand, they had all sold by the end of the market day and in case any had not; I had a backup of emails and messages from people requesting to purchase them if they did not sell at the event (so, even if all of them had not sold at the market, they would have been sold regardless).

It was also a pleasure to give one purchaser a few lessons at the afterparty on how to use them effectively.

Due to such a positive response, I have decided to look into making more and building permanent designs (as well as a few limited edition and unique floggers). I have also decided to take a month (or so) as time off from residential professional Domination to concentrate on getting this new part of Kabunza up and running (I will still be available for sessions, but it will be by appointment only or on the occasional day that I decide to visit my Bristol Dungeon. Watch my twitter feed for tweets on when those occasional days will be).

Equinelibrium.

Equinelibrium:

English (sort of… Ok, so I made it up).

Etymology:

From Latin equīnus (“of or pertaining to horses”) + lībra (“balance”).

Noun:

equinelibrium (plural equinelibriums or equinelibria)

1. The psychological balance of a human, usually submissive, who has taken the role of a pony during ponyplay activities; this typically includes wearing tack such as a bridle and bit. Also known as ponyspace or pony headspace.

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Every now and then, I have a ponyplay session down in Kent at the DV8 Leisure center. I always make full use of the 53 acres of private and secluded woodland, and in the warm summer months; it is simply a beautiful place for outdoor BDSM activities.

Now that the sunshine is once again coming out to play, I will admit that; while I may not like the intense light, I am gleefully looking forward to more sunshine fueled ponyplay days.

In the June of last year I managed to get some wonderful photos of some outdoors ponyplay with a human pony that I named Earl Grey (love of tea methinks?), I think they are lovely photos and deserve to be seen, but he has been a little timid about his photos being placed on show and naturally I have been respecting his wishes and keeping them private. A recent email conversation with him has opened permissions to place a couple on my blog. So, a big “thank you” to Earl Grey for the photo use permissions. A blog post introducing ponyplay has been long overdue.

The day consisted of many different activities, from Dressage to Carriage riding. But the two photos you see below are simply images of me “breaking him in” and working a sweat up on him.

The whip was purely an incentive for him to keep moving and never actually struck his body. You would be surprised at how fast people can run when they hear the crack of a Longeing Whip a few inches behind their head.

If I get the chance this year, I am thinking of a picnic basket filled with French cheeses, bread and a rich red wine; to enjoy after working (to the point of exhaustion) whatever beast(s) of burden are with me.

Oh, and more photos. Definitely more photos.

Photos used with permission.
All images are Copyright © 2012 AemiliaHawk. All Rights Reserved.

A day in the life

Just over a month ago, I was visited by a bondage enthusiast for a full day professional session. Entering my dungeon as soon as it was opened and spending the entire day with me, whatever that day might hold, until I closed and locked the doors in the evening.

It is rare that I get a visitor for an entire day. Needless to say, I rather enjoy it.

For the majority of the time he spent in my care, when I was not personally playing and seductively teasing him, he was restrained to my St Andrews cross, caged or mummified with a decent enough view to see the other activities which went on in my dungeon environment.

Thankfully, all the visitors I received that day were eager to have an audience or be the audience.

He was treated to some sensual violet wand play, claw play, rope play, gentle CBT, and even a little impact play, He watched as I played with and brutally tied up (in shibari) a sexy and slim long-haired brunette, he enjoyed a dose of forniphilia and played the part of my throne for a while, and come the end of the evening he was even treated to another kinbaku show (this time it was myself being tied up by my Benjamin). In my opinion; a pleasant way to end such an active day.

A few days later I received an email from him, thanking me and letting me know how much fun he had.

I am looking forward to more days like this.