behold my obssession

behold my obssession
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

this marks the first fresh rope stock to reach the us in almost 4 months as well as the first shipment of 8mm in n. america this year. I've been brokering this deal for almost 16 weeks now and it is finally done. time to celebrate

What is it like to bottom to me for an all day, rope destroying, knock down drag out bondage shoot?

Just as Merrick, she will tell ya first hand....

Perfectly Flawed: Bottoming to The Monk: It's Kind of Like Meeting Captain Kirk


In other news, the much delayed stock shipment is due to be delivered to our brokers today. So I'm sitting next to the phone like an anxious Jr. High Schooler waiting to hear back from the girl they asked to the prom.

Custom Rope Auction

I finally got around to putting the finishing touches on that sweet custom, blue/black re-spun rope teased you all about like what, a month ago? Man, time seems to be just flying by as of late.



The kit is 60ft in total, 1x30' and 2x15'. I took our ultra premium, Exotic Bavarian Blonde did my magic on it to create a one of a kind Royal Blue and Deep Black combo. Truly a one of a kind rope kit, un-dyed this kit would start at $2 a foot, with the multiple custom dye jobs... the price would run you upwards of $4-5 a foot.

Auction ends on Sunday 8-3, happy bidding

Dear Twisted One :)
I am really sorry to bother you, I am sure you get heaps of emails from lots of silly subbies like myself; …
My birthday is coming and I will be celebrating my 34th at a play party, the Host has kindly offered to dress me in a rope corset for the occasion (I am stoked!). We had a 'practice' last night but it didn't go to plan, I was hoping you may be able to suggest some links or ideas that might help?

OK, the problem was.. i have curvy hips - i am an Aussie size 12; we don't have easy access to hemp or jute and are using a 6mm cotton cord type stuff/ 50ft. -Preference is knot to have joins as I would like to wear it as long as hygienically possible and may be sleeping in it. When we did it as per your video, there was bunching at my hips due to my shape, which looked a bit ewww, well, allot ewwww. I would like to still keep length in the corset.

I've been racking my brain trying to think of ways around it - and slicing bits off myself is knot an option! The best I could think of is to move the seam to the side so it runs down my hip and gives it more support, like boning. Then maybe have another seam down the other side. I only have limited knowledge (being the riggee knot the riggerrrrr), and I think this would take two people to do, and am knot sure if it would be logistically possible

The tie in question is a rope corset, like the one I showed off on this video.

Yes, unless you are tying a man, or a woman with no hips, you are going to run into some bunching along where the midsection meets the hips. This is a very common problem. No, just tying it tighter won’t help; it will still bunch up and be extremely uncomfortable too. Option one would be to tie a shorter version of the corset, and make it more a waist cincher, but it sounds like you want something that flows over the hips. You are on the right track with the “boning” idea. Take some thin line, like a 4MM, and starting just under the armpits weave down the body of the corset. A simple over under will do, then when you reach the bottom, reverse and go back up the way you came, but going under the lines you went over and vice versa. Make sense? Depending on the length of the corset, I’d say about 10 ft will do the trick. The nice bit also is that if you have line left over, you can easily hide it under the armpits or tie it off into the back of the harness. posted a photo once of a scene I did where she was wearing a rope corset with garters. If you look close at the photo you can see the weaving pattern. No you don’t need to go all the way down to garters, but if you are hoping to wear this for an extended period and even sleep in it, then you might consider that route over the line between the legs method I show in the video. As it will make things like using the bathroom and sex much simpler and hygienic not having a line between your legs. Also, Lee Harrington’s awesome book, Shibari You Can Use, has several variants of the corset tie with “boning” weaves as well.

Now before I close I do want to get on my soapbox, I am really not a fan of the term “subbie”. Why this term is in the SM lexicon befuddles and annoys me. The act of submission is a powerful and wonderful gift that one person can give another and referring to someone who gives this thing as a “subbie” just grates me, I feel it cheapens and demeans the gift, and in turn the giver.

oh matisse i think i foundyou a new toy

oh matisse i think i foundyou a new toy
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

why the guy at my salon felt the need to show me this supposed "tool" of the salon trade is beyond me. however I know one girl who might be able to put it to good use.

A snapshot of the Abbey on a rather drab and cold Wednesday morning. Our plants are just not happy about this as you can tell. Ever since I first moved into the industrial space we call home, I've always lusted to fill the space with green, growing things. (no, that thing growing in the bottom of my coffee cup does not count!). The juxtaposition of the barren, gritty warehouse with the vibrant explosion of green of plants really speaks to me. Life thriving in harsh environments, things not being what they seem, and all that.

It is my secret wish to grow a great stand of bamboo in drums someday.

My other (not so) secret wish is that when we grow out of this space and move into Abbey 2.0 I want an enclosed courtyard. I fell in love with the whole "secret garden" look when I was working as a missionary in Mexico City. Our next home will have one of these, and a private shower.

Of course in order to get there, I need to get back to filling these orders. We are so close to getting back on track and ahead of the game. Fresh stock is just days away and then we will be running at our usual breakneck speed once again.

Stock Update!
Our much delayed shipment of raw rope stock cleared customs late last week and is currently en-route via rail as I type this. We have plenty of stock on hand to fill current orders and as soon as the container is delivered late this week, begin processing 8MM rope for back orders.

At this time, the plan is to begin accepting new orders for 8MM rope on August 1.

i have no idea what this is

i have no idea what this is
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

but it has Shin-Chan on it so it must be good.

yes I have a problem with that cartoon.

Yeah, this probably has already made the rounds, but in case you (like me) have been wrapped up in the mad stress of life and missed it.

Go now and check out Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. It is a 3 part musical, super hero romance brought to you by Joss Whedon (aka The Nerd Messiah) Parts one and two are up and three will be posted shortly. Then the whole thing gets pulled on Sunday the 20th. Trust me on this one, go watch it.

Of puppies and pride

While I keep arm wrestling with customs brokers and try to avoid an international "incident" here are some shots of Alex and I from this year's pride parade. These were shot by the ever talented Malixe. Of all the photographers I know and work with, he has this really unique skill at documenting a moment.



My pup, Sprocket, can be a bit territorial at times.


Me and Sprocket the wonder pup.

Oh and if you can't get enough, I make a brief 20 second cameo on this clip at about 2:30.

Obsession

I’ve been pretty quiet here this last week, not for lack of things to talk about. Rather I’ve been obsessing this week over one thing. One large thing has dominated the mind of the Monk, driven him from sleep and I fear may have caused him to even become ill. An international shipping container. A giant steel monster of a container that is currently sitting in New York harbor awaiting inspection and x-ray. Just my luck that my next big rope shipment would land in NYC on the 4th of July. Looks like the customs folks want to take extra care to make sure I’m not trying to smuggle anything odd into the country. That is unless you think 3 TONS of hemp rope ain’t too odd.

Now I always factor extra time into my shipping estimates when it comes to getting stock from Eastern Europe. No matter how well I plan they always seem to take that extra time plus another week to get here. This time around even the most generous schedule padding could not have projected just how late this shipment would be. Of course it does not help that this particular shipment is probably our most ambitious order yet. No imports from a middleman distributorship, just us working with partners in Europe to secure an entire harvest of rope. Not just one harvest mind you, but if this deal works, every couple of months there will be a fresh container landing in NYC headed for me. (Yeah, for those of you still waiting on 8MM rope stock from other sources, sorry you are gonna have to wait even longer now. Not only have I bought up all the 8MM stock in N. America, I just bought all the stock in Europe as well.)

Of course the thing is, we have to get THIS container first. This very, very late container that is just out of our reach. This container that not only holds nearly a ton of 8MM stock, a container that also hold samples of new, fair trade and organic jute (say no more to that awful, nasty kerosene smell!) and of course replacement stock for the rest of our orders. See, we are almost out of stock, squeaking by on the few thousand feet we have on hand as well as what stock we can locate in the US.

This, this dear reader is driving me insane.

With out enough stock to run the machine that is Twistedmonk at top speed, orders are not filled as quickly as I like causing a backlog. Forcing good customers to wait, while most have been very understating I still hate asking them to wait. Extra color runs are abandoned so that each precious foot of rope stock goes to fill orders on hand, so no color of the month or re-launch of our reformulated colors. Minion, on break from college and rearing to make some extra income are forced to scale back as we wait for the word from our broker.

Will it be today? Maybe tomorrow? When will the stop-gap stock get here? Should we order more just in case customs holds it for another week? What do you mean there is no more stop gap stock left in the country? Do we have enough stock on hand to fill sufficient orders and still make payroll come week’s end?

Thankfully, there is more than enough in the war chest to weather this storm and our customers have been awesome with the delays and substitutions. Tomorrow when I call my broker, as I have every day for the past 2 weeks, I’ll either have great news or another day of hair pulling frustration as we wait and wait knowing that once the green light is given, we are going to be very, very busy.

bubble bubble toil and trouble

bubble bubble toil and trouble
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

cooking up another batch of raw rope stock. this kettle full should last us about a day, maybe a day and a half if we take a long lunch.

8MM Stock Update

As some of you already know, we have been out of our heavy gauge 8MM rope for some time. Truth is, all of North America is out as well.

That is till now.

Working directly with growers in Eastern Europe, we have managed to secure several thousand pounds of raw stock and that stock just made landfall in New York. According to my import broker, it it should be a few days in customs, a few days in transport and then in our hands. I'm estimating that we will begin filling back orders and taking fresh orders for 8MM in about 10 days.

So for those of you who have been holding out, waiting patiently and nursing your rope kits along till you could replace them with fresh stock. We are almost there. Just a little bit longer!

the thing about bad days...

the thing about bad days...
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

"I was having a bad day, but then I thought yours was rougher so I bought you some flowers and it made my day better too"

Exotic White Linen Hemp and Exotic Handspun Silk On Sale!

Due to the huge response and all the great praise the latest how to video has received, even the Village Voice liked it!, we are putting the rope used in the video on sale.

What is so cool about this stuff?

Unlike our standard hemp, this is stuff is even softer from the very first use. The linen clings to the face and hugs in a way that no other fiber I've used before. Snug, soft and gentle to the skin. Also, cleaning is a snap. Just toss it in the washing machine on cold, gentle cycle and hang to dry. The rope is dry and ready to use in less than 24 hours and needs NO re-oiling. This makes for a great rope for situations where it might get dirty (read: genital contact).

Order now and save 20%

While we are at it, I have too much silk in stock. Save up to NINE BUCKS on your next piece of this very cool exotic rope.

This sale is limited to stock on hand, so don't delay.

so honey...

so honey...
Originally uploaded by Mr Monk

who needs crisco when you got lard in 5 galon buckets? I know what I'm bringing to the DVDA shoot!