I'm Rigging Tonight at SeaComp 2008

My very good friends at Suspense Camp have invited me out tonight to join them as part of SeaComp. This will be my first foray into the whole Burning Man "thing", but from what I have been told this is should be a pretty cool event.

I'll be rigging and giving "bondage rides" with the rest of the Suspense Camp team tonight. If you can't make it out, watch the twitter and Flikr feeds as I will do my best to send updates as I can.

Now what to wear?!

Random Acts of Beauty

I twittered about this, but it seems the fleeting nature of a twitter just did not do it justice. So allow me to tell you the tale...

Today, as I marched along the parade route with Alex and the rest of the “leather contingent” as we were called. Really a fantastic cross-section of gay, straight, kinky, gender queer and leather folk who help make Seattle such a fantastic place to be “alternative”, but I digress. There we were, me in my tall boots and leather pants, Alex bounding along side me a spontaneous explosion of joyful puppy energy…about mid parade I’d say, the sidewalks swelling with cheering faces, waving flags and again all manner of young and old people all out to show their pride and support she emerged from out of nowhere.

Brandishing a bouquet of flowers, fresh from the farmer’s market she stepped out of the crowd and into the street. Running up along side Alex and I as we came abreast I only got a quick look at her, young and pretty. Flushed and full of life as she pressed the brown paper wrapped bundle of flowers into my hand.
“I love you” she said with a smile and dashed back into the crowd before I could thank her, before I could even ask her name. Once I fully realized what was happening, she had vanished, back into the seething sea of faces along the parade route. I carried that bundle of random color for pretty much the rest of the parade, till the limitations of keeping myself and my leather hooded companion hydrated became more than my two full hands could manage.

Now, the parade long over and no longer dressed in my all too warm leather pants I can’t help but wonder. Who was she? Had someone set aside today, taken the initiative to attend this event, visit the market, so they might me a gift and say those things? Did they wait patently as float after float passed by till they could make this fleeting connection with me? Or was this a random event. Someone performing a random act of love and generosity? Putting some good into the universe and I was simply in the right place at the right time?

If, as my ego would like to think, it was intentional then surely the girl in question is reading this right now and will hear me when I say thank you, I am quite touched. However if I am simply the recipient of some cool cosmic circumstance, then hot damn what a great idea.

The universe needs more flushed, beautiful girls sharing random bouquets of flowers.

Warm!

So here we are on this, the last day of the year. The Abbey is silent as I write this, save the hiss of the over heater. The crews have today and tomorrow off so they can ring in the new year with a vengeance. Me? Only a few items on todays to do list and then I too will shift gears into celebration mode as well. I made a promise to some very good customers that they would have their rope in time for a party tonight and I am not about to let them down. Now I know I go on and on about how awesome my customers are, about how much I love hearing from them and seeing the joy on their faces when they use my rope. Most kink vendors would kill to get a look at my customer database, let alone have customers who so eagerly and freely thank them for the work they do. What can I say, I'm a damn lucky guy.

Then there are the rare breed of customers who go above and beyond, becoming more than just a good, faithful customer and go out of their way to show how much they care. I feel like I need to come up with some new classification for these folks, "good customer" seems so inadequate and "Super, awesome customer/ninja" seems a bit too silly, even for me. Their generosity goes way beyond just the value of the rope they buy. The title of "Patron" seems to gel with me when I think of them, folks who generously give of their time, homes and creativity.

With the bitter cold season in full swing, and lord how I have bitched about it here.. sorry, a few of these "patrons" have given me some wonderful gifts to help battle the cold. A reader, whom you may recall shared her sweet, beautiful body with me (and about 2 thousand lusty onlookers) at Folsom a few years back, sent one of these to the Abbey last week. Talk about a cool toy, pop this guy in the microwave and 3 minutes later you have warm hands (or warm whatever you place against it). Right now it is sitting against my lower back as I type this. I fear I may have to hide this from the rest of the crew, save they do not start a riot over it when they all return to work next Wednesday.

Now there is no worry about sharing the other item. Check these out, hand knit wool socks. How fucking cool is that? I have a serious weak spot for hand made things so these are just about the coolest thing in the world. Perhaps part of the charm was in the process. Katie, the sweetheart who made them for me first had to fit them to my feet. One chilly fall afternoon she came, knelt at my feet and gently removed my well worn lug boots and eased the half finished socks onto my feet. Touching and making tiny adjustments to her pattern as she stroked the soft wool against my sore feet was... well it was damn near orgasmic to be truthful. She is going to get extra points in Pervert's Heaven for this one, I assure you.



The finished product? Bliss, pure and simple.

Funny, here at the end of the year I am reminded of just how lucky I have been. So many of you have shared so much of yourselves with me, in stories, in gifts and in the biggest gift of all, you told others about us and spread the word about this quirky guy from Seattle and his little rope company. Sure I grumble about the cold or about having too much work to do, but at the end of the day?

I'm one damn lucky sob.

The things I do for my customers

I get all sorts of special requests from my customers. Sometimes they are tiny things, can I tweak the end whipping just a bit, other times they are pretty involved and will cost the customer more than a few extra dollars, for instance dying and re-twisting some Bavarian 4 strand in a red/black mix. Excellent customer service is the key to long term success, so I do my best to accommodate these special requests whenever possible.

Recently I got a very unique request from a customer who wanted a pair of our new boyshorts. In addition to the usual order info she wrote at the bottom of the order form, “And um, if you could maybe step on the panties with those sexy boots, that'd be a nice treat.”

Ah, the things I do for my customers.

Well I supposed the first thing to do would be to make sure my boots were properly prepared for the task. Now the Abbey can get pretty dusty, but just to make sure I take a good long stroll around the place. Removing the clothing in question from its sealed packaging, eliciting an annoyed and bewildered look from the minion who just spent the last 3 hours neatly folding and sealing said garments into individual plastic bags, I lay out some fresh wrapping paper. Can’t let the panties pick up any un-intended dirt from the floors,. I proceed to place my trusty size 11, steel toed, waffle stomper clad foot down on the shorts. I figure placing it so the toe was just shy of where the mound of her crotch would be was a good location. If she were wearing them, I’d probably rest my foot there and press my toe into her and enjoy her response.



Neatly re-packaged and sealed up, they make their way to, what I hope will be, a very happy customer.

Brain Stew

With the official start of the holiday season just a week away I'm up to my ass in new products, half finished marketing text and scads of photos to be edited for the website. Add to this the reams of minutiae that are just part and parcel for keeping a company running and one's brain begins to get a bit wobbly.

On top of all thisthere is the matter of making that rope so that the bills get paid.

So dear readers, if you feel like you are being teased as I slip out sneak peaks at some of the stuff I have in the works. Sorry. Quite to the contrary actually. I have so much stuff that I want to share with you, stuff that I'm really exited about and proud of, but it is just not quite ready. Perhaps if I locked myself away from the world for a week I could have it all finished and polished up, but that is just not in the cards. That and frankly I'd rather give you peaks at what I'm working on first than make you wait like the rest of the world till I do an "official" release.

So much of what I do is driven by your feedback. Your comments and opinions on new products and ideas are of incredible value to me. You, the faithful, have helped shape my little dream into the powerhouse it is today. So it goes with out saying that I, thrilled to share the fruits of my labors, will want to give you the first glances of what I have up my sleeve. And so I pray for yourpatience, dear reader, as with all good things in life...the pay out is always worth the wait.

I may be a tease, but when the time comes I always deliver.

Alas, the time I have carved out today for blogging as come to an end and the demands of the rest of my world as screaming for my attention. As my dad used to say, "We have a lot more miles to travel today before we shall see our beds so we best get to it."

Why work on a Sunday?



Ever wonder why folks love rope? Just take a look at the smile on elf's face and see for yourself. How can you not want to put in an extra couple of hours in order to make sure that nice folks like these can get thier rope on?

Building a better mousetrap

Today is my last full day in the Abbey before heading south to SF and the debauchery that is the Folsom Street Fair. That of course means things are a wee bit on the wacky side here as I dash about getting ready and such. Of course, with Folsom also comes, in my opinion, the end of summer and the eventual rush to the holiday season.

Now here is the thing, every year we try to come up with cool some very cool gift items for the holiday. Right now we got something cool in the works, but the problem is I’m just not sure what the proper mix of things needed are. Here is what I want; I’m envisioning a gift that you might give your kink inclined partner or friend. Not someone who would normally go to play parties or shop at stores like Mr. S leather, but rather maybe this gift is something that you will give your lover in hopes of nudging your sex life down a more, shall we say, creative path. Not some lame feather and cinnamon dust gimmick in a cardboard box that you find at the linger shop in your local strip mall. Some cheap something made in china that you may use once (if you are lucky, or really bored) and then stuff in a closet, but rather something that will inspire customers to send me cookies next Christmas.

So, if you were to build a gift box of rope based kink and wanted to spend about 100 bucks, what would you have in your box? Feel free to add suggestions for other items, within reason of course (ya big bunch a perverts!)

From the inbox...
"Hi Monk,

I've often said that with enough rope, you have all the sex toys you need. Mentioning this to a friend led to one of those "Put your money where your mouth is" scenarios, which I'm proud to say I have won outright.

Yes, that's a piece of your 15" 4mm hemp rope. Yes, it's been macramed into a dildo. Get it wet to stiffen it and put a condom over it, and you're ready to go.

I swear, your rope can do anything except pass a bar exam.

Cheers,
G"