News & Events

6/22/08 - Not only has my day job continued to be overbooked (I was out of the house for 13 hours last Friday), but I've been finding it very difficult to bring myself to work in the shop. There's always something else that needs to be done.

So this weekend I made the effort to force myself to work, and I think I figured out what's been going on. It's a subconscious thing, really. My day job, which I mentioned before involves travelling around assembling office furniture on location is very physically demanding. Since I started it I've had lots of problems with my elbows and knees. And I think I've been avoiding working in the shop because of the sanding. Imagine having carpal tunnel in your entire arm. That's what it feels like after a very short time sanding out all the little slots. So without even realizing it, I would avoid going downstairs and do anything but. Well, I would realize it as the time went by, and I'd beat myself up over it, but still I'd lack the discipline to overcome it. (Maybe that's what I'm doing right now by writing this).

Fortunately, the sanding is just about done, and once over that hump, I think the rest should come a lot more easily. Although that's a small consolation to those who have been waiting so long. Even without the pain in my arms sanding is the biggest slice of the time-required pie on these projects.

What I really need are minions. *grin*.

Still, I've had to turn away two more potential chair orders while I deal with this. As I said, I'm not going to put anyone else on the hook until I resolve this.

Oh, and as an added demotivator, I'm now convinced that Extreme Restraints is pirating my spanking bench design. It's a shame, if they'd asked, I would have gladly licensed it out. Next time I'm filing for a design patent, dammit. I'm still weighing my options for how to respond.

I'm getting pretty annoyed with this situation, because I'm getting to hate myself for how long these chairs are taking, and it's not because they're all that time consuming to do (well, maybe a little) but that it's been so hard to get together the TIME to do anything. I really have to thank my commissioners for their extraordinary patience, and I'm thinking of a number of things I can do to reward them for this.

But I also realize that this is no way to conduct a business, so I'm going to have to re-think and re-organize a bit. I'm not going to put anyone else in a situation where they pay a deposit up front and have to wait this long to get something.

So as of now, Commissions are closed. I'm going to shift to a system of having inventory on hand so that I can ship on demand. But that's going to take time to gear up towards. I also need to concentrate more on my retailers.

And before I do any of that, I have to finish off these chairs. (And I am NOT going to cut any corners to do so.)

I'll get this thing going right.

Well, more of a procrastinating little beaver, but not without some accomplishments. For example the Spanking bench count is now up to 66, done in two batches. Plus I am now in the process of building THREE bondage chairs. Two for customers, and one (finally) for myself. You gotta fight the curse of the toymaker wherever you can - that is, because you're always making toys for other people, you never make any for yourself (and heaven forbid you BUY toys from someone else, since you can make them yourself - IF you ever get around to it.)

I'm going to see if I can finally add some workshop pictures to the Gallery. Won't that be fun?

Oh, and I sold off all those hitching rings to Sonny Black, so they're out of stock.

Also, be sure to check out Rubberbound.com and Andraste.com. I've been making lots of steel collars and shackles for them, and they're appearing in the photo shoots now. I'm definitely getting better at these, the set for Miyou fit perfectly! (And she has such a remarkably slender neck!)

Serious Bondage has recently restored the 2004 articles and photo sets of my Mark II Self Bondage and Mark IIa Bondage chairs, so be sure to check them out.

Alas, neither of those potential chair orders I mentioned came through. (And people wonder why I require a deposit....) The St. Andrew's Cross prototype is undergoing revision. I have to change the angle of the back leg for stability, and then make production jigs. Jigs are important! There are FIVE jigs used to make the spanking benches, just to give you an idea. (*Reads old news* Man, HOW long have I been dithering over this thing?)

A while ago I had to shut down the comments in the photo gallery. Some asshole with an automated spam script was loading it up with website spam for some truly low-life porn sites. Trust me, they weren't the kind my visitors would like to see. It wasn't much of a loss, since nobody else ever posed any comments anyway.

Honest folks can always ask me to trade links, and if I think it's appropriate, I will. Scum will get the virtual back of my hand.

Speaking of trading links, I've added a few more links to the Links page. I've also added a new banner for this site to the Links page.

Also, did some minor updates the the Items for Sale, Bondage Chair and Spanking Bench pages, including removing some links to Mr. S that don't work, and reflecting the sale of the original spanking bench.

I just finished the latest order of Spanking Benches for Extreme Restraints, so they should be in stock by the end of the week. That brings the total production in these guys up to 40. Wow! I took lots of pictures of the manufacturing process, which after editing I'll add to the photo gallery. I have to leave out just enough to keep someone from ripping me off.

Now I should have time to work on the Cross prototype, unless one of two potential chair orders finally comes through.

However, our friend the script-kiddie owes me an apology. If you wanted something, all you had to do was ASK. But your first resort was the criminal one. How very low of you.

From the log analysis:

Top 30 of 381 Total URLs

#	Hits		KBytes		URL
1	45030	58.48%	654250	59.99%	/cumine/login.php

45000 hits on the login page. Was that REALLY a worthwhile use of your time and my bandwidth? Did you get what you want? I doubt it. You do know that Coppermine goes into a blocking mode after three failed attempts, right? You wasted your time for nothing.

What a jerk. What would your mother think?

Alas, there will be some small changes coming to the benches, since the company that makes the hitching rings I use on the ends has discontinued the nice ones and replaced them with a nasty, folded metal thing. After searching, I realized that all of the hardware "Manufacturers" are really just distributors of the same Made in China bits because they'd ALL changed to the same awful design, and I simply will not use them. On the plus side, it means I don't have to raise prices to match all of the increases on all my materials. I'm also considering switching to non-laminated legs. I spend WAY too much time sanding and treating the edges of those.

I also had my first donation a couple of months ago. Thanks!

I'm still working out the St. Andrew's cross design, but a Mark IIa order might delay that a little. I'm also working on a black #2 Pillory, and a full set of steel cuffs. The Pillory looks WICKED in black. I'm tempted to keep it, but it's going to be a gift for a friend.

Oh, and as for updates, while the site content hasn't changed much, I HAVE added new links. And I'm considering doing away with my clever, but not really necessary dynamic menu.

In actual news, I got another order for 8 more spanking benches, bringing the total that will be in existence when this is done to 32. Alas, the gross proceeds from that effort will just barely cover this fat IRS Bill I just paid. Nobody's ever tried out that Donate button, but I sure wish they would. I might even put those Folsom pictures back up....

I also cleaned up the appearance of the menu button.

Oh, and I added a little banner to link back to the main frame if people get led here by a link to an internal page. You can see it at the bottom of this page.

After finally taking the ol' Crowbar to the Wallet, I sprang for a real host. There will be some adjustments, comments are down for the moment for example, but there will be big changes!

In the pipeline is a design for a take-down St. Andrew's Cross (X-cross) but I won't say more until it's completed.

Let's all hope the court challenges by the Free Speech Coalition go well.

Updates to the Links page, the Spanking Bench page, Available for Sale page.

In project news, I'm developing a spanking bench prototype for a new vendor. It will work at both kneeling and standing level with removable legs.

Anyone who has been hot-linking my images should have noticed a nasty trick happening since the 30th. I warned you.

My latest chair is about to ship, and that means the order queue is empty. Now would be a REALLY good time for someone to place an order if they wanted something done promptly.

Oh, and I've added those little "disclosure triangles" to the menus to indicate sub-menus. You can tell I'm a Mac guy....

My host moved this weekend, and the outage was less than a day.

Notice: in the coming month or so, my host will be relocating, so there may be a brief interruption of service. No more than a couple of days once it happens.

Check out the Gallery for a few Folsom pictures as well.

Some of the pillories have already sold at the Mr. S store. :-) Shipping added to the price a bit, I believe they're going for $289. The folks who bought one and told me said that even at that, they're underpriced.

I gave the first Clue-by-four to Richard Hunter, and he liked it. We'll see if they'll carry it. (No. But you can still get one from me.)