RopeMarks DVD, Art Series 1 - Master "K"'s review
15 June 2009
We received Master "K"'s review that made use very proud:
Like a bolt from the blue (or perhaps that should be a bolt from Amsterdam), I received in the mail today
the new DVD from the RopeMarks team of Bob and the lovely Chantal. It's titled "Art Series 1" and is the
first of what I hope will be a long line of programs from them featuring a European take on the classic
Japanese art of kinbaku (Japanese bondage). It's a most impressive production.
On a tasteful white on white set the team presents 4 classic kinbaku stylings: an ornate decorative tie, a
version of the famous Akechi Denki gote (upper body) shibari, a full suspension and a tie utilizing that
classic Japanese accessory, bamboo. The ties are well chosen, diverse and interesting and put together
these 4 positions give a fine impression of the range of shibari art.
Taking a page from the DVDs of the well known Japanese bakushi Miura-san, the production uses his
elegant format of a short musical opening (a nice piece featuring taiko drums) as Bob begins to tie, then
the hush of the session as Bob completes the tie, then the music to close. However, RopeMarks goes
Miura-san one better by having more close-ups and by showing the tying techniques more clearly. Bob's
hand movements are smooth, sure and expert throughout; an impressive display that the novice can truly
learn from.
Bob's partners in this exciting endeavor are the beautiful bondage diva, Chantal and the exotic European
fetish model Mirjana. Both are lovely and both do a wonderful job responding to Bob and the ties. It's
clear they both enjoy kinbaku, it's beauty as well as its challenges. In a brilliant and sexy bit of drama the
models are gagged and blindfolded after the ties are completed and then allowed to struggle and enjoy
the ties a bit before each scene slowly fades out. Very sexy, indeed!
There's a word in Japanese that conveys the qualities of this production. It's shibui, a term that means a
kind of rough, masculine, elegance. With this DVD the RopeMarks team firmly establishes themselves
as among the best kinbaku artists in Europe and beyond.
The links: RopeMarks DVD, Art Series 1, The Beauty of Kinbaku.
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07:49
German Fetish Ball Weekend 2009
02 June 2009
May has become a month of extreme's for us, mainly me. On the high, a lot of great events that we have been to and on the low an annoying stomach fly during one of these events. And this is the event that I want to give you a short review of, the German Fetish Ball Weekend (GFB).
Unfortunatly for me a few days before we had to leave to Berlin, where the party weekend was held, I got sick, really sick and until the end of the last day that we had to leave I had a fever and diarrhea. Since I already was feverisch for a few days I assumed it should be over any day. So instead of cancelling the event I decided to gamble the fever would be gone the next day.
Cancelling would be bad for us, but not in the least for the GFB, RopeMarks was booked for the two day fetish fair for a number of shows and demo's and we were booked for the the Ball (the big party of the weekend) to be the main act on the mainstage. This mainstage show was not just us, it was together with Kumi Monster and appropriatly titled "Kumi vs RopeMarks". More on that later.
As you can imagine the six hour trip to Berlin became a almost nine hour trip because of the numerous pitstop we had to make because of my diarrhea. You do not want to know how dirty some of the toilets are that you find in parkingplaces next to the German higways; and, you don't want to know how dirty some were after I was finished there :)
The next day my gamble turned out right, the fever was gone, only my diarrhea was now in the way of completely enjoying the event. With good hope (and a roll of toilet paper :) we headed to the fetish fair. As usual with buildings that host events in Germany they are beautiful and usually very characteristic, so was this. I won't try to describe it (I can't), just check the GFB site for pictures. The fair itself was a big three floor event that had everything you can expect from a a fair and as extra an outside barbeque and bar.
Our shows/demo's were in a big "pit", surrounded by windows for people to enjoy the going-ons. On the first floor the people could look down into the pit to enjoy the show, and the brilliant thing, there was a fully operational electric industrial sized crane that reached all the way up to the high arched ceiling of the first floor. If I had to guess that would be 15 meters up, if not more.
For our first demo we decided on something simple, but as often happens, once I get started with ropes and props I can't seem to stop myself :) The result was a very cool play session with one of the highlights Chantal hanging upsidedown about 5 meters of the floor. One other interesting thing we found out is that Chantal is not that comfortable with big hights, her screaming through her panelgag that I should not go higher made that very clear :) Our second demo of the day was more technical, where I made Chantal "roll around" in the air, going smoothly from position to position.
That night the GFB Weekend had a few parties, we were guests on the Play Party in the Avalon location. Again a beautiful location. We did go but left very quickly, I just was not up to it yet.
The second day I woke up feeling very good and it looked like my bowels passed its content at a more regular speed now. Being bold we went to the fair without an extra roll of toilet paper :) but first we had to stop by the location of the Ball to rehearse for our mainstage show with Kumi. Actually I should say, Chantal rehearsed with Kumi since in this particular show I was not needed on stage. After rehearsal we went to the fair to perform our last show for the fair, did some shopping ourselves, enjoyed the sun on the outside terras and watched people dressed up in rubber parading around. Life's good.
In the evening the big Ball of the German Fetish Ball weekend took place in the Matrix, another beautiful and perfect location for a versatile fetish event. When we entered the first thing that we noticed can be described in one word; SHINY! We were quite late, there already were a lot of people wearing a big variation of rubber clothing and they were all super SHINY, it was a beautiful sight :)
After the fashion show it was time for "Kumi vs RopeMarks", the main show with a "paintress", her "annoying helper" and bondage. Without giving to much away, it was one big mess and I know at least a few people were careless enough to unwantingly participate in the show :)
Now it was time to enjoy the party ourselves, and we did; nuff said!
We have no pictures but will add them to this post when we have them.
Bob
http://www.RopeMarks.com
The links:
German Fetish Ball Weekend http://www.german-fetish-ball.com/
Kumi Monster http://www.FetishMuse.com/
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20:22
BoundCon VI
27 May 2009
This BoundCon RopeMarks got invited to be present with two main stage shows, three custom photo shoots, our own booth and to be available for last minute activities decided on by the organization. We gladly accepted the invitation for the 5th time in a row.
A trap we fall for every time is that we like to prepare ourselves for BoundCon. There is actually not that much to prepare for. When we are at BoundCon we simply do what we do all the time with RopeMarks, Bondage heavily influenced by the Japanese style.
However, one thing we always prepare for are our shows. We make it a rule to have at least one new show at BoundCon every year. BoundCon is one of the very few events that offer bondage performers a large main stage, their own music, light setup and most important an audience that is truly into bondage. Those are some very impressive characteristics of being allowed to do a show on BoundCon.
The day before the event we traveled, by car, from Amsterdam to Munich. All together this is a trip close to a nine hour drive. When we arrived in Munich we checked in to the hotel and continued to the event location (Zenith, Die Kulturhalle) to build our booth. Once we got there we know why we do this, we get to meet the people we call friends again. Even though we are unable to meet them often because of the long distance we live apart BoundCon is one of the very few places where all these people flock together and share their love for bondage, be it leather, metal, medical, rubber, rope or something uniquely their own.
We always try to have at least one new thing in our booth. Something to look at, something to talk about or something to buy. This year we had something of all.
In the look-at department: Every year we have a handful of large, framed, photo's taken by the creme-de-la-creme of Dutch and international, fetish, photographers. This year we had photo's from the hand of Lex Hulscher, an established name in the Dutch fetish scene that can work wonders with a wide angled lens. Borosso, a famous glamour photographer that is using an alias to take his first steps with bondage photography, amazing work. Then we had the work of Jacco Breedveld a new and very promising Dutch photographer with a true love for fetish and it is showing in his work. Last but definitely not least, Frits Kraefft an amateur photographer gone professional. This man works wonders with settings scenes with light.
In the talk-about department: This year we had a digital photo frame with a whole lot of photo's rotating every few seconds. The special thing about the photo's in this frame is that they cover a whole lot of years of our (almost) eleven years of RopeMarks existence. Unintentionally this proved to be a gadget that got people talking.
In the buy department: For this year BoundCon got the premiere of the launch of our new DVD, RopeMarks Art Series 1. As the name implies this is the first DVD of a series. Each DVD will contain a collection of Japanese bondage (aka shibari or kinbaku) scenes and each scene shows you in close-up detail the complete build up from the unbound beautiful and willing model to a tightly bound bundle of arousing female. The Art Series 1 DVD contains four sessions. Two sessions with the Dutch bondage diva, Chantal, herself. Two sessions with guest model Miss Mirjana. Chantal has to go through a Taware shibari variation and a Utsubuse zuri. Miss Mirjana is displayed in a tribute bondage to the late great nawashi Akechi Denki and put through an exercise in Kuzushi nawa.
Day 1:
The first day, Friday, immediately started busy for us. The first custom photo shoot after the opening of the fair was for me. I was matched with two lovely models from the porn business that never experienced bondage before, bondage virgins so to speak, Claudia Bluebell and Mia Dee (aka bambi) from Hungary (HU). Having two porn models at your disposal to tie and restrain is, well a guarantee for a hot session.
After the custom photo shoot we took a stroll around the fair see what the booths of everybody looked like, see the interesting things for sale and for some chit-chat with friends and acquaintances. At the booth of the Sgt.Major after some chit-chat we got a very nice surprise, he brought us a small gift from his last trip to Japan, a tenugui. This is a thin Japanese cotton hand towel. The "polka-dot" design is used often in combination with Japanese bondage.
Some relaxing is good, but it was time for the first bondage demonstration in our own booth. Something "easy" yet aesthetically pleasing. We decided upon a tawara shibari. We got a good audience watching our demo; the icing of the cake of the tawara shibari was the sarge's tenugui. I used that as a gag for Chantal. Chantal's legs were not bound from the knee down, so I took her for a stroll around the fair, back to the Sarge's booth to see the good use of his gift.
The next big thing on the first day was our main stage show. We performed our new show, "Ballerina". This show features an one-ankle upside down suspension and some BDSM-erotic groundwork. With every show things are not always going as planned, small things, things that go unnoticed by the audience and don't really have an impact on the show, this show however everything went as smooth as possible. Timed just right with the music, Chantal's guided dancing in rope (Ballerina) went smooth. Her one ankle upside down suspension (which is hard as hell to do) went perfect and our groundwork was tough (for Chantal) but very erotic. Or, in the words of visitor “Am besten fand ich die dynamische Show von RopeMarks: flotte Musik, super Darsteller, freizügig, abenteuerliche Fesselung und Bewegungen, Kerzenwachs. Wirklich heiße Vorstellung!”.
Our night ended pleasantly in the hotel bar with some friends and (long-time) visitors of the fair.
Day 2:
The second day started with a custom photo shoot for me. This time lucky me got to have fun with Sabrina Fox and Katarina Blade. With Katarina I have prior experience and she's a sweetheart to toy around with. Sabrina Fox we have known for some time but I never had the pleasure to play with her. Luckily Sabrina and Katarina are also good friends so this match turned out to be hot and fun.
After the custom photo shoot we decided it could be fun to interview a few people from the fair, make some sort of a "behind the scenes documentary" of BoundCon. It is not meant to be taken too serious, but it is fun to watch, we think :). Should be online in our blog by the time you read this. Please see the links section at the bottom for the address.
At the booth of fellow country man Bert Wibo (DDI/Massad) we learned that there was going to be an unscheduled custom photo shoot at the end of the day with Eden Wells and Jewell Marceau. Apparently the rigger was already decided upon... I prefer to be asked first, but then again working with Eden and Jewel is an opportunity you do not want to skip. This shoot turned out the be a real challenge for me, they both moved like eels, dancing, teasing, playing. A lot of fun to watch but a horror to apply some good looking bondage. All worked out nicely but these girls got me sweating...
Our booth saw some action to today; Chantal and I did a bamboo session. A bamboo session is never fun, actually it is always fun but using bamboo is tough on Chantal and yet she always manages to make it look so easy! Trust me if I say she still wears the bruises of this session. I prepared a bamboo frame to put extra stress on her arms bound behind her back and to make her boobs come forward even more. Then I used another piece of bamboo as a gag and to top things of some nipple clamps (hey, her boobs were challenging me :). Bound and restricted I took her for a stroll on the fair (I like to show her of a lot :), but the contraption she was bound to was not really safe to use in a crowded environment like this, so we kept the stroll short but oh so sweet.
Also, at the booth we finally got the opportunity to do a short session with Mina. This session was already decided upon three years ago, if not longer and now it finally happened. All kudos to Mina for showing up in our booth and "threatening" to leave Munich if we did not do a session _now_ :) We have a serious shoot planned; let's hope that does not take another three years!
Day 3:
Third and last day of the "con", as with the other days my day started with a custom photo shoot. This time it was my pleasure to toy around with Yvette Costeau and Lillian Caine. Being the third day everybody was already a bit tired after two longs days, so this shoot started a little slow, finding the limits of the moment. Once the first ropes were going and the limits were found the shoot went smooth all the way.
We still had some interviews to finish for our "behind the scenes documentary", after that it was time for some old-fashioned torturing of Chantal in our booth. This session started with a tawara variation bondage, a tight collar and a panel-ball-gag. As I was building this position I imagined this could also be interesting position upside down, so I did. Now honestly, a pretty, willing girl, tightly bound, collared and gagged hanging upside down for your pleasure and making soft moaning noises, that's hot, and I mean *hot*. Since hanging upside down this is not a situation meant to be endured for a long time I got her down, on the floor and continued my session with an extremely strict hogtie. Having absolutely no way to go it was time for a good bare hand spanking to produce a few nice gagged and muffled moans of pleasure. Uhm, the cries of pleasure could be mine and those of pain Chantal's... But I'm not sure anymore :)
Our last booked action of the day the second main stage show. We performed our "Fallen Angel" show. Here Chantal plays an angel and I play a (tengu) demon. This show starts with a few minutes self suspension with a twist by Chantal after which the demon takes over to use the angel as his toy for personal pleasure, again with a twist. This show stripped us of our last bit of energy and the remaining time we spend chatting with visitors, friends and acquaintances.
That was our BoundCon. It was another great experience to be between likeminded people and good friends from all over the world. We hope you got a glimpse of the experience that is BoundCon and hopefully it encouraged you to visit BoundCon, again, next year!
Bob
www.RopeMarks.com
Pictures taken by Pedro Konijn, Marwanuk, Airotic, Antoon.
The links:
BoundCon, www.BoundCon.de
RopeMarks, www.RopeMarks.com
RopeMarks blog, www.RopeMarks.com/blogs/bob
DVD Art Series 1, www.RopeMarks.com/en/shop
Miss Mirjana, www.MissMirjana.com
Club RopeMarks, www.ClubRopeMarks.com
Lex Hulscher, www.LexHulscher.com
Borosso, www.Borosso.com
Jacco Breedveld, www.modelmayhem.com/1087330
Frits Kraefft, www.Studio3.nl
Claudia Bluebell, www.xoxomedia.com
Mia Dee (Bambi), www. xoxomedia.com
Sgt.Major, www.backdoorbondage.com
Sabrina Fox, www.onemodelplace.com/SabrinaFox
Katarina Blade, www.erotix-video.com
Eden Wells, www.EdenWells.com
Jewell Marceau, www.JewellMarceau.com
Mina, www.the-secrets-of-mina.com
Yvette Costeau, www.nackt-unterwegs.com
Lillian Caine, www.lillys-home.com
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16:31
Asia Adult Expo, Macau
27 May 2009
In the previous blogs I already hinted at a few projects that we got going on. There's one that unfortunatly is not going to happen. That is the Asia Adult Expo (AAE) in Macau. The last months we have been mailing, phoning and planning to be present on the AAE in Macau. All our communication got us a killer deal, there is no other way to put it. We are very gratefull for everything that has been done for us by the organization, we have continuously been doing calculations, but even with our killer deal we could not make ends meet financially.
We have an option for next year, so, who knows! :)
The Links
Asian Adult Expo
http://aae.verticalexpo.com
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14:35
London Festival of the Art of Japanese bondage
27 May 2009
On short notice (2 months, that's short for us :) we received an invitation for the London Festival of the Art of Japanese bondage on June 25-28.
From the announcement and postings on their blog it seems the intention is an international event about a lot of things related to Japanese bondage; art, photography, fashion shows, shiatsu, acupuncture, food, bondage and a lot more.
This is the first time this festival is organised and, as I mentioned, we got the invite on a short notice, in that same period we also have a payed booking for a show on the Ball Bizarre party. We had some communication with the London festival organisation, and as expected for a first time there is no budget to bring people, like us, who do rope profesionally, to the event. Not a real problem or issue everything went open and honest, but since for us the choice was a paid show in the Netherlands or a festival where we pay to be present the choice was quickly made.
On a more critical note about the London festival, for their first time they try to setup a festival about a lot of things related to Japanese bondage. Critical as I am "a lot" might be too much for a first time. Obviously they have examples to work from, like the old kinbiken (that has recently been brought back to live by Nureki-san, yeah!), the photo-salons where you can take pictures of women in bondage and galleries like the vanilla gallery that have bondage art on display. Doing too much at once is imvho a failure waiting to happen.
The other thing that I am worried about for this event is that in the Western world there are very limited people doing Japanese rope bondage, make Japanese rope art or generally are exposed to Japanese rope bondage and know what they are talking about. The list of people participating show imo very little Japanese rope. For me, one man truely stands out from this list, that's Murakawa, sorry, nawashi Murakawa. If you ever get a change to see him at work you can get a true feel of what it is like when a European is doing Japanese rope.
In any case, I am eyeing this festival with great interest because if they pull this off as advertised it is (to the best of my knowledge) the first Japanese rope only event for the Western world. The Japanese rope bondage world would be richer with an annual festival like the London Festival of the Art of Japanese bondage, so if you have the time and money to go there, do it.
If you are not at the london event come see our show at Ball Bizarre :)
The Links:
London festival,
http://japaneseartropebondage.blogspot.com
Nawashi Murakawa,
http://www.nawashimurakawa.com
Ball Bizarre,
http://www.ball-bizarre.com
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14:11
Art Series 1, Trailer
21 May 2009
People,
We still owe you a trailer! As usual we got sidetracked with other interesting stuff (i.e. BoundCon VI), but the trailer is finished.
Go take a look (and don't forget to purchase the DVD after watching :))
RopeMarks, Art Series 1, Trailer
Bob,
Direct link to the DVD: http://www.ropemarks.com/en/shop
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10:33
R.A.R.E. Meeting
05 May 2009
The first R.A.R.E. Meeting is a fact, short review and a few pics
here (
http://www.ropemarks.com/en/meetings).
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21:59
