This review of Workshop 10 was sent to the UK_Rope group by Anthony, a UK_Rope member attending a workshop for the first time, along with his partner Leanne. It's reproduced here with permission.
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As relatively new members to the Yahoo group and
first-timers at the gathering last weekend, Leanne and
I thought it might be helpful for other new members,
particularly those still undecided on attending, to
share our impressions of Workshop #10
It's probably worth saying at the start that although
we're both open minded and welcome new experiences,
neither of us had ever been involved in any organised
bondage, fetish or swinger scene before. We both love
including rope in our intimate moments but are still
learning the secrets and rewards of ropeplay. The
format of this group and of the workshop itself was of
great benefit to newbies such as ourselves, because it
just made everything so much more accessible and
approachable than if, for example, we had to attend a
full on bondage party with strict fetish dress and
rules as our first step of the journey.
For this reason, we'd both been very much looking
forward to the workshop for quite some time. As we
drove towards Ceasar's, the touch of nerves we felt
only served to sharpen the excitement we were sharing.
The location wasn't too difficult to find, but
Ceasars itself is sort of tucked away off a side
road, and the rather subtle sign-post is hidden by
trees, so we almost missed it. As we approached along
the long drive-way with trees and fields on either
side, I teased Leanne about it turning out like "Eyes
Wide Shut", and we got there already grinning.
We parked up a little before 5pm but already it seemed
that quite a few people had arrived. We were greeted
very kindly at the door and welcomed inside. We had
our first glance of the club, and probably the first
actual realisation of what we'd gotten ourselves into,
but the friendly people at the door proved we had
nothing to worry about. We dropped off the various
items we'd brought for use (remember that peer thing?)
and signed in for our membership. Then, we stepped
inside.
Several riggers were already getting busy, setting up
they frames and laying out ropes. There was one large
suspension frame, possibly a permanent fixture at the
club, and around three or four smaller ones of varied
design brought in by other members.
We sat ourselves down at one of the tables, feeling a
little shy and just wanting to take in the scene
around us. Soon more members began to appear. I
remember scanning their name tags to see if I
recognised any from the Yahoo group. I think people
were mostly using their real names though, although I
did see one or two nicks. We broke the ice by
introducing ourselves to harper, and gave him a hand
setting up his pyramidal frame. After that, someone
spotted us as obvious newcomers and came over
to give us an introduction to how things worked,
including the DM role and photo policy.
By that time, lots more people had arrived and the
workshop got underway very quickly. People would just
come in, say hello to a few others, pull out a bag of
ropes and then just get right on with their ropework.
The dress code around the room was quite varied. The
group website said "wear comfortable clothes", so
Leanne and I had come in jeans and casual tops. There
were a few others dressed similarly, but plenty of
members were wearing catsuits, basques, corsets,
fishnets and so on. Some ladies and even guys had also
stripped off down to basics. This wasn't uncomfortable
for us though, because everyone was indulging in their
own thing, while at the same time very ready to
include you if you wanted. It was actually quite
refreshing to see and rather encouraging. And there
was never any leering at the (semi)nudity. Everyone
looked really cool and certainly very individual.
Leanne and I later discussed how we might be a little
more daring ourselves the next time around.
This sense of variety wasn't limited to wardrobe
though. The spread of age groups was just as varied,
with lots more younger people than we expected. The
same was true for physiques. There were quite a few
couples, and some singles too. When it came to the
ropeplay, men were tying women up, women were tying
women up, women were typing men up, and men were tying
men up. And people were even tying themselves. The
ropes being used also seemed to be very different,
which was very interesting. We saw lots of various
lengths, thicknesses, colours and textures, and had a
chance to try a couple of these throughout the night.
Very soon, the energy in the room had really begun to
grow. Looking around the club, we saw lots of ropework
going on and it was at first a little difficult to
decide what to try or who to talk to first. This was
mainly due to plenty of choice rather than being
outsiders. We found that everyone we approached was
willing to talk with us, to answer questions, to share
techniques, and even to include us in their play and
help us to try things out ourselves. There was at no
time any feeling of obligation to join in beyond our
limits, for example to allow somebody else to tie
Leanne up. People were just enjoying themselves, and
comfortable with involving us if we wanted to be.
This was fantastic for us as newcomers. We found
ourselves enjoying an evening with a relaxed group of
people that simply shared our love and fascination of
rope, willing to interact, to discuss, and to share
with us their knowledge and passion of ropework, and
all without the potential pressure we may have felt
trying to 'fit in' at a more serious fetish scene.
Sure, the way some members were dressed and some of
the stuff going on did give us a taste of what we
might expect on scene, but it was all entirely without
obligation and this made it so accessible and
approachable for us. Well done everyone!
During the course of the evening, Leanne and I made an
effort to move around the room and check out the
different things going on. Sometimes we'd chat to the
different groups of people that had formed and were
busy interacting via the ropes, asking them questions
or being talked through what they were doing, or
sometimes we'd just stand by and watch.
We saw lots of ground-based work going on, several
different styles of body harnesses, a very interesting
head harness, quite a few impressive looking
suspensions on different frames, we enjoyed watching a
rather sensual yet tight binding of exposed breasts
and even witnessed the Borg Queen resurrected in rope.
We spoke to some suspendees about how the experience
felt, we chatted to some riggers about differences in
western / eastern ropework, we learned about an
interesting new quick-release knotless style of
bondage one of the members was developing with steel
hoops and pegs, we sampled an electroplay toy and of
course we tried some techniques ourselves.
We learned two new ways of tying hands/arms, a rather
snug body-corset technique that we tried on each other
(Leanne tying me for the first time), and picked up
lots of ideas and inspiration. More experienced
members were very encouraging, showing and helping out
lots, and often commenting on how well we'd done
something.
Leanne got to take a few photos too, as backup
photobod. Speaking of which, the photo area was
actually very well equipped, with flash guns, proper
lighting kit, backdrop screens and digital SLRs. Also,
you'll be relieved to know the Duty Monitor role was
always responsibly carried out in the main area, I
noticed him once or twice checking angles and people
in the background when some riggers wanted to snap
some shots of their suspensions.
Later than night, Leanne and I couldn't stop talking
about the workshop over dinner. We had met some very
friendly, very interesting people and our only regrets
were that we didn't mingle more with the remaining
groups, and that the event was over so soon. Thanks so
much to the organisers, and of course to everybody
there that made our first workshop such a great time.
We really can't wait for Workshop #11, and would urge
all new members still hesitant, to stop worrying and
just come along!
Finally, here are some suggestions for new visitors to
the workshop:
* Talk to people!
Trust us, the best thing you can do is mix and chat.
* Get stuck in!
Don't be afraid to try something, nobody will judge
you - They will help you! Once you start having a go,
you'll really enjoy it!
* Don't worry if you have no rope.
Plenty of rope is provided by other members for you to
try with. Just remember to be polite and ask first.
* Be respectful of any scenes in progress.
Feel free to ask questions and so on, but try not to
be disruptive if possible. The bondage always comes
first.
* Check out the library.
There were lots of books available to browse through.
Some we recognised, some we didn't, but all were
interesting. I wish I'd spent more time looking at
these, and it's always a good idea to take a peek if
you want to buy your own but aren't sure what suits
you.
And here's one for the organisers:
The coloured dots are a good idea in concept, but in
practice the lighting sometimes makes it difficult to
discern blue from red, and even hard to actually see
yellow. Also, we often found ourselves trying to
remember what they meant. Perhaps a poster in the main
room with some big reminders would help.
Thanks everyone for reading this far, and thanks to
those at Workshop#10.