Page 55 - AVN July 2015

fetish-tinged fashion could have a good time at this good-natured gathering
August 2012. Her first show, two years ago, was DomCon and
she’s since tried other shows, including the Lair at AEE. Most
of her sales are online and at trade shows. Vixen has worked
as a nurse for 22 years, so she also can speak with authority on
the therapeutic uses of e-stim. Her goal is to make her products
affordable.
Among her items were two styles of insertables: some with
side panels that conduct a charge, and other with horizontal
strikes. The side panel insertable, Vixen explained, helps women
stimulate the PC muscles more effectively than they can doing
standard Kegel exercises.
“Everything I’ve got has a medical purpose as well as a fun
one,” she says, noting that she offers live chat informational
support on the website. “I’m always creating new things—we get
new items in every month,” Vixen said. She can also fill special
orders: “If they can find a design I haven’t thought of, I’ll make
it.” (For more, go to CurrentPleasures.com.)
Though there were many innovative takes on BDSM gear
at DomCon, some of the highest levels of craftsmanship and
creativity were lavished on whips, floggers and crops. Leyland
Craftwork’s brightly colored, expertly made crops were a fine
example, their handles decorated in rich yet subdued hues. The
company also carries spankers styled after carpet beaters. (For
more, got to LeylandCraftwork.etsy.com.)
At the RavynBlood booth was the eye-catching Dragon Tail,
with its ergonomic hame handle and long, sturdy leather tail.
More compact were the Hand Paddles, which slip over the
hands to add more sting to a spanking—one can choose from
Featherweight, Welterweight and Bruiserweight. And the clever
Composition Book Paddles look like the workbooks one might
remember from school. RavynBlood’s stock also includes blindfolds lined with shearling and shaped
to allow no light to enter. (For information, go to RBLeather.com.)
On the other end of the whimsy scale is the Bunny Flogger. Exactly as advertised, it’s a flogger
with falls made of velvety rabbit fur. Its creator, Daemon, explained how the flogger came to be.
When he first got interested in BDSM, “I couldn’t have toys because I couldn’t afford them.”
So he concocted his own from rabbit—a decidedly odd handmade version that he said he still
keeps around. Daemon has since diversified and offers floggers with leather falls made from
various animals—cow, moose, elk, buffalo, deer—as well as horsehair. (For information, go to
BunnyFlogger.com.)
In addition to the obligatory latex, leather and corsets (including the striking steampunk styles of
Hilary’s Vanity, there were other tempting body adornments. Based in Palm Springs and run by Ross
Tubbs, Felisa Tubbs and Jason Dodough, Blackwood Creations offers a variety of gear—floggers,
collars, chain mail garments and lashes—made out of stainless steel or anodized aluminum. These
artisans also craft attractive aluminum jewelry that is suitable for even the most vanilla shopper.
(For more, go to BlackwoodCreations.com.)
Speaking of which, Vanilla Cuffs & Collars was a first-time exhibitor at DomCon. This couple,
based in San Francisco, designs jewelry that subtly incorporates symbols of bondage such as chains
and locks in precious metals. “We first wanted stuff to wear to the office as an expression of the
lifestyle,” they explained. “We make the rings, weave them by hand. It’s truly a labor of love.”
Vanilla Cuffs & Collars started in 2007 and has been to other fetish happenings, including the
Folsom Street Fair (“one of our best events”). According to company’s site, VCCjewelry.com, their
purpose is to provide “lifestyle jewelry that can be worn from the play space to the work place.”
For more information about DomCon, go to DomConLA.com. Sponsors of the event included the
new social networking app Whiplr (designed to “help kinksters find kinksters”), The Stockroom,
Kink.com, Clips4Sale.com and the AVN Show, which in 2016 will feature Mistress Cyan’s Lair, a
lifestyle playground inside the expo.
Opposite page, guests of honor at DomCon’s opening ceremony. This page, left column, Hudsy Hawn’s Mermaid Diaries: Beneath the
Covers. Above, middle and left, Mistress Cyan with guests at the Mistress Social; bottom right, some of the players on the convention
floor; bottom middle, a contestant in the crossdressing contest. Photos by Chris King/ReelSeduction.com. For more, go to AVN.com.
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