Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - PART II

So, now that we have our pattern we can get started... First the inner hood, which I'm making in a Japanese plonge leather. It's thin (0.5mm) and soft, with a velvety suede texture on the back side. 

 The weird part is I'm making this layer inside-out. I want the smooth shiny surface on the outside, but I don't want any seams on the inside. So the shiny side is where I'm marking and sewing this hood (the opposite of what I'd usually do). 

 I place this sewn plonge inner hood on the form…

 …and glue down all the seams. 

 Next I trace and cut (using my modified pattern) the foam parts. 

 This is half-inch thick foam...

 The outer hood is made of a lamb-tan cowhide (Lamba from Sav-Mor) which is about 1.2mm thick. Very soft, and with a shiny outer surface. 

 I use spray adhesive to glue the foam layer parts to the inner hood. 

 Here you can see the gap for the rear lacing: 

 Once I've sewn the outer layer, I put it on the form inside out, just to check and see how everything is fitting. 

 Looks really nice. I want it to be nice and snug, but not too tight anywhere. 

 I end up gluing a layer of leather into the neck to stiffen it up a bit, and give it a little more structure. 

 I do another test fit, this time right-side out. 

 Everything looks okay... so it's time to glue the outer layer in place. 

 I don't want the chin to slip out of alignment, so I peel the outer layer (like a banana) and apply spray adhesive. 

I fold it back and sew along the neck seam using the post-bed, locking the foam in place. 

 I next fold and clip the rear opening, which is then topstitched along the edge. 

 The neck area of the inner and outer hoods are glued then pressed together. The bottom edge of the collar is then folded up and sewn. 

Now the two hoods are completely locked together. 

 I put it back on the form and lace the hood up to help pull everything together. 

 I want the leather to take shape and rest overnight. 

 Just a couple more finishing touches, and this one is complete! 

Padded Sensory Deprivation Hood - PART I

This week's project: a padded, 2-layer sensory deprivation hood. This is a male version of the hood I attached to the butterfly jacket (project seen here), and I'll take you through all the steps along the way of making this one. 

We begin with my wood head form, already dressed in a tight fitting leather hood. I'll be using the same pattern for the inner hood, only slightly modified for the different rear opening. The first thing I want to do is create a pattern for the foam layer, and for that we need a wrap. 

The hooded form gets wrapped with pallet wrap. 

 I use this trick to make it easy to release the wrap: Get some painter's tape and a length of string. 

 Put the string on the tape, and use that to make a sort of rip-cord to help remove the wrap when we're done. 

 I align this tape/string along the rear centerline. 

 And make sure to leave enough string at either end to grab onto. 

 Now we can go to town on the duct-tape wrap. 

 Piece by piece, we slowly build up the duct-tape coverage. 

 Until we have everything nicely encapsulated. 

 Draw on the seam lines with a Sharpie. 

 I try to find clean lines along the break of the plane - I try to keep in mind how the leather is going to wrap around this curved form. 

 Once I'm happy with the wrap and seam placement…

 I pull the string ends to release the wrap. 

 Plastic wrap keeps anything from sticking. 

 And now we've got a shape for our foam inner layer. 

 These get trimmed out along the seam line. 

 And I use the shapes to create a paper pattern. 

 The paper pattern is used to mark the shapes on 1/2" foam. 

 And these are cut out. 

 The foam shapes are placed back on the hooded head form, and held with another layer of pallet wrap. 

 I made some modifications to the foam pattern at this point based on the fit of the foam panels. Added a bit along the top edge of the side panels, and at the chin too. 

 This foam layer now gets another wrap job: this time for the pattern that will become the outside of the hood. 

 Same build-up of layers as the first wrap: 

 Little by little, until the shape is completely covered. 

 Once wrapped, seam lines are again drawn on the outer shell. 

 I wanted the lines of the outer layer to match the seams of the inner foam layer. 

 Once happy, the outer layer is cut away along the rear opening seam. 

 We have a nice looking outer hood with the foam panels tucked inside. 

 I actually tried it on at this point, and could tell the shape was pretty much spot on based on the quick test fit. 

 So we end up with our foam pattern, our outer layer pattern:

 And our inner layer pattern: 

Next time: Ready to start building...

Tape wrap progress...

This is the first time I've attempted a wrap in a crouched position. You can see there is definitely a nice shape around the derriere part. I'm hoping to can keep that beautiful contour into the final piece. 

I'm still working out where the seams are going to go when it comes to that shapely rear end. Lots of different options... This is really exploring new territory for me. 

 Because she's going to be bent over, I don't want wrinkles or anything bunching up in the stomach area. This is going to be a one-position restraint. It won't be possible for my model to lay flat inside this piece. 

 I'm happy with the way it's looking so far... More to come. 

20 Questions for PD of InSex - A Follow Up

PD in his younger days...

 What kind of person creates what PD created with InSex? What kind of mind creates so many dark, wonderful things (and actually makes them happen in real life)?

I have to admit, I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. I had such a visceral reaction to the site, and it always attracted and repulsed me in equal measure. This curiosity led me to my 20 questions post of a while back. 

One of the many innovative ties from the early days of InSex. 

Someone wrote to me and said “You know, PD’s on FetLife, why don’t you just write to him?” I did, but never got a reply. After seeing the "Graphic Sexual Horror" documentary, I have a feeling I know why. 

PD's artwork

PD’s an artist. In the truest sense. He pursued his art. The line between his work, the the sex videos and content that he created and his personal life, all blurred together.

At some point there was no line for him. Models were expected to play with PD off camera, and if they weren’t willing, they would not be used for future shoots. According to at least one model interviewed, It was an all-or-nothing proposition. 

The success of InSex gave PD the cash to realize some of his darkest fantasies. To collaborate with others who worked in a range of materials - leather, wood, steel, fiberglass.

There was intense financial incentive for models to complete the shoots if they didn’t complete the sessions, they wouldn’t get paid as much as if they did. And if they quit (safeworded out) the possibility of future work (and income) would go away as well.

I came away from my research with the thought of PD and Insects as being a sort of cautionary tale. What would I do with the ability to realize whatever fantasy I had? What if I had unlimited budget, an ample supply of nubile young models who would do my bidding if I waved enough cash in their faces? What if I had an unlimited budget for making whatever restraint I could imagine in whatever material I wanted, and could use them on real flesh-and-blood models? How far would you go? What kind of dark beautiful world would you create if you had no limits?

KGB, metalworker who realized many of PD's ideas with great craftsmanship. 

I admired the intensity and “honesty” of the images on InSex. This wasn’t faked, pretend tie-up games. It was real, graphic and hardcore. But for every beautifully executed bondage scenario, there seemed to be an almost nausea-inducing descent into pain, fear and surreal horror. That was the truth of insex for me.

The graphic Sexual Horror movie covers a lot of PD's background. An early experience of playing tie up games, which led to his sexual awakening, for one.

Next, exposure to a live bondage performance in Asia during military service left an indelible impression on him. 

Pursued career as an artist and a teacher. But realized he wouldn’t achieve tenure because of the subject matter of his art. Rejected by the system, he determined at that point to “corrupt your children.”

The creation of the classic leather bondage hood is discussed...

He's very visually oriented. Very sensitive to the aesthetics of his creations. Also pays attention to fit and functionality. Working with the seamstress, they based the hood design on a prototype PD had taken apart and re-sewn many times over the past 2 years. They would keep working on it until they got it just right. It shows. 

Cool cameo by a Consew leather stitching machine in the background. 

It’s about control. His use of coded numbers for his models was an attempt to keep them from using insex as a platform to build their own following online. He didn’t want them to benefit from the exposure they got from on his site.

Was the allure of money (I won’t call it “easy money”) and promise of future work enough to encourage decisions that might not have been made otherwise?

Was the power and appeal of the site its dance on the edge of consent, sensation and safety? When all the rules of culture and polite society are thrown off, all limitations eliminated, all resources available, what do you end up creating? How far do you go?

Check out the PD interviews on Serious Images.com and Graphic Sexual Horror movie (available on Amazon). And of course, you can still subscribe to the original content here at InSex Archives. Fascinating stuff...

Leather Thickness Conversion Charts

Have you ever needed to convert leather and found it difficult to get from one measurement type to another? You know, from oz. to fractional inches for example? It happens to me all the time (especially when ordering leather online), so I finally put together a couple of conversion charts for the leather thicknesses I use the most. 

Leather suppliers usually describe their leather in oz. thickness, but the way I measure leather in the workshop is with a pair of digital calipers (which gives me the thickness in mm). These charts allow me to figure out right away that a 2.5 ounce leather will be about 1mm thick. 

There are 2 versions of the chart: one with bands marking the oz. lines, one with bands highlighting the mm. These only cover leather from 1 to 4 mm thick - that's everything from a very lightweight lamb (0.7mm) or pig leather to a very thick bullhide (3.5-4oz.). Of course, many vegetable-tanned leathers can be thicker than 4mm, but I decided to leave that for another chart. Think of these as more for light, medium and heavy-weight garment or chrome-tanned hides that can be sewn with a typical industrial leather sewing machine. 

 PDFs of the mm chart can be downloaded here, the oz chart here. I hope you find them useful!