In The Woods 2008 Presenters:
Jay Wiseman~
Jay Wiseman has over 30 years of experience in BDSM and was one of the early pioneers and builders of the BDSM community in the San Francisco area. He continues to be heavily involved, both in his local area and nationally, as an SM author, educator, mentor, workshop leader, expert witness, and activist. Noted for being both an exceptionally knowledgeable and a highly entertaining presenter, he is highly in demand and has presented on various aspects of relationships and sexuality in more than 45 cities in the United States and Canada. In 2007, Black Rose voted him National Educator of the Year.
Jay is the author of the frequently recommended book "SM 101: A Realistic Introduction" and the founder of the publishing company that later became Greenery Press. His book, "Jay Wiseman's Erotic Bondage Handbook" is widely hailed as the book that sets the standard of fundamental knowledge for this practice. His instructional videos on rope bondage are excellent resources for both beginners and experienced bondage practitioners. His most recent book, "The Toybag Guide to Dungeon Emergencies and Supplies" provides crucial information to both players and dungeon monitors. He is currently working on a number of books and videos.
Jay holds a first-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, is a member of Mensa, and lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the Sixties. A former ambulance crewman with years of experience, and recipient of the highest Red Cross commendation for lifesaving action, Jay now teaches classes in basic and advanced emergency medical care for BDSM clubs and other groups. He is also a part-time law school professor. His areas of special legal interest include providing legal support for alternative communities, search and seizure law, and conflict resolution.
His website is, predictably, www.jaywiseman.com.
Lee Harrington~
Lee Harrington is an eclectic artist, spiritual and erotic educator, gender radical and published author on human sexuality and spiritual experience- including "Shibari You Can Use: Japanese Rope Bondage and Erotic Macramé" and the "Toybag Guide to Age Play". Well known for his fun and informative approach to education, he approaches sexuality as yet another art to master, or simply an art to enjoy to its fullest! He has been an active part of the international kink and sex positive communities for over 13 years, and his stories make people laugh while showing you that eroticism can be as serious, sexy, or silly as you make it. Lee's writings and photography have appeared in numerous anthologies including "Dark Moon Rising: Pagan BDSM and the Ordeal Path" (also under his previous pen name, Bridgett Harrington), and his image has been seen everywhere from PlayBoy TV to the pages of Skin Two Magazine. To learn more about Lee visit www.passionandsoul.com
Jonn Ireland~
Jonn Ireland (www.sensualwhipping.com) has been involved in the BDSM Community for many years and a Whip Instructor for several years. To help others learn to use Whips, he has been giving personal instruction and conducted Whip Workshops in Canada and the USA for about seven years. The power exchange, control and precision required to use a Whip lured him into exploring in depth, the unique techniques of how to use a Whip in BDSM scenes. Jonn discovered that with a good Whip, proper instruction and regular practice, most people are able to use a Whip in a Scene in a very short time.
To develop a wide range of techniques and sharp accuracy however, requires more practice and personal instruction. In his Workshops, Jonn uses a 3’ Black and Red Signal Whip for warm-ups, light strikes and breast play, a Matched Pair of Joe Wheeler 5’ Signal Whips for double-handed Florentine and cross-cracking work, and a Red and Black 4’ (7’ overall) Bullwhip for wraps and harder strikes. Jonn is passionate about the "Art of Whipping" and enjoys teaching responsible, safe Whip handling techniques so that others can experience the rich complexity of “dancing on the edge” with a Whip.
Links for Jonn Ireland
BossBondage has been involved in the BDSM community for close to 10 years. For nearly 5 years he has helped run Diablo's Fetish Night, a monthly BDSM focused fetish affair. He routinely teaches a workshop on a variety of BDSM Topics, at each Fetish night.
For nearly 2 Years he has operated The Asylum(www.asylumdungeon.com), Oregon's only Professional dungeon. Born from his love of hemp bondage rope, he started BossBondage.com (www.bossbondage.com) in 2002, where he produces westernized shibari rope in a multitude of sizes and colors. Boss is also a licensed Body Piercer and operates PlayPiercingKits.com(www.playpiercingkits.com), which sells play piercing kits and kinky medical accessories.
Boss does not get too tied down to titles and just considers himself to be a bondage artist. In the last several years, through intensive performance of bondage, in particular suspensions, as well as offering private instruction to a wide variety of people, He has developed a unique style. He is self taught and combines western and Asian bondage styles. He has taught at such events as Body Bound(www.ropelover.com/bodybound), Shibaricon(www.shibaricon.com),and will be teaching at this years Kinky Kollege(www.kinkykollege.com). This is his second year as an instructor at In The Woods, and second year judging the bondage contest. Boss was the winner of the 2006 In The Woods Bondage contest.
He is pleased to be teaching again this year and can be found all week on vendors row vending for his websites BossBondage.com and PlayPiercingKits.com. Stop by his booth and say hello.
Maria Shadoes~
Maria is a returning ITW presenter. She presented in 2003 & 2004 with Lew Rubens and was slated for 2005 but last minute personal issues prevented her attendance and she hasn’t been back since, although she has kept busy doing and teaching bondage around the world. Maria started very early in her erotic passions, naturally gravitating to BDSM. Initially Maria dabbled in the usual masochist/sadist arena but her genuine calling was rope. She had a delightful time in rope with Lew Rubens for 5 years and she has been quoted as saying “…for me good bondage is very wrapped up in my sexuality and rope is a huge turn-on.”
Maria was encouraged by Lew to learn the rope skills of a Top. She is a very independent woman and didn’t want to learn to do it in anyone else’s style so she developed her own unique style of bondage that she calls ‘Endless Bondage’; no rope ends, just endless loops of rope with distinctive permanent knots and a bit of a different style of using it. She has even designed clothing out of the rope by incorporating weaving techniques and doubtless, if the weather is warm, we’ll see her modeling some of her ‘made on site’ outfits.
Maria has been a presenter around the world at such prestigious events as Kink in the Caribbean (5yrs running), Camp Crucible, BoundCon in Munich, Absolute-Kink in Amsterdam and many more events. Maria’s presence at ITW 2008 will be a fascinating, imaginative opportunity to think beyond the rope end. More about Maria and samples of her bondage can be found at http://www.boundtoloveit.com.
Robyn Friedman~
Robyn Friedman is a Criminal Defense Attorney currently residing in Seattle, Washington. In addition to her criminal defense work, she also works with local SM and sex positive organizations, providing assistance in decision-making and documentation for events, as well as working with individuals in the alternative sexual communities in various legal areas, including family law and estate planning. She also holds low cost legal clinics for the local community where she will provide legal documents, such as Durable Powers or Attorney, health Care Directives, Partnership Agreements, Wills, and consultations.
She has been on staff with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom since 2000, and from 2002 through 2005, she held the position as the Director of the Legal Education Outreach Program. She has presented throughout the nation, and Canada, at several SM oriented conferences, such as LIL, Folsom Fringe, Kinkfest, Tribal Fire, Family Ties, Thunder in the Mountains, and Sex Positive conferences such as The North American Conference on Bisexuality, The Evergreen Conference on Gender and Sexuality, Polycamp, Building Bridges and the National Swing Leadership Conference.
In addition to her activism and legal work, she is also a sadomasochist, who loves to do incredibly mean things to incredibly nice people. Her favorite activity is poking sharp things into soft flesh and finger painting with the results. For her needlework is a creative outlet, and she is blessed with many delightful and beautiful canvases to work on!
Kelly Jecs~
I have been active in the "Lifesyle" for about five years.I have a collared submissive I keep 24/7 and multiple play partners.I have been hosting a weekly play party in My dungeon for four years and have provided many hands on, as well as tutorial,demo's/classes. I play hard and I play often,but I always fall back on safety.This is "THe Life".
Betty Desire~
Betty is a 51 year old Drag Queen/Entertainer/Publisher with a passion for community activism. Betty Desire has been entertaining any who would listen at Rumor's Cabaret in Bellingham for ten years. She publishes the areas only Alternative Lifestyle Tabloid "The Betty Pages" and loves being a community catalyst. Betty has performed "The Betty Desire Dinner Show" at ITW every year, since the first ITW in 2001.