On Sunday afternoon Sir and i went for a walk with some friends. Along the way we passed by a woman doing some yard work.. and wouldn't you know it she had trimmed her willow tree and had put some branches out for the garbage. Truthfully i haven't a clue what got into me...... honest i don't !!! But i stopped and picked up a handful of branches and brought them home.
Now i have these branches sitting in my secret garden........ every time i go outside to work in the gardens i see them. i swear they are calling to me!!! whispering to me!!! Last evening i picked them up and ran my hands down them.. rubbing all the dead leaves off. i played with them .. waving them around - more like a fairy wand rather than a switch. i kept wondering what one needed to do to make them into willow switches... or are they already willow switches - by virtue of the fact they are cut and willow branches??
i am probably gonna hate myself for asking this......... BUT ....... has anyone ever used a switch?? had a switch used on them??? Can you just use them cut straight from the tree like the ones i have??? or do i need to do something to them to make them switches???
i even googled "willow switches" and got everything BUT what i was looking for......... Sir bought a book entitled The Better Built Bondage Book- a great resource for building your own toys and equipment....... so i went and pulled it out hoping that there would be instructions in it for willow switches....... BUT...... nothing!
i thought maybe i could just tape the bottom bits together and make a handle of sorts for Sir.... i thought maybe i should just toss them out in the garbage (tomorrow is garbage day) and maybe my ass would thank me ......... but somehow or other i didn't...... like i said above...... they keep whispering my name.............
So folks .........anyone got any suggestions what i do now?? (besides throw them out quick before Sir arrives)
littleone....
ReplyDeleteThey better still be there when I get to the Condo or you will be going out for more!!!
Sir
your BDSM owner and boss
http://www.perpetualbeta.com/release/archives/2006/04/
ReplyDeletethis site depicts a common thread in switching stories that it is taken directly from thetree and used hope this helps
OOohhh my morning star! i can feel the sting now. i'm thinking those switches whispered to your Sir too. Good Luck. i can feel the sting now.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
~gina~
Speaking from experience, right off the tree! The willowy aka more limber the better. Well at least my grandmother thought so..although she wasn't using it for fun!!
ReplyDeleteI told the Heretic that you were wondering about this. Stand by for His tretise on "Safe Switching." I've been switched. Once. Worked like the very devil to avoid ever going there again. Personally, I think bringing switches home is like bringing baby rattlesnakes home, but then... you didn't know.
ReplyDeleteswan
This is a excerpt of a piece I wrote once regarding my sensual erotic orientation to adult consensual erotic and/or disciplinary spanking and its role in my life.It deals quite specifically with switching.
ReplyDeleteDisciplinary Spanking
I believe the truest and most effective disciplinary spanking is the old fashioned switching. I am referring here to spanking with a whippy tree or bush branch, a “switch,” not to the power exchange in which practitioners change roles from Top to bottom. Performed as described here, a switching can be an effective from of discipline and/or very intensive sadomasochistic play, and can be safe and loving.
The selection of a switch is important both physically and psychologically. A good switch will likely be about 3/8 inch thick on the handle end and will be very green in the interest of it's being as whippy as possible, most likely about two and a half feet to three feet in length and relatively straight and as free of "buds" as possible. I like having submissive partners, whether in play or serious discipline select their own switches. I send them out on a switch hunting expedition with a mandate that they must return with a certain number of switches that will then be used on their bare bottom. I actually have a special pair of pruning nippers that are used only for the cutting of switches. When those are brought out and handed to the submissive, she is aware that her bottom is in very large trouble. I tell submissives that if they return with any switches that are inappropriate or insufficient that those switches will be immediately used on them
until they are worn out and that they will then be required to go back out and select
two to replace them.
By way of preparation, switches should have all twigs, etc., broken or cut off them. These rods having been produced by nature, and not a factory, will not be perfectly uniform and straight. Buds on switches can add a great deal to the severity of the sensation they inflict. Switches are severe anyway without the enhancement of buds. I usually trim larger buds from a switch, preferring to have the pain inflicted by the switch tip and not bumps further up the switch.
Once selected I usually have the submissive scrub the switches with antibacterial soap to assure their cleanliness (I have rarely broken skin with a switch--but an errant switch stroke is capable of doing that--and thus I want them as clean as possible just in case). Then they are placed in a bathtub of warm water to soak. This not only assures cleanliness, it enhances the switch's pliancy and thus the sting it will inflict. I find the bottom’s apprehension about her impending switching is enhanced by her handling and preparing the switch. I often will have her whisk it in the air a few times to listen to its sound, and of course to imagine what it will feel like when it whisks across her bottom.
I usually will prescribe a time when the switching will occur. For example, there might be a switch hunting expedition at dawn for a switching which will occur at 2:00 that day. The submissive will be required to check the switches soaking in the bathtub frequently and to keep the water in the tub warm, so that the switches retain maximum pliancy and thus ability to sting.
It is not uncommon for bottoms, thus prepared, to be in tears as their switching time approaches. A switching should begin with a preparatory spanking with a hand or relatively softer leather implement. The spanking should begin with very light loving pats and progress through mild and then moderate spanking. The preparatory spanking is complete when the submissive partner’s bottom is bright pink or mildly red and stingy. This not only sensitizes the bottom to maximize the sensation the switching will inflict, but dilates the blood vessels in the buttocks and reduces bruising.
At times, I have then called off a switching at that point, deciding that the bottom, beside herself with anticipation, and expecting to be severely whipped, has suffered enough psychologically. After placing her in position and making noisy switch strokes in the air or against a couch, etc., I will then tell the bottom that if anything like this happens again that the switching will actually be administered but doubly, and prescribe a bed time spanking as a reminder. There are other instances, when I follow through to carry out a switching.
Administering a safe sound switching requires some skill. As with all spanking techniques, where to hit, how to hit, and how often to hit are the major considerations. I underwent professional Dominant training. In training the bottom partner wore thong underwear. The areas that are legitimate to hit are left exposed by thong underwear. Areas that are covered by thong underwear are strictly off limits and can be dangerous to
strike in any form of spanking. Switches are not uniform in length, curvature, etc. So caution must be taken to be able to gauge distance and position of the Dominant partner so that he can be assured of where his strokes will fall. I often in the midst of a switching will play on a nearby pillow for a few strokes to get the feel of that switch before actually whipping it on the bottom. Bottoms usually seem to appreciate my being so deliberate in
measuring the strokes they are about to receive. The greatest danger in switching, besides errant strokes that could strike in areas like lower back or the spine, where serious nerve damage could be inflicted, is "wrapping." During a switching you never want the middle part of the switch to land in the center of the buttocks allowing the tip to “wrap” around the hip, thigh, upper leg, etc. That greatly intensifies the speed of the switch tip and can cause severe and lasting bruising, and can even break the skin--not to mention inflicting even more excruciating pain than appropriately applied switch strokes will already inflict.
Switch strokes are not administered with force but with wrist flicking moderate speed. I usually have each stroke culminate from the switch's having traveled two to three feet in its path to the bottom.
Frequency is important. Really rapid spankings with any form of implement bruise much more. I was trained in “four second rule.” This rule prescribes that in any spanking strokes should never be administered more frequently than one each 4 seconds unless bruising/marking is a goal. With switching I would expand that to at the very minimum every 6 seconds and frequently space blows far more broadly than that. A switch stroke sensation builds over time. The initial contact with the bottom hurts startlingly (the usual comment is, “it took my breath away”). The sensation builds and worsens for several
seconds after the initial blow. Intervals between strokes allow the bottom partner to fully absorb the sensation of each distinct stroke and to minimize the physical damage to the bottom that is inflicted.
I always use restraint of some sort with a switching. It is virtually impossible for a bottom, no matter how experienced, to hold still for a switching. It is important for the bottoms safety that strokes be controlled and the movement of the target can result in unintended damage to a loved one receiving caring discipline, or sadomasochistic play. I use a professionally designed kneeling restraint bench, although ottomans and soft canvas
straps used in camping work very well to support someone, and keep them immobilized during a switching. A switch is not an implement for over the knee position spanking, in my opinion.
I often will follow a switching with an aftermath spanking similar to the warm up spanking administered prior to the switching. Usually I will tell the bottom, upon the completion of her switching, that she may rest and recuperate remaining in restraint as long as she desires, and that she will be taken over my knee for an aftermath spanking when she decides it is time. She may then rest there until she is ready to politely ask me to remove her restraints and take her over my knee and complete her spanking. Aftermath spankings are not particularly severe in and of themselves, but in the
aftermath of a switching, bottoms often perceive them to be serious blisterings.
After all the switching experience is complete I apply ice to the buttocks. A simple, and very effective, approach is to keep couple of plastic bags of frozen peas in the freezer. I then place one bag over each buttock until the bags are thawed, and then apply aloe lotion to the buttocks. Emotional aftercare is of course as important as caring for the skin. Holding, caressing, reassuring, forgiving, etc., should be something you both will
want by the end of a switching. While this sort of spanking is often intended to motivate a behavior change, it typically also results in strong emotional connection between the two partners as well.
Prospective bottoms often ask if they "could handle" the pain of a switching. I'm sure can you see from this discussion, switching is severe corporal punishment. I "can't handle" the pain of a switching, and I have only met two true masochists who can (they actually enjoyed it). I guess the question is, if what we are discussing is true discipline, should that discipline be something you "can handle," or is being forced to submit to something you find intolerable, a more effective deterrent or chastisement. I have worked with bottoms who wanted disciplinary support to help them control behaviors which they were failing to control (e. g., smoking, overeating, excessive drinking, compulsive spending, etc.) After one, or in some cases, two sound switchings, it becomes clear that anytime they violate their behavioral program, just such another switching will be inflicted without fail, or hesitation, they then changed behaviors that all previous attempts to control had failed to change.
All the best:)
Tom
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”
……………..Henry David Thoreau
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ughhh and here i thought (silly blond subbie) that Raheretic's post came directly to my email and by passed this blog.. thinking again (i am NOT supposed to think) that maybe i could deny all knowledge of said post and just let Sir think it had got lost in cyber space.... sighhhhh.. oh well .. i have a feeling my bath tub will be full of willow branches this weekend...
ReplyDeletemorningstar (proud to be owned by Warren)
Switches really are wonderful water softeners. Perhaps you should keep the water they soaked in in the tub for a refreshing bath after your switching:)
ReplyDeleteI wish we were closer by to come over and watch as your dance ensues (nothing makes one dance more prettily than a switching:)
Enjoy and think about building a nice woodshed, the perfect place to house swithcings.
We'll look forward to hearing the deatails of your first exploration of switching.
All the best:)
Tom
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.
Raheretic quite truthfully and for many reasons i too wish You all lived close by and could come for a visit... geee i have so many switches i would even be happy to share one with swan (cheeky grin)...
ReplyDeleteSeriously though .. i want to say i feel quite honoured that You have dropped by and advised Sir and i on the care and feeding of switches :)
morningstar (owned by Warren)
morningstar... you are a wicked vixen! I do not like switches! Had my one and only voluntary go round with the evil things, and live in constant terror of a repeat performance -- said terror fed on a regular basis by Himself of course. So keep your silly, "drug them home myself" switches to yourself please.
ReplyDeleteI will, however, second the wish that you lived closer... or that we did. Whichever.
swan
Raheretic...
ReplyDeleteI wish to thank you for all your advise on a subject that I knew little about. As you know We Doms wish to only hurt and not harm Our property. I think I might have harm My chattel, but now with Your words I do believe I will make you proud, unfortunately You are too far away or I would offer You the first swing on littleone's virgin ass...
Once again, Thank You for your kind words of advise..
Sir,
Owner of morningstar