Now Open – Leatherbeaten, The University Teaching BDSM Leathercraft

Now Open – Leatherbeaten, The University Teaching BDSM Leathercraft

by S. Gorse-Whippington

It’s true. Look out Harvard, Oxford and the rest of you fancy pants universities! Seems there’s a new kid on the higher education circuit these days, and they’re not teaching law, medicine or ancient Greek. The upstart in question is called Leatherbeaten U, and their core curriculum is all about the art and science of BDSM crafting. Applied Implementology, you might say. LBU courses are accessible worldwide from their comfortable campus at www.patreon.com/leather. Extracurricular activities are accommodated via a number of discord channels. It sounds too good to be true, but apparently it isn’t. Too good to be true, that is. Who is the woman behind this online school of creative BDSM work? Well, she’s called herself Hyacinth, and she’s here to answer some hard questions about her e-educational emporium.

Hyacinth

Hyacinth, who are you and why would anyone care about LBU? Who is it for, and what are they going to get out of it?

H: I am a person who spent over 20 years imagining, designing and creating BDSM toys. I ran a business, called Leatherbeaten, which some readers may have heard of! We sold whips, floggers, collars, cuffs, paddles, CBT gear, body and strap on harnesses to some of the best fetish shops in the world. For a long time! We never went offshore, never had any Leatherbeaten gear made overseas. It was all made by my partner, myself, and a couple of long term employees who had the aptitude to learn the trade.

As for why anyone would care, if you want to learn how to make good BDSM gear, and I stress GOOD, because anyone can tie a clothesline to a stick and call it a whip, I can teach you. It’s as simple as that. LBU courses start with the absolute basics; how to choose leather, how to read and cut a hide, and they go all the way up to the construction of gorgeous multitail whips. You’ll learn all kinds of braids for lashes; functional and decorative knotwork; how to put your pieces together so they’ll last a lifetime. Essentially, you’ll have access to the entire wardrobe of Leatherbeaten knowledge. By the end of the course you’ll be able to recreate anything from our catalogue, and have the confidence and know-how to be able to create pieces of your own (that don’t involve coaxial cable or electrical tape). If you already make toys, we can show you how to up your game, and add more designs to your repertoire. Anyone who’d like to get into the business of selling to stores will get A Lot out of this course; not least from having access to someone who has been there, knows the market, and knows how it works.

So essentially you’re giving away your trade secrets?

H. Not giving away, no, but we’re on patreon.com/leather, and it’s a pretty reasonable cost, considering you’re actually getting all our trade secrets! There was nothing like this when I was starting. I had David Morgan’s book “Whipmaking”, (but he was very anti-BDSM) and another hand lettered book “How to Make a Singletail Whip”by a guy called Dennis something, and a copy of Screw The Roses. That was about it. Okay, we also had a surprisingly useful book that was called “Fun With String”. Everything else, we just learned on the fly. But we must have done something right, because we saw a lot of other crafters come and go.

Leatherwork is hard on the body, and I did it for a long time (unfortunately, not always ergonomically); it was a full time job that supported us. Didn’t make us rich, but it fed, clothed and housed us, and it allowed me to live in a town I really like, but where there are very few jobs. The truth is, I can’t do it any more, so I’m moving into teaching. It’s a way to stay housed and fed, while passing on what I’ve learned to a new generation of crafters. We have a lot of really beautiful things in our catalogue; it would be a shame if they just disappeared with us.

You’ve said you sold to some of the best fetish shops in the world. Who are we talking about here? Name drop a bit for us.

H: Ah, okay… one of our earliest customers was Dressing For Pleasure in New Jersey. A very elegant emporium, where you had to be buzzed in. The owner, Constance, became a good friend, and it was her sister who nicknamed one of our pieces “Christmas for nipples”. We started out big in New York! There was another store there called The Noose, which was great, and again, we became friends with the owner, Merrell. Purple Passion, and the NYC Leatherman were also good customers for a long time. Eagle Leather in Melbourne, Australia, Boutique Demonia in Paris, Expectations in London, Rob of Amsterdam – so many more. I was really happy to see the new wave of female owned, sex positive stores breaking through, too, that was wonderful. Still is.

What are you hoping to see for your LBU? What would make you happy?

H: Oh, lots of motivated, interested students. That would be great. It just seems like such a waste, to lose all this knowledge. LBU is happening right now; we have a good group of students who helped us figure out how to do this thing online, and seem to be happy with the content. We’ve made it easy to contact us, and there is always conversation happening between us and the students, and between the students themselves. I want it to feel like a real, applied academic course, where each student is part of the community. We even have a certification track, where you take the courses, pass the exams – which is not going to be a given! – and we award a certificate and badge. It’s fun, but it’s real, too. I’m excited to see where it goes.

What would you tell a prospective student?

H: Check us out. See what you think. Our abbreviated catalogue is still online at www.leatherbeaten.com You can’t buy anything there, but we can always show you how to make it! If you find it interesting, come on over to www.patreon.com/leather We’ll be happy to see you!

I’ve been talking talking with Hyacinth, Owner and Director of Leatherbeaten U.

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