BDSM on a shoestring budget

21st Century Kinkycrafts is edited by Janet Hardy with ideas by Jaymes Easton. I've read several books authored by Janet Hardy and James Easton, former Dossie Easton, as I recall. Their writing is easy to understand and straightforward.

21st Century Kinkycrafts is a book about how to make a wide variety of kinky items at home, for far less than they would cost to purchase. The book is organized in two ways: an alphabetical table of contents and indexed by classification. The classifications are fundamentals, bondage furniture, erotic pain toys, flagellation toys, restraints, sexual and sensual toys, and unclassifiables.

Janet's writing style in some of her other books, such as The Bottoming Book, is more engaging and personal. In fairness, this book is intended to be purely instructional. She certainly could have livened it up a bit by including personal anecdotes at the close of each chapter or craft.

This book is geared towards people who don't have the means to purchase high quality BDSM items. One needs to have an understanding of the function of the crafts she presents, as the pictures are not always adequate to grasp what the final outcome should look like.

The book is paperback and the binding is firm and made to withstand long-term use. I liked that the layout of the book was both alphabetical and by classification. This greatly improved the ease at which I could locate topics of interest to me.

At the start of each kinkycraft, there's a list of materials needed, the tools you'll need, the time it takes to make them, and what it will cost. This streamlined my desire to become ensconced in the details of the project. I knew if the cost or the time involved were too lengthy, I wouldn't spend the time on them.

21st Century Kinkycrafts is a worthwhile book to read. I found that about half of the suggestions would make interesting projects. However, there were some really low class suggestions that I would have excluded it I were the editor of the book. One example is to use the plastic rings on a milk jug to create a cock torture device. Another is using bubble wrap to make a dildo.

When I've created my own kinkycrafts at home, I make them so that I'm proud to bring them to play parties and use them. As I was reading through this book, I asked myself how many of these crafts I'd be ok bringing to a play party. There were quite a few that I'd be shaking my head no to; about thirty percent of them, such as the neoprene athletic waist belt as bondage hood.

I also think that the illustrations left something to be desired. For a few of the crafts, there is one picture and that picture isn't an adequate representation of what one is creating, such as with Big Jim's meat tenderizer. Also, I found that the layperson would not have an easy time creating some of the crafts, such as the adjustable ankle spreader or the motion detector vibrator.

Some of the crafts in this book that I found ingenious are the lucite paddle, blackjack cane, inner tube whip, garter clips, and the bottom stretcher. These are definitely crafts I will be making. I've successfully made the bootlace mini-whip, the tit wrangler, the cane, and the snapper, and they work marvelously!