Whipspider Rubberworks, a cottage industry of erotic but very usable pieces of interactive art produces one type of orchid that is both ornamental and functions as a vibrator. You can use it with or without a micro bullet to stimulate the clit, vulva, penis or testicles. It doesn't come with a bullet, you supply one. (Cal exotics makes a few good ones sold separately from a double A battery pack, or you can slip a small bullet in). This is an extremely discreet vibe, it can also be used as a wall hanging, a paperweight, or you can rest your rings on its petals. You are only limited by your own imagination here.

This premium, handmade, silicone is soft, bendable, and pliable but that does not mean it lacks texture. The white pearlescent petals have pointed tips, ridges and grooves, they undulate like gossamer wings There is a large, nubby, bulbous, almost phallic projection to the orchid meant for stimulation, there is a soft depression in the center of the flower that is smooth with a tiny clitoral shaped bump in between two of the petals. This is like a texture festival. Yet it is extremely graceful to look at and pleasing to touch.

It is shaped like the standard Hawaiian Orchid, the ones we string together as "aloha" leis. We call the orchid in Hawaiian "Okika". There are many orchid farms in Hawaii, the orchids start out in flasks in a sugar solution before going to a nursery to mature. Unlike Whipspider, it's a mass production. There are, by the way, between 22,000 to 25,000 different species of orchids - about 4 times as many species of orchids than mammals. So at almost six inches in length and about 4 inches across, this is one very large okika.

Whipsider rates this is their 5th most popular product, and it's one of their most ornate. It looks like it was carefully carved out of pastel pearlescent wax. From the side, it looks like a pink headed angel in a white gown lying on a pale, iridescent green leaf. From above, it looks like a sculpture of a Georgia O'Keefe painting. O'Keefe painted solitary flowers that looked sexual, like women's vulvas or men's genitalia. The Orchid is strongly reminiscent of her work in a design sense - simple, harmonious, sensuous and quiet. No loud colors or distractions. A solitary flower becomes not just the focus, but the entire environment, and the viewer then is either a voyeur or open to interpreting and interacting with the piece of art.

While it is a solitary and discreet flower that no one would imagine was a "sex toy", it is erotic in appearance by its very nature. Orchids even got their name from the Greek root "Orknis" meaning testicle. The orchid's appearance and its fragrance were and still are considered aphrodisiacs.

The size of the Orchid can be easily cradled in one hand and stroked over the body, it is ergonomically friendly.

On the flat posterior side of the Orchid is round, open hole for inserting a small egg or compact bullet. Because it is a hole that was placed in flat and not at an angle, this puts limitations on the size and shape of your bullet. It also will cause the noise and vibration level to vary as well. You can buy a small bullet with a cord at your adult toy center that has variable operations like vibrate,vibrate harder, pulsate, and escalate (but not whip, frappe or puree or heaven forbid - liquefy)

The Orchid itself can be used without vibration, especially in a sensory deprivation session (blindfolded, restrained, etc).

Whipspider recommends soap and water or boiling in a saucepan for three minutes. Ten percent bleach soaks are acceptable, and it is also top rack dishwasher safe. Use only water soluble lubricants. Store in a baggy away from other silicone toys. It's also prone to picking up lint.

Minimally packaged - which is a great thing - in a plastic bag with a cardboard card with their website, care instructions and a note that says it was "handmade with love deep in Maine".

The baggy it came in was a tight squeeze to get it back in, so I replaced it with a slightly larger, recycled, sandwich bag.

I had to have the Orchid because Okika is a special flower to Hawaiian natives and residents. Hospital gift shops are full of them, a romantic evening may have orchids strewn all over the room,people exchange orchid leis of various complexities at social functions - happy or sad, postal workers wear them on Friday at the office, people can buy orchids for their gardens, as arrangements, or give the simplest lei - a white and purple string of orchids as a token of "welcome". It means aloha to us.

I extended the bullet's well a bit more deeply into the lavender head of the flower (it was bulbous enough to support my carving away) and it improved the transmission of vibrations.

I also used this Orchid on a blindfolded, bound partner for sensation play. Success!