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Sonny Black Dungeon Furniture  Part-1
Sonny manufactures furniture for private dungeons, Pro Dommes and celebrities
Story by Mark
15 May, 2005
he age of kink has arrived - Ikea is out - and Sonny Black Dungeon Furniture is in! No longer do you no need to hide your handcuffs, chains and ceiling eye-bolts from visiting parents.
Sonny Black is the craftsman behind a wide selection of high-quality furniture and toys for your dungeon or play space. This furniture is designed specifically for bondage, restraint, spanking, confinement, and general BDSM tomfoolery.
Sonny’s manufacturing shop is located in Los Angeles, just South of Hollywood. As a matter of fact, Sonny honed his skills as a carpenter while building sets for the motion picture and television studios.
In 1997 Sonny's kinky carpentry break occurred when a local Dominatrix asked him to repair some homemade gear in her dungeon. Not only did this
Sonny comforts a helpless model [Faith] who's straddling one of his most popular designs - the Black Stallion spanking horse.

request propel him into a new and kinky career, Sonny managed to bypass the proverbial 'casting couch' and become an overnight Hollywood success, selling his furniture directly to celebrities all over the world. His gear is also favored by the studios themselves when they need to outfit a set with the latest in trendy and esoteric furniture. Although Sonny rubs elbows with the rich and famous, he is equally at home supplying the local BDSM community with the latest in kinky furniture. Sonny admits “Adjusting to the fact that I was not a submissive willing to barter my services was the biggest challenge for the local Dominatrix community who wanted my gear. That seemed to be a first ... at least around here!

Besides being a talented artist of wood, metal and leather, Sonny has a wonderful sense of humor. He is able to put his clients at ease with a refreshingly humble comedic approach, as well as kindness and attention to detail ... winning friendships with everyone who enters his studio.
Sonny can take credit for starting a trend which seems to be growing rapidly in major cities like LA and NY - BDSM players are having their entire play rooms outfitted with Sonny Black 'designer' furniture. As a matter of fact, each piece of Sonny's furniture now includes an engraved brand name plate. This growing brand recognition and reputation for quality seems to be serving him well. Maybe Sonny was some kind of marketing guru in a previous lifetime?
In February of 2005 I had the pleasure of meeting Sonny and photographing some of his ultra-cool products. My friends Travis and Leta accompanied me on this Southland adventure; driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 7 hours flat with a rental van full of bondage and camera gear. Naturally we wanted to be prepared for
any kinky opportunity that presented itself, and lucky we did, because we ended up shooting at the famous GwenMedia Studios, the popular Dominion BDSM Club, the mind-blowing dungeon of the ChiSisters, and were treated to a demonstration of a fantastic neoprene bondage sack manufactured by 665 Leather. Our trip was beyond imagination, spending day after day in marathon photo shoots filled with bondage, kink, and general debauchery. The following article will share some of our experiences as well as the myriad of uses we discovered for Sonny's ultra-cool bondage furniture. Are you ready for all of this? Hang on to your seats!
We arrived in Los Angeles Thursday night and by the following morning Sonny was already in motion delivering pieces of furniture to GwenMedia for a photo shoot. The photo directly below shows Sonny's signature piece, the Black Stallion spanking horse. Sonny says that the black-on-black color seems to be the most popular, but as you can see, other colors are available. The Stallion features hardwood construction, metal trim, chrome tacks, heavy duty hardware, firm padding, and top-notch upholstery. And no, the GwenMedia model is NOT included!
Wow, the GwenMedia models sure do make Sonny's furniture look fantastic! The Latex Mistress is the fabulous Rubberella and her sexy submissive is Alsana Sin.
Needless to say, Sonny is very proud of his work, and for good reason. Frankly, I was blown away by his professional craftsmanship. His furniture is technically perfect. Every tack and screw is perfectly aligned and symmetrical, and the upholstery is top quality. I have made a few pieces of bondage furniture myself, and let me tell you, it takes a lot of time to make something that looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye. If you're manufacturing bondage furniture for a living, you need to incorporate quality craftsmanship as well as a fine sense of erotic and sensual aesthetics. Humm ... well ... the photo below-right is NOT a good illustration of my point ...
As you can see in Sonny's marketing photo below, his furniture is available in a wide variety of colors. If you are planning to outfit an entire play space you can order all the furniture match, which would look really great.
Speaking of building bondage furniture, check out the bondage chair I built in early 2001. It took me 6 months to complete, and although it's not as cool as Sonny's stuff, it's pretty darn exciting just the same! The article is titled Maximum Restraint at Mister-S.
The following photos highlight another cool product, Sonny's Bondage Table/Cage. I really like this piece because I'm a fan of metal cages, as well as padded surfaces that can be used for spread-eagle bondage. The trick to making a useful bondage table is to have plenty of attachment points around the perimeter, and this piece seems to have that need covered.
This is an extremely versatile and comfortable design. Both the top surface and cage floor are padded and upholstered. The cage itself is welded steel, polished smooth, with a baked-on powder coated finish. This cage is QUITE sturdy, and will easily keep the most powerful submissive under control. A hinged door on one end with padlock hardware allows easy passage. The door also includes a bigger opening for passing food plates or a dog food bowl.
In the photos below, you can see that the top padded surface of this particular cage includes an optional 9-inch round hole. We will the purpose of this opening to your imagination, but as you can see the models wasted no time in using it for their own amusement. The third model in the sexy black-and-tan latex is the lovely Julie Simone.
Sonny says the cage is shipped flat and is easy to assemble upon delivery. Dimensions are 6 feet long, 32 inches high, 27 inches wide, and will fit through most doorways. Non-marking plastic feet allow the cage to glide over most floor surfaces. The 9" hole in the padded top is optional. Once again, the GwenMedia models are NOT included.   :-(
Well, we were just about to call it a day when my friend Travis' cell phone rang. It was Christopher, a person who had seen my web site and suggested we get together when I was in LA for this photo shoot. I had told him the week before that we were going to be at GwenMedia, and he was calling to see if we wanted to get together for dinner. Perfect timing! We piled into three cars and were off for something to eat.
When we returned from dinner Sonny announced that he was tired and was going to go home. But Christopher said that he had brought some gear with him, including a new neoprene bondage sack manufactured by a local store called 665 Leather. Did Sonny want to see it? "Well, okay, I'll stick around for a few minutes" said Sonny.
Sonny should have left when he had the chance because there's no such thing as a "few minutes" when you're around bondage people!
Now tell me, isn't this the coolest bondage sack you have ever seen? And get this -- the bag is all one piece INCLUDING the hood! Yep! This bag isn't available for purchase on their store's web site, or off the rack in the store, you need to go into the store and be measured when you purchase one. The bags are custom made to your exact size by a knowledgeable neoprene person at the store. In addition, I understand the bags are available in the thicker 1/4 inch neoprene gauge.

If you are unfamiliar with neoprene, it's the thick and stretchable rubber-like material that diving wet suits are made of. Hummm ... I wonder if neoprene is available in gauges THICKER than 1/4 inch?? How about a bag made from, say, 1/2 inch neoprene?? Well okay, how about 1 inch neoprene? The exciting part about a bag made of neoprene is that it stretches, but it's much more durable than the natural black latex we commonly see used in making kinky gear. Once Christopher's bag is zipped closed it actually hugs him because it's custom made to conform to his body shape. Traditional latex becomes less able to stretch as it's gauge increases. Since this neoprene bag is thicker than traditional latex, it can withstand more struggling and thrashing about, and stretch at the same time.

Unfortunately I didn't get photos of Christopher entering the bag. The bag has a heavy industrial zipper along the back that extends all the way from the feet to the top of the head on one shot. Once we had Christopher zipped in and fully enclosed, his partner secured a wide posture collar around his neck. This increased his helplessness, as well as our own visual enjoyment, both of which are equally important! To add to the fun, we ran a few Mister-S leather straps around his body and under Sonny's cage.
In the photo below you can see the outline of the stitching of the internal arm sleeves. For those who are unfamiliar with bondage sacks, they usually come with internal "sleeves" sewn into the sides of the bag that extend from your fingertips all the way up to your arm pits. As you enter the bag you slip your arms down into these sleeves, and when the bag is zipped closed around you the sleeves prevent you from moving your arms away from your sides. In addition, the sleeves are sewn closed on the ends, so your hands and fingers are rendered helpless as well since you can't touch anything outside of the sleeves. Pretty kinky, eh? As a result, the sleeves prevent you from escaping from the bag, but they also have another and equally important function - they prevent you from stimulating yourself because you can't reach your own genitals! Yep!
You can read more about the details of bondage sacks in the 2004 article titled Snug as a Bug in a Bag. Hummm ... I wonder if 665 Leather makes straitjackets and other bondage gear out of neoprene?
In the photo below you can see an optional zipper opening that Christopher's Mistress requested when he ordered the bag. Can you imagine being secured in the bag, then strapped down to Sonny's bondage table, then fondled and abused by your Mistress? Yes, I think there's even enough room for Christopher's Mistress to climb on top and straddle his helpless body ... Poor Christopher!
Stop for a minute and imagine Christopher in the bag, lying on the floor without the posture collar. He could wiggle around - looking something like a fish out of water. He would be free to bend his knees, neck and and torso, but he couldn't use his arms at all, and he couldn't see. That would look pretty funny, wouldn't it? He would be one helpless guy. Well, imagine if his Mistress locked him INSIDE the cage where he's free to wiggle and thrash about, but he couldn't escape - and of course he can't see. Wow, what a way to spend the night! Where do I sign up? Now that I think about it, we should have put Christopher in the cage for a few hours while we had the chance, just to see what would happen. Oh well, next time. Sonny, you should throw in a 665 Leather bondage sack with each one of your cages!
Sonny was quite impressed with Christopher's bondage sack and how great it looked on his bondage table. Sonny is fortunate to have sexy women model his furniture all the time, but it's not very often that he sees his furniture used with serious bondage gear like this.
It was approaching midnight, and Sonny again announced that it was time for him to head home. Just then Travis said "Sonny, want to stick around for a few more minutes and meet "Mistress P?" Sonny rolled his eyes and said "Okay, who is Mistress P?"
"Wait here and I'll introduce you" replied Travis. Again, Sonny should have left when he had the chance.
For those who are unfamiliar with my friend Travis, he has an alternate persona which he calls "Mistress P." Travis likes to transform into Mistress-P when the opportunity is right, and there was no better time than when we in the GwenMedia studio, and had Sonny's furniture and Christopher's neoprene sack.
Sonny's eyes nearly popped out of his head when Mistress P entered the room. I suppose Christopher's reaction would have been the same, but he was sightless and at unaware of anything outside of his neoprene cocoon.
Travis enjoys adding elements of the surreal into his BDSM scenes, and the offshoot of that desire has been the evolution of Mistress P. Mistress P was born out of a D/S scene request that Travis received many years ago. Travis was friends with a couple who enjoyed his bondage-oriented play style, but also had a fetish for TV Dommes, that is to say, a dominant male that would top them in a scene, while dressed as a woman. The rest is history, as Sonny was witnessing firsthand. You can read more about Misters P in Travis' Author Biography, and also within a hilarious Halloween article titled Inescapable Conclusions.
No sooner had Mistress P appeared than our friend Leta joined into the play. The two of them moved to the a different part of the studio where Sonny's Throne Chair and Bird Cage had been setup for another photo shoot. These two pieces of gear had been built by Sonny for GwenMedia years ago, and since that time he has created other versions of both. Check Sonny's web site for details.
The Bird Cage is as heavy and inescapable as it looks - made from solid welded 1/2 inch steel bar stock. The cage splits in half for easy entry, and the two halves are joined and closed securely by three extremely heavy hinged hasps and padlocks around the cage. This is a serious cage, and once it is locked there is no possibility of escape. In addition, if the cage is suspended from overhead, opening the padlocks and hasps would be hazardous to the person within, and you can imagine. The GwenMedia folks had installed an overhead electric hoist which allowed us to raise and lower the cage with the push of a button - just like downtown!
Needless to say, Travis and Leta enjoy their dramatic style of play. In addition, Sonny's gear seems to add yet another layer to the striking and over-the-top persona of Mistress P, making the scene even more bizarre and scary!
As a side note, the Hollywood producers have caught on to the idea of using Sonny's furniture in their productions. Sonny's gear has been used in many television and movie productions, most recently in the CSI New York episode titled "Hush" (May 2, 2004 air date). The story revolves around a group of kinky folks who practice bondage and "forniphilia" (the art of human furniture). For those of us in the know, the term forniphilia was created years ago by the House Of Gord, a bondage web site and publishing business. In any case, the CSI investigators uncover a murder that was made to look like an accident involving bondage play.
Aside from trying to catch a re-run of the CSI-NY episode, you should consider brushing up on your knowledge of forniphilia, and drop the word at the next bondage party you attend. You can read about forniphilia on the Gord web site by clicking HERE. In addition (if that's not enough to blow your mind) we recently did an interview with Gord himself, which you can review by clicking HERE.
By this time it was around 3am, and Sonny announced - in no uncertain terms - that he was heading home to bed. That was ok with us, because we had run out of unique and interesting bondage things to show him anyway. (however, little did Sonny know that the next day would be filled with a slew of additional eye-popping bondage treats!)
The two photos below were taken the day before, when Leta and Travis were just messing around (can you believe Travis is really Mistress P?). There will be follow-up articles in the next few days highlighting other photo shoots we did with Sonny in los Angeles. Visit Sonny's web site and check out the photo gallery to see some of the cool images coming up in Part-2. Stay tuned!

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