Look at that classy packaging! It looks like jewelry!
I fell in love with the idea of KinkCraft as soon as I heard of them. An arts and crafts project that’s also kink gear? Homemade BDSM accessories that you can customize to your specific wants and needs? Sign me up!
I got the Paracord Mini Flogger Kit and the Connected Cuffs Kit. The way that KinkCraft works is you can either buy online courses, which give you step-by-step video instructions, and buy the materials separately from other sources, or you can buy a kit which includes all necessary materials and the online course. Getting a kit seemed much more convenient to me, so I went with that. Unfortunately for US folks like myself, international shipping costs more than the Mini Flogger kit itself, and KinkCraft is UK based. It’s up to you whether you’d rather have a pretty KinkCraft box and materials that you know are right, or save money on shipping.
The online courses are in the form of a series of instructional videos. Personally, I don’t love the video instruction format. I wish that the measurements, especially, were written down. Several times I said “what?!” aloud, had to stop the video, rewind, and rewatch three or four times until I could figure out what was going on. I suspect that this is a personal problem, but if you are like me and find video instructions aggravating and dislike having to drop what you’re doing to pause or search desperately for the instructions you missed, this might not be as fun of a time as you’re hoping. From the language on the site, I can infer that the creators of KinkCraft are the kind of people who learn really well from videos, and if you are too, then this will be great for you. For me, and other people who strongly prefer to read transcripts and find written instructions easier to navigate, it would be really awesome if they put up written versions of their courses in addition to the videos.
Mini Flogger in progress
First up, the Mini Flogger. It was fairly easy to make and took me about an hour. Mine didn’t turn out quite like the one in the demo video: I managed to make my falls all kinds of different lengths, and I made my handle quite a bit longer than it needed to be. The handle snafu is what happens when you try to make something for someone else’s hands without having said hands in front of you for reference. Due to the way it’s made, even with a few minor mistakes, I still have an awesome, useable flogger. It’s just unique!
In use, I quite like the Mini Flogger. I should mention that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of pain, although I do love the sensations of impact play. I like to keep things in the mild to moderate range, and that’s exactly where this flogger lands. Knotting the ends definitely made the flogger both more thuddy (although not very, because it’s so lightweight), and more painful, so that’s something to keep in mind while finishing your flogger. You could always do what I did and hit yourself a few times before deciding how to finish the ends. I love that this flogger leaves little clusters of welts behind on my skin. They’re pretty small and disappear within the hour, but I think they look beautiful while they’re there. My partner and I had a lot of fun playing with varying the sensation. The faster you swing it, the closer together the falls will land, so you can get a very concentrated hit or one that’s more broadly distributed. If pain is your thing, you will probably not be satisfied, but if you want something that’s easy to use and can create a wide variety of sensations, the mini flogger is a good time.
Next, the Connected Cuffs. There are three different styles of cuffs on the KinkCraft website, with varying levels of difficulty to make and sturdiness in use. The Connected Cuffs are the intermediate variety, and I picked them because I liked this style best. You get to pick which kind of buckles you want, so of course I went with the shiny ones. Making the Connected Cuffs was a challenge, it was definitely a lot trickier and took quite a bit more time than the Mini Flogger. There’s an enormous amount of measuring, and re-measuring, and measuring different parts of the cuffs to get them to all line up. That process was extremely finicky, tedious, and frustrating. My favorite part of making these cuffs was doing the braid, which was a pleasantly repetitive series of knots reminiscent of making friendship bracelets or knitting (I love to knit).
Making the braid for the Connected Cuffs
Remember how I said there was a lot of measuring? Well there’s also no way to adjust things if they do get slightly off, and this project is a lot less forgiving than the Mini Flogger. I must have measured this darn thing a dozen times. I checked and double checked and re-checked. And I still ended up with one of the cuffs being ever so slightly too small for me, so that it’s very difficult to buckle that one for fear of pinching the skin. Even if I do manage to get it on, it’s uncomfortably tight and if I move my wrists apart even a little, it pops open. Honestly, I’m really disappointed and frustrated. I was really excited for these cuffs, and now I can’t actually use them for their intended purpose. I’m sure that many people have made the Connected Cuffs with a lot less trouble than I had, but frankly, I have some reservations about recommending this kit.
I’m really glad that I got to try a few KinkCraft products, and I’m still very enamored with their business premise. I would love to try some of their other kits, like their full size paracord flogger and I really want to make another Mini Flogger so I can get it perfect! I highly recommend the Mini Flogger Kit to anyone who wants a fun, relatively easy craft project that turns into a mild impact play toy. For the Connected Cuffs, I’m inclined to only recommend it to people who have a decent amount of crafting experience with paracord already, or people who have a great deal of faith in their ability to measure with high accuracy. You might have an easier time with their beginner’s level version, the Figure 8 Cuffs. If you’re a novice looking for a fun time, the Mini Flogger Kit is the way to go. You can find all of these kits, in addition to other great kits, online courses, and ready made items, at KinkCraft!
Annamarie in the Middle 