So often we hear “Long distance relationships are too hard and never work”. Whether long distance by choice or by circumstance, workshop participants will be invited to examine their own thoughts, values, and practices and how these support and/or undermine their relationship goals. In this interactive workshop, participants will be offered (and invited to share their own) guiding frameworks as well as pragmatic tools to help foster healthy and fulfilling D/s, Sex, and Play dynamics across the miles.
BIOS
Patty (she/her)
Patty is a butch leatherdyke from Toronto, Canada and has been involved in the Leather Community long enough to go through several incarnations and take a few trips around Kinky Block. She is honoured to hold the titles of International Ms Leather 2014, Ms Leather Toronto 2014, and Ms Northbound Leather 2013. She presents workshops on mummification and spanking and regularly co-facilitates experiential “novice nights” in Toronto that cover a wide range of kink related topics and skills. With 20 years in mental health services, Patty is also passionate about developing the capacity of leather/kink/bdsm & puppy communities to better understand and respond to those in mental health distress. When not otherwise engaged in these things, she plays as hard as she works and is a huge fan of dangerous things wrapped in pretty packages.
Shilo (she/her)
A fierce advocate for visibility and community building, Shilo combines her DIY aesthetic with kinky functionality to design and sell creative flagging solutions, most notably, her Femme Flagging Flowers. When not in service to her sewing machine making customized hanky related items, she is busy photographing the leather, kink and sex-positive communities of the San Francisco Bay Area as she has done for over 20 years. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and is honored to have her images in several print publications. Her work is included in the Kinsey Institute Gallery’s permanent collection and she has a self-published catalog from her solo exhibition entitled, “I masturbate…”. She was the Director of Photography for International Ms Leather Productions, LLC from 2014-2020.
Patty & Shilo are intentionally in a multifaceted, Differently Connected (aka long distance) relationship that spans two countries. As a couple, they teach on both the relational and play/bdsm dimensions of being in Differently Connected D/s relationships.