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BIOGRAPHY
IS IT IN THE GENES OR IN THE JEANS?
G-Leathers is a combination of letters that says as much about me as can be managed in a short time.  Basically, they started off referring to the harness designs that I began to create a long time ago (back in the late 1970's); but over the years I've adopted the combination as a whole persona, if you will, that covers my "scene" identity.
        Now, I use the conglomeration for a pen name, e-mail address, my logo on drawings and sketches, and damned near everything else I do that's "scene" related in my life.
I suppose I came from the womb with kink embedded in my genes and it just matured into what you see now as JG-Leathers.  From my earliest memories, I've always been fascinated with harnesses and controlling devices.  I can remember a lot of funny and (unaware of my obsession at those moments of my life) seemingly inconsequential little scenes along my way to hell and perdition, or if you prefer, the point at which I currently find myself in life.
At about age 18, I finally began to make some sense of the world, and knew that THIS was the general direction in which I was headed.  I ran across some "scene" oriented magazines and comics, and then shortly after, found that I could actually go out and buy the restraints that were advertised.  Being of a somewhat limited income, I scrimped and saved desperately, then mailed off my money to one of these places, and when the gear finally came, I had to go down to the local Customs Bonded Warehouse and claim it, pay my taxes and duty on the merchandise, and submit myself to the scrutiny of a cod-fish eyed representative of Her Majesty's Officialdom.
I went through the whole process a couple of times, then finally reached the point where I said to myself, "Hell! You can draw a little! You're not bad with tools, and you can design stuff!"  I suppose you could say the light suddenly came on, and so off I went to the local craft store and bought my first leather, rivets, buckles, and a set of hand tools.  From that point on, I've never bought another piece of bondage gear I couldn't make myself.  Really, all I need is a quick glimpse of a particular piece of equipment, and I can come pretty close with a fully-functional and matching design
in very short order, be it in leather, rubber or metal.
On my next birthday, I'll have been around for 66 years, and truly, I suppose you could say that the actual JG-L thing has been in existence for a little over 45 of those years.  I toiled away in obscurity for the first 10 years or so, but then finally, in 1988, decided to hell with it and "came out".  That happened at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City by Constance Enterprises, at the 3rd Dressing For Pleasure Ball and was an exhilirating experience that I still remember fondly.
 
I don't make a big splash about my scene interests with family and vanilla friends, and so only some of them are aware of who and what JG-L is and does for fun.  Most only see small facets of the whole picture and seem satisfied that it exists; but my hobby doesn't come up and smack them in the face, for I don't make a big issue of it.  If they ask, I tell them a little bit.  The more they ask, the deeper they get.
One of my sisters actually accompanied me to the next DFP event the following year, in 1989, and we had a fantastic time of it.
As far as other acquaintances are concerned ... most have some suspicions, and a couple, a more detailed awareness, but again, I don't reveal my hobbies to them without being prompted to do so.  As matters have evolved, the vast majority of my friends are in the scene, and they of course have a much clearer picture of who and what JG-L is and does.  No one but me though has the full picture, and I suppose that's true of all of us.
Most of my designs are original, although I'll be the first to admit that there really is nothing new under the sun. I've just taken some everyday pieces and ideas, then perverted them from their original function by redesigning and/or reassembling them in somewhat, well,
unorthodox configurations and/or uses than was the original intent of the designer.
JG-L isn't a full time affair, but now that I have I retired from my "real world" job, I'll go at it with more dedication because I know that folks out there enjoy my drawings, designs, and the stories I write.  My interests certainly haven't made me wealthy, and if anything, they've made me poorer than I should be, just like any dedicated hobbyist. I've spent a tremendous amount of time, money, and energy on my interests and figure that I probably have about $20,000 invested in hand tools and small equipment alone, to say nothing of the amount of money I've spent on supplies used to create the harnesses and ancillary gear. Then, there's the equipment that makes it all function as I want it to. Wealth from JG-L? More like owning a boat ... i.e., a hole in the water, into which one pours unending amounts of money, blood, sweat, and not a few tears.
As to personal statistics: on the 13th january, 2012 I'll be 66 years of age, am five foot, eleven inches tall, and shrinking. I weigh 165 lbs., and so given that weight and height, have a relatively slim build and with no typical middle aged pot belly or pear-shaped behind.  My rapidly graying hair is below shoulder length and most of the time worn in a pony tail. I dye it gray to cover up my blonde roots. Eyes are blue and I've worn glasses since I was 12 years old.  I've been told that I have a deep voice (comes from my days as a Drill Instructor in the RCAF), and that I could manage to do the BBC news in the proper "sotto" voice.
I've been married to the same wonderfully understanding lady for the last 29 years and we elected not to have kids, having gotten married a little later in life than most.  When she married me, she was fully aware of my warts ("scene" stuff), and over the nearly 30 years of our marriage, has been very accepting of my kinky clay feet.  I'm very fortunate to have such an understanding partner.
She has no interest in the scene and does not play, even though aware of my strong interests and desires, and there's a big pile of those!  I'm sure she does what most wives do when asked; the comment being, "Oh! That's just his hobby. A male thing, I guess."
I'm very thankful for her understanding and acceptance of the JG-Leathers side of my person for without them, I'm not sure JG-L would exist.  She's a wonderful lady to put up with me and all of my interests.
I now live on the West Coast of Canada, south of Vancouver, BC, having originally come from Ottawa, the capital, where I was born and grew up.  My parents were both from the UK; so I come by my kinkiness honestly.  I've lived on the West Coast since 1988 and love the environment, for not only is the scenery phenomenal, but the weather is kind, and the mental energy here is so much more creative than that in Central Canada.
I'm heterosexual, with conditions.  I prefer, by far, playing with willing females for they have such a wonderful sexual energy.  I can't define it (and neither has any other man since Adam been able to do so); but they exude a most extraordinary SOMETHING that makes them so attractive.  It's not just a body/genitalia thing.  I feel it's much deeper than that, going right to the core of the human condition.  Sometimes, I have to consider that maybe male and female truly ARE different species, and we just happen to be lucky enough that we can actually come together and reproduce.  Venus and Mars may be more correct than we can imagine is really the case.
I suppose that "heterosexual with conditions" should be explained.  I enjoy being a transvestite also; but would caution that this predilection does not detract from my basic, hetero-sexual outlook and maleness, despite what the popular press and the red-neck mentality might otherwise indicate. Being around women is something I truly enjoy, and naturally, can watch be entertained by them for hours and hours; clothed or unclothed, bound or unbound.
In my view, and probably that of most scene denizens, I do not get to actually play often enough, for I seem to be constantly busy with writing, drawing, designing, and creating stuff in the workshop, photographing it, traveling, and of course doing all of the regular domestic duties and events that clutter one's life. Truth to tell, at this point I'm lucky if I get to really play more than about once a month.
Being a "switch", there are of course two areas of play for me.  One of these is when I'm in control, and the second when someone is controlling me, but the way things are going at the moment, it seems I'm always the one doing the controlling.  I get the occasional break when I'm travelling; but those times are too far apart and too few.  I can enter either a top or bottom role with ease, but a lot depends on the situation and the person I'm playing with, of course.
As to restrictions on my play ... I do have some rules for myself.  I won't play (using The Creature) with anyone under the age of 25, for I want them to have fully matured both physically and mentally. I want the lady to have experienced ordinary "vanilla" sex before I play with her and also want her to have "played" before with others, so that she's not coming to me with zero experience, and hopefully, will not get blown away by the sensations she will experience when playing with me.  A session in The Creature is a very intense event and all in one shot, covers much of the spectrum of B&D/S&M and fetishism.
 
On one of the few occasions I've played with a male in The Creature (there is a male and a female version, because, after all, I designed it for me), he, despite being a vastly experienced player, a thorough masochist, and in superb physical condition, wanted OUT within five minutes of being placed in the full ensemble.
When I'M the one in The Creature, there aren't any restrictions, other than that I would prefer that the "controller" pays attention to my "safe" words and signals.  On more than a few occasions those have been ignored and we went a lot further along the razor's edge than I'd bargained for, much to my delight ... after the fact.  Those times were some of the scariest and yet most enjoyable, if "enjoyable" can be used in that particular context.
With the donning of The Creature, I aim for a state that I loosely term "selective sensory deprivation and stimulation".  Let me try and explain that a little more clearly.  My harness and the various things that go with it; the helmeted gas mask, bondage mitts, ear plugs, and so on, act to generally muffle or eliminate the outer world for the one in The Creature.  At the same time, the wearer is subjected to the compression and restricting sensations of the harness itself, as well as other limiting feelings generated by the boots, gloves, and bondage mitts.  Add in to this the sensations of the cuffs and the collar, and you begin to appreciate that you're sort of out there in a sea of nothingness.  Then, add the sensation of floating, brought about by the suspension on the springs, holding the "victim" in mid-air, unable to touch the ground, or reach out and grasp anything to support him/herself with.  You're deaf, blind, vulnerable, and helpless.
After about three minutes of this, one tends to get bored, and I generally leave the person in The Creature to contemplate their fate for some time longer.  Normally, if I'm the one in control, it's time to enjoy a cigarette or two while watching my victim squirm and try to get used to the situation, THEN comes the interesting part.  I begin by using only mild applications of the electrical and vacuum devices, then as time progresses, gradually increase the strengths until there is a substantial reaction to the stimulation.
Given the areas of the body to which these input devices's are attached, inserted, or connected; i.e. the genitalia, breasts and nipples, and sometimes the ears and nose, the effects are ... ah ... quite startling to say the VERY least, and so my victim HAS to concentrate on their sexual organs and sexuality, for there are no other areas of true interest that they're really aware of, at that point.
That's precisely what I aim for.
Mix in a little terror, and  ... Voila!  The Creature is doing its job.
Playing in The Creature, takes a LOT of trust ... and imagination.  If you don't have an imagination, then don't even bother to try any regular fetish stuff, and forget completely about trying MY gear.  With the ability to transpose yourself, a session in The Creature will take you down some incredibly vibrant sensory pathways.
As a top, I do not push the situation to what I feel is more than can be handled by the bottom, and a session in TC is more of a mutual journey of exploration.  Certainly, I'll sit and negotiate with the bottom to find out what her limits and safe words are, and perhaps after the second or third time around, we'll try something truly intense and more role oriented; but at first, it's a slow and easy excursion, relatively speaking, from my viewpoint.  Even still, after 2 hours of play, and that's about the maximum for any session; she's going to be totally wrung out and just want a shower and a nap.

As a bottom, I've been told that I play very intensely.  Funny, but it sure doesn't seem that way to me.  However, other experienced participants in the scene who've observed, say I'm totally nuts.  I'm like everyone else though; after 2 hours or so, most of the time I'm pretty much toasted.

 
      Once in a while I'll do an all-nighter, and I enjoy those times a lot, despite all of my complaining in the later stages.  One of the great pleasures I've had over the years is to have a willing lady chained to the bed, and leashed too!  A mind-blower, and a wonderful image to carry around, and wake up beside.  To be able to lay beside her and hear the jingling of her chains and cuffs, while she struggles unconsciously against her bindings, knowing that she's enjoying her captivity and controllability as much as I am, is really a wonderful experience.  I recommend it MOST highly.

 

I do not normally make any horrendous effort to structure a scene, but there are basic steps that have to be gone through to get to the action for any session.  Once we hit a certain point, it's pretty much spontaneous, but there are a couple of exceptions.  One of these is the first session for anyone who wants to play with my creation. In this case, we explore sensations and situations that can be created, I do not go for any truly mind bending excursions. The second exception is when the lady requests a specific scenario to occur, revolving around the use of JG-L equipment,

I have no specific goals when I play, like trying to make the person scream, weep, or collapse.  Basically, until we get to know one another well enough, I want my play partner to enjoy the experience for what it is ... something very intense and one that cannot be found anywhere else in the world (that I'm aware of).  What sort of mental imagery they might conjure up to make it enjoyable, I do not know, but it's important that the person have it.
 
    When I'M the one in TC, I want the time spent getting "there", i.e. the process, or ceremonial to be an intensely stimulating and scary experience.  I'm always looking for a Mistress or Domme who will exercise a determined disregard and some substantial hard-heartedness when we play.  With the right lady, I can get what I need from the session, but surprisingly, they're rare.
 
Some have asked, because of the intimate nature and design of The Creature, if I hate women.  I must make it very clear that nothing could be further from the truth.  I love women and all of the things they are and do.  They're wonderful creatures (and I use the word "creature" in the generic sense) ... so any Feminists can take their objections to the term and proceed directly to Hell.  Don't pass Go.  And they don't get any prizes for their objections.
 
Women are a constant source of wonderment and delight to me and given the choice, I'd come back the next time around as a one, just to enjoy the things they do and experience.  Mind you, I'd want full knowledge of my former life as a male, just to be able to compare.
I get along well with Dommes, although some are a colossal pain in the butt, because they start to believe their own propaganda.  For the most part though, they all recognize that they're human too, and have the intelligence to laugh at themselves for their own mistakes, just like regular folks.  It's my feeling that a great deal of native intelligence and empathy is required to be a really good Domme, and so if I get the impression they don't have those two qualities, I don't even bother to try and make an acquaintance.
B&D/S&M is not the central theme in my life, but is one of the main ones.  It fascinates and absorbs me and I love to study the effects that B&D/S&M has on the people I meet, to say nothing of my own reactions.
Living in Canada is difficult at times, for Canada is not a country generally noted for its tolerance of different sexual mores and life styles.  First of all, let me state that, for the most part, this is a wonderful place to live, if you can handle the nine months of Winter and the remaining three months of really rotten skating.  Not a kind climate, other than where I live.
Life on the West Coast, is pretty laissez-faire, but that doesn't mean we're amoral; just more accepting of other folks kinks and quirks, and so I came here to live.  Where trouble lies, in my view, is in the Government (surprise, surprise!), and it's unending susceptibility to small, vocal pressure groups; some of which have made in-roads to our personal freedoms and civil liberties, supposedly to protect the 'great unwashed (read: you and me) from themselves, and the occasional real monster.  Too bad they can't take care of their own morals first.
The paternalistic Canadian Government and self-declared elite of the country have decided that the general run of people (other than themselves - again, surprise, surprise!) are really not adult enough to make their own decisions, as far as matters sexual are concerned; except of course in the province of Quebec where a different and much more relaxed attitude is allowed to prevail and there's something bloody wrong with THAT damned picture!
How do I cope?  Like most "scene" denizens, I mind my own business and keep my head down.  Chicken, eh?  I don't broadcast my kinks and what I create,even though JG-L equipment is perfectly legal.  No doubt some would look upon it as being just terrible.  My comment to them?  Tough.  Mind your own damned affairs, go away and we'll get along just fine.  Basically, the things I create are adult costumes and whatever venue they're used in is no one's business but mine and the wearer's.

      The silly thing about the whole exercise, in Canada, is that a male can be seen wearing all the gear, including the restraints, and display it publicly; but don't DARE draw a picture, take a photograph, or make a video of the stuff being worn by a female! That kind of imagery is considered to be horribly pornographic!, What a load  of hypocritical crap that is! Of course, I govern myself accordingly, in an attempt to keep the bastards out of my
face and life  Who needs the hassles from those kind of blindered zealots?.
I travel a fair amount: probably 12 to 15 trips a year within the continent of North America and for the most part, haven't had any problems crossing into the USA or coming back into Canada.  Occasionally, when travelling by car, I've been hauled over for a "secondary" inspection and have had a couple of funny experiences in that regard, especially when the Customs Nosey Parkers have opened the cases and seen the stuff I carry around with me.  However, as stated, there's nothing illegal about my gear.  It just looks weird, and when disassembled and packed, if one were not aware of the intent of the entire design, you'd never figure out all the shapes and devices.
Travelling by air is as easy as that too.  I've only had a couple of times that they wanted to see what was in the bags, and it's never been a problem.  As with the land crossings, I tell them that the gear is for display and to be worn by me at a costume party (true), and they're welcome to inspect the whole kit.  Generally, after a couple of minutes of rooting around, officialdom tends to get fed up with all the black leather and metal stuff and move me along so that they can harass the next person in line.  THAT kind of power tripping and harassment by those turkeys DOES frost my ass, truth to tell.
I'm not reclusive, but I don't broadcast or advertise; preferring to work by referral and personal contact.  I want to be assured that my stuff will not be used improperly, i.e. in non-consensual situations.  I don't make a lot of equipment, except for myself becasue it just takes too damned large an investment of time end energy to create a full harness, and so I much prefer writing and creating imagery that way.
The equipment I make is expensive to design, create, and manufacture, for the number of man hours that go into building it from scratch is staggering.  The amount of money spent on raw materials is relatively small; but the value of the time spent in its actual creation far outstrips those costs.  I can always make more money ... I cannot make more time.
There are a small number of male and female equine harnesses scattered around North America and some partial ones in Europe; but I have the only, truly complete, "Creature".  I don't know what others have created, but perhaps some rich Middle Eastern oil potentate, or some South American drug lord has had something even more elaborate made.  Some have asked where and how my designs and/or
stories originate.  Good question, that!  I can't really give a definitive answer, but I'll speculate and say that perhaps they come from a designer or female "victim" in some parallel universe.  Perhaps, somewhere, there's a being who needs to communicate all of this data and designs and I'm the conduit.
      My creative process is an interesting progression, at least for me.  I see things in stores and magazines, ordinary and kinky type, then start to daydream about them, their combinations and permutations.  Next, I generally sketch out the ideas, then refine the drawings and along the way, I may write a story or a vignette about how the piece(s) might be employed.  If the creative desire is still strong, I'll eventually buy the materials and at some later point, when the ideas have more or less gelled, go down to my shop, lay out the design and shortly thereafter make up the first version I'd daydreamed so vividly about.
Command and Control is the total intent in the creation of my equipment.  Why else make the gear or do bondage?  It is my intent to ensure that once someone is ensconced in The Creature, properly secured, there is no possible way they can escape from it and the sensations it will generate.  One of the most important things in the design philosophy, is that the person so confined has a deep and positive knowledge that there is no release, without assistance.
My equipment is designed and functions in such a manner that the male or female wearer is intimately controlled, and suffers some rather interesting consequences,if they go against the wishes of the "top"; or, they can be "stimulated" just for the sheer
pleasure of the "scene".  Using the equipment that I do, there's no question of obedience.
A harness, of any kind, is designed to control and limit and I know that mine does this in a very visual, and very effective manner.  I could delve into the whole psycho babble thing and say that I do this because I cannot control the real world around me, etc., etc.; but that's just so much BS.  For most of my working life, I've been in Command and Control job functions; i.e.. Air Traffic Controller, Dispatcher, Load Planner, Quality Control Inspector, Drill Instructor, Officer in the Reserve Air Force, etc., etc.  In many ways this aspect has carried over into my "scene" activities, and I've often been accused of "topping from the bottom".
I'm not much into "impact sports"; particularly if that's all a scene is built around.  Certainly, I'll mess with a whip or a flogger if my playmate asks me to while in the harness; but it's not my forte.  Too, I recognize that I really don't have enough experience and practice dealing with those implements, and so I tend to go a little on the light side whenever I play with them.
At first I didn't consider myself to be an artist, or that what I did was "art", but I've come to realize that there truly is something different and thought provoking in what I create.  If one takes the word "artist" in a broad sense, then I believe I fit the criteria.  I write, I sketch, I create
designs; and then too, I'm an artisan; in that I bring those designs to fruition, and so, I suppose you could say that I am, in fact, an "artist".   As such, I want a record of what I do, something that's concrete and not just a rapidly fading and perhaps distorted memory.
Occasionally I go back and look at what I've created already, then start a whole new thing just because the imagery's inspired a different line of thought.  I'm fairly well known within the equine part of the Fetish Spectrum, even though I don't advertise, and am certainly not a commercial entity, despite having had a couple of novels published and illustrated, with more to come, very soon, I hope.
I participated quite deeply in couple of videos made in California some 20 years ago, being the bad ass, male lead in a black hat, and also supplying all of the harness gear.  The videos were called Pony Girl One, Pony Girl Two, and Pony Girls At the Ranch, and have since gone on to become sort of cult classics in the Pony Girl, Horse Woman scene.  All of the pictures I took of my first model are now out on the web as public domain downloads, and that has added a little more to the infamy that seems to have mushroomed.
In the real world, no one really knows who or what JG-L is, and no one cares.  Probably just as well too.  One thing that REALLY irritates me though, is that people will steal my pictures, drawings, ideas, or stories and not give any sort of attribution or thanks to me as the creator.  Damn it!  They should realize that unless artists get some sort of appreciation and acknowledgement for their efforts, to say nothing of money, the source will dry up and they'll have nothing
I now have this web site and have discovered that its creation and maintenance can be very time intensive; to say nothing of answering the e-mail generated and I'm having a hard enough time keeping up now.  Obviously, in a fit of idiocy, I've decided to show JG-L
to the world at large and now have a Braggart's Gallery of my imagery, friends, artwork, and some stories.   It's actually a lot of fun learning all this new stuff and it most certainly keeps the brain cells moving about quite briskly!
I've been writing stories for a long time and as usually is the case most of the stuff was utter dreck, although I still have it all in the original galley, hand-written forms.  Eventually I thought I had a viable story, and submitted it to various "scene" publishers.  Of course it wasn't good enough at all and I came to recognize that what I had thought was a good tale, was still garbage.  I collected the usual number of well-deserved rejection slips along the way, some polite and others not so.
Finally, I managed to come up with a story that wasn't half bad as far as the plot and the telling of it was concerned, and HG-Publications took it, had it illustrated, and sold it.  That story consisted of two parts (with a third part to follow, at some point), called "The Contract - One and The Contract - Two".  They're fiction, obviously, but based on a smidgen of fact.
I want my equipment as well as stories to scare and intrigue both the viewer and reader as well as the
potential wearer, for those emotions add to any "scene" that may eventually be enacted.  Take a look at a Gas Chamber Chair, or a modern day airliner cockpit, or the cab of an old steam locomotive, and tell me that those visions are not intense.
My creations happen to hit a much more intimate and personal level and one look at what possibly may be locked onto, into, or around your body, and you KNOW that something quite different and intense will definitely happen ... soon.
As the inventor, I fully understand the sorts of sensations and/or feelings the wearer experiences, because I invented this stuff for ME to play in. .  Of course, being the sensory vulture I am, I'm intimately familiar with what The Creature and its ancillary equipment will do and feel like, at least from the male experience point of view.
As far as what a female experiences, when all the of equipment is turned on and played with; I've had the sensations explained to me in great detail by a lot of my lady playmates, and so have some small appreciation of what it must feel like to be a woman with the stuff locked on and in, and be unable to escape or even slightly evade the sensations.  I truly envy the female sex for the capacity to play and enjoy a session in my inventions, and their general life experience too, but The Creature adds a whole new dimension to it.
All of the above being said, please allow me to confirm that I am indeed just a regular guy who happens to enjoy a slightly off-centre life style.  It's fun, it's informative, and I get to meet some incredibly interesting people, so what more can one ask for?
I fully intend to continue down my path until the Grim Reaper carries me off.

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