Websites
We made our first purchase from Lovehoney in December 2014 and have placed 18 orders since, spending a little under £750 in the process. Suffice to say they are our favourite retailer! The product selection is excellent and we cannot fault the customer service. We've only ever had one item become faulty and we were sent a replacement the following day by Special Delivery. First rate in every respect. Our profile name in the Lovehoney "Community" area is also SteamyBedtime.
Shibari Classes is a virtual online dojo, with multimedia courses taught by Bruce Esinem and Nina Russ. We are slowly working our way through the courses, the standard of teaching is excellent, and their knowledge and passion for the subject will be immediately apparent. Even if you are not directly interested in rope bondage in the Japanese style, if you have even the lightest interest in kink, you should watch the free Bondage Safety videos. You'll also see some rope techniques in the videos, and you might just like what you see!
Whilst Lovehoney remains our first choice, Ann Summers have some really nice quality lingerie. Admittedly the price often reflects that, but you can sometimes find some pretty generous discounts. (But, for toys and anything other than premium lingerie, must admit we've always tended to come back to Lovehoney.)
We've always believed there's nothing wrong with a bit of good, healthy smut, but porn has not had the best of reputations over the years. Erika Lust first caught our attention in this TEDx talk: It's Time for Porn to Change. There's been a tremendous movement in the world of ethical and feminist porn, and for couples looking for grown up hardcore erotica, where women are respected as equal partners, you really can't go far wrong with the X-Confessions series.
Kinkly is an excellent resource for advice on all things kinky. There are other sites that specialise and go into topics in more specific depth, but we've found this is a great jumping off point for some good ideas and well informed advice.
Charlotte Mia Rose and Chris Maxwell Rose are sex educators and erotic touch experts, and together they are The Pleasure Mechanics. We haven't seen their video courses, but they run a fantasic free podcast series called Speaking of Sex. They are obviously both extremely knowledgeable and also feature some really interesting guest interviews. Either subscribe via iTunes (or your podcast player of choice) or simply listen via the web browser on your mobile phone.
Esinem is a shibari performer and teacher from the UK with 15+ years experience and has taken tuition from some of the top Japanese kinbaku masters. One of his websites, esinem-rope, is a great source for quality jute and hemp rope, as well as accessories and links to his teaching.
Articles
Hitachi Magic Wand - Not Just For Her
This article published on the Good Vibes Blog discusses the use of mains powered wand style vibrators on men. The scene here is a mistress in her dungeon, but from a practical perspective you can make this as gentle or as dominant as you wish.
Pleasure Mechanics - The Art of Erotic Spanking
The link above is to a 6 part audio podcast (you can listen in your browser) with some fantastic information to get you started. They also ran several related episodes in their Speaking of Sex podcast, which are excellent in their own right.