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An ordinary blacksmith who was struggling to make a living making candleholders and garden gates has saved his business around by creating metal bondage gear.

Colum Collins realised he could earn thousands making kinky BDSM furniture after a friend of a friend introduced him to the new line of work.

The first creation he was asked to make was a metal bondage chair for a couple who loved practising BDSM - or bondage, domination, sadism and masochism.

Now he runs the blossoming business with his wife Hannah, 24 - who often has to test out his saucy metal contraptions.

(Image: Triangle News)

(Image: Triangle News)

Colum, 27, said: "I was quite shocked by it at first but I'm the sort of person who has a really strong stomach, so I was like fair enough.

"We've never been into it ourselves, so it's not like we've got any background knowledge.

"It's such a taboo industry to get into it, it's so hard, it's very cliquey.

"We've had to learn about it and try and get our names out there."

(Image: Triangle News)

(Image: Triangle News)

The father-of-two now has his own line of bondage equipment called Hidden In Plain Site, which features normal-looking household items that have secret kinky attachments.

One product is a hand-forged silk, bondage bed with a leather headboard, which initially looks normal, but hides a full hidden mirrored ceiling and a cabinet that drops down to keep saucy sex toys inside.

Typically this would cost £15,000 and take one month of hand-forging to make.

Colum, who lives near Preston, Lancs, added: "It's hard but I love it. It's something that I just thrive at. I've never been so happy in my job ever."

(Image: Triangle News)

(Image: Triangle News)

As well as producing high-end products, much of Colum's business is centred on making metal cuffs and collars, which are popular with the BDSM community.

The most extreme example is permanent cuffs, which a customer must sign a waiver for before having them put on because once fitted, they cannot be removed before they're cut off.

They are highly dangerous and Colum practised on himself before fitting one on a client, but there is a huge market for them, especially in the U.S.

Depending on size and thickness, they cost between £300 and £600, with many clients travelling from America for a fitting.

(Image: Triangle News)

He said: "At the minute I'm literally the only person in the world offering them because it's so dangerous and crazy, that's why people in America are willing to travel all the way over the pond to come and see me.

"Since this permanent stuff, people are really intrigued saying they've always wanted it, that they're desperate for it and that they didn't know it existed before me - so they're booking in."

Hannah, a former hairstylist, is the backbone of the company, setting up events, doing the paperwork and giving him advice and ideas from a woman's perspective.

But she said telling strangers what she and Colum do for a living often provoked raised eyebrows.

(Image: Triangle News)

(Image: Triangle News)

"I tend to get to know somebody first as a friend before telling them what we do," she said.

"Sometimes you find that people just judge you because of what you're doing as a business - and we've lost friendships because of that.

"It's easier to not tell somebody if you know they're not going to react well."

Colum, on a recent trip round to his mums house, saw his auntie, a nun, and her friend, a matron, and they were gobsmacked when he revealed how he makes ends meet.

"I've never seen anyone try and kick me out of my own mum's house before, put it that way," he said.

(Image: Triangle News) (Image: Triangle News)

A member of Twitter, Instagram and Fetlife, the social network for the BDSM, fetish and kinky community, Colum posts avidly to drum up business for his products.

His latest top-secret experiment will see him turning a man into ironman by creating a full metal bodysuit for him to wear.

Colum still makes fences on the side, but says he hopes to soon do BDSM gear full time.

He said: "It's getting busy now, I'm having to take more time off from the other company to work for myself."

And Colum has huge hope's for the business' future.

(Image: Triangle News)

(Image: Triangle News)

"I want to be the biggest name and the biggest brand out there. I want people to have heard of me all over the world," he said.

"I would love to be going down the street and to be stopped with people going 'Oooh you're the bondage blacksmith.'

"I'd love the idea of people to know my name, my products, my ideas.

"To you it might just be bondage but to me it's artwork. What I do is art. I make pieces of art.

"I get a piece of steel, bend it, shape it, manipulate it into what I want it to be and as far as I'm concerned that's art and that needs sharing with the world."

(Image: Triangle News)

There are thought to be around 600 traditional blacksmiths in the UK and 3,000 farriers, who solely shoe horses.

Huw Dyer, of the British Farriers and Blacksmiths Association, said: "Any firm that's struggling needs to diversify. More power to him for branching out."

Matthew Boultwood, Secretary of the British Artist Blacksmiths Association: "As blacksmiths we are often called to manufacture unique and unusual commissions or solve problems that others struggle to face.

"Although I have no statistics as to how common this type of request is within the industry, there are stories. Generally as an we organisation promote the use of the skills of the blacksmithing craft.

"How these skills are applied is entirely up to the individual blacksmith."