In theory, homemade sex toys should be the best of all possible sex toys. Given that most store-bought sex toys are designed and manufactured by people who never use them, and don’t really care about your sex life in the first place, how much better would you be at designing exactly what you want? While the answer usually is "not much better" it can still be a fun act of love (self or other) to make your own sex toys.
I would argue that what’s best about homemade sex toys is the creative process involved in developing them. Figuring out what sort of food item or hardware store-find is going to feel good where, is an exercise worth its weight in banana peels and silicone scrub brushes.
Below you’ll find some basic homemade sex toy tips, along with a variety of websites and books dedicated to the art of the homemade sex toy. If you take inspiration from others, you can also read my interview with the ingenious folks at Homemade-Sex-Toys.com .
Penetration Produce
Turn your favorite vegetable into your favorite vegetable with this basic homemade sex toy. Cucumbers are great for this as they can be easily peeled down to the perfect size. Some recommend briefly boiling the vegetable to soften it up.
Variations: You can also experiment with textures and temperatures. Unpeel a soft banana and put it inside a condom, use a microwave to warm it up, or the fridge to cool it down.
Safety: Only use toys like this for vaginal penetration. I would say that the hazards of unsafe anal penetration should outweigh your curiosity about whether or not that carrot could ever actually get stuck up there. And always use a condom over anything you put inside you.
Putting Your Thing into Other Things
Long before the eponymous scene in American Pie, guys have used fruit, fabric, pillows, balloons, and all manner of pastry as their own homemade sex toys. My favorite recent TV reference comes from the uncle on the Showtime TV show "Weeds" who recommended masturbation using empty banana peels to his nephew.
Variations: With homemade masturbation toys, the world is your oyster (although I’d avoid oysters, shells have sharp edges). Pick your favorite soft fruit, and carve away. You can also use a small plastic bag or a condom slipped through a roll of toilet paper and fill them up with any semi-hard or gooey substance for a homemade “masturbator”.
Safety: Avoid highly acidic fruits as it could irritate the urethral opening at the tip of the penis. Also, avoid things that could abrade the skin. A ripe avocado is fine, but a pineapple maybe not so much. If you’re using cardboard tubes for structure, make sure you’ve left extra room for growth. This is not a place you want to get a paper cut!
Hardware Homemade Sex Toys
Take a trip to your local hardware store and play this game; you and your partner each try to find five things that you could make into homemade sex toys. Next, go home and each of you is responsible for taking the contents of the other persons shopping basket and turning them into tools of pleasure.
Variations: You’ll quickly discover that almost everything in a hardware store has the potential for sexual use. You can go hi-tech and use a remote control doorbell to turn on and off a simple battery vibrator, or keep it simple and pick up a few feather dusters for torture tickling.
Safety: Common sense should guide you just as it does with any home reno project. Avoid anything that can cut or scrape the skin, think about allergic reactions you might have, and any sort of restraint toy needs to be easily removable.
Great Homemade Sex Toy Links
Homemade-Sex-Toys.com The first stop for any homemade sex toy enthusiast, this site specializes in homemade sex toy projects that are low pressure, low tech, and lots of fun. Illustrations and photos accompany step-by-step instructions.
Slashdong.com The best place to find and share information about teledildonics and any kind of sex toy/computer mash up you can imagine. Run by self-described “mad scientist” (read: robotics engineer) qDot, Slashdong is also a very welcoming and supportive site for people of any sexual stripe who want to push the boundaries of sex and technology.
Symtoys.com
This site offers five projects, three of which are for creating remote control vibrators.
Condom Dildos from MyVag.net
Check out the brightly colored dildos from one of my favorite women’s sexual health information sites.
Fan Masturbator (via Fleshbot )
Instructions are in Japanese, but the visuals pretty much speak for themselves.
BDSM “Pervertibles” from Amorous Propensities
A list of sites that offer homemade sex toys for BDSM play of varying difficulty, creativity, and quality.
