My good friend Jessi came over last weekend. We decided to go out for a drink and a walk in my hometown. I tied a chest harness on her and also tied a ’strap-in’ on her waist. If you’re not sure what I mean, then just think of an inverted strap on.
Over all this she wore a black dress with a few red stripes. At the bar Read the rest of this entry »
Rope riggers hate the word Fall. But it is the name of the season, not what we make happen to our rope bottoms. There has been very little falling here – really. But the summer has passed by. Evidently I took a huge hiatus over the summer from my blogging. I could say I was really busy, but to say I have been distracted would be closer to the truth. So let me catch you up on the parts that are not blurry. This is Fall Blog not Fail Blog.
In the Spring I accepted an invitation to camp at Burning Man with Suspended Animation. Read the rest of this entry »
Safety is important when doing ropes. Of course it is easy to get distracted. You might have a naked person dangling in front of you. There might be loud music and low light. It might be late at night and you may be short on sleep. You might have had a long day at work and now things are just getting rolling at night. The phrase used in the title above is attributed to some folks who go to Burning Man, but that is another story.
Often rope classes start with the safety lecture. This is when everyone really just wants to tie someone up, not hear an annoying talk about rope safety. Read the rest of this entry »
I have tied up a lot of first timers. This gives me a fascinating view into people’s first reactions to rope. Of course the more experienced people I have tied up also provide insights. The reactions range from seeming indifference to body shuddering arousal. Read the rest of this entry »
The Seattle Erotic Arts Festival was this last weekend. It features exhibits of art and various performances and events. At midnight on Friday and Saturday night, the main hall turned into a dance party with a DJ. At the stroke of midnight the Suspended Animation Crew deployed their high strength aluminum truss system in the middle of the dance floor. The Z shaped configuration with three rigging points was bolted together and lifted as the crown cheered. On the first night many party goers were mystified by the tubular aluminum trusses. When the first round of riggers placed their suspension rings and moved underneath them with their rope and first participants, the crowd grew and watched with anticipation. Read the rest of this entry »
How most people see rope bondage, and how wrong they are
I spent the first 40 years of my life afraid to tell anyone that I liked the idea of tying a woman up. It turned out that my fears were justified. Someone very close to me said, “I don’t even know who you are,” when they learned about my interests. Of course I got over my fear: but I still encounter negative reactions from people on a regular basis. This most often happens with people who have no experience with rope bondage. Fortunately however, there are people who are willing to try something new and want to give ropes a try. Most often I hear from these people that the experience was nothing like they thought it would be – they were pleasantly surprised. Read the rest of this entry »
By TomFoolery
At TomFoolery Tech we are always following the latest technology trends. We would like to provide you with a comprehensive update on the emerging Shibari 2.0 technology. It offers state of the art features with the highest usability. New and experienced users will find our system is rewarding while it continues to offer extremely high levels of uptime and reliability. Read the rest of this entry »
Suspension
I have been rigging for about 8 years. I started in a basic class by the Two Knotty Boys, and retained about half of what they covered. It was mostly simple chest harnesses and wrist ties. At the end they did a suspension demonstration. The demo was prefaced with the admonition that we were not under any circumstances to “try this at home.”
It was impressive, and it was hard to follow what they were doing. After the class I worked to remember and repeat the things they had taught us. But it was fun and rewarding to use what I had learned in my first rope scenes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Photo by Nick Karas, Rigging by TomFoolery
Every once and a while I tie up someone who I would call an escape artist. Usually my rope bottoms are cooperative and do not try to get out of the rope. But it can be fun to build their escape into a scene. More often than not, I’ll be tying someone up and they will decide well into the rigging that they want to escape. This can be fun, but in reality if a tie is done decoratively and not done for and escape artist, it is pretty easy to get out. A little wriggling and out come the hands, and from there it is usually quick work to unravel an entire rope harness. Read the rest of this entry »
Unlike braided rope, twisted rope will unravel if the ends are not ‘whipped.’ Whipping is the term for securing the ends of a rope so it will not fray or start to unravel. There are many different techniques for whipping. Some involve using the strands of the rope itself to create a knot at the end of the rope. The thistle knot or wall knot are examples of this. They usually leave a substantial bulge in the rope that can make it difficult to pull the rope through tight openings. There is also a whole family of ways to whip rope using a smaller diameter rope wrapped around the larger rope. Read the rest of this entry »