Freestyle rope bondage, both in practice and in play, is one of my favorite things. I find for me personally, it’s been one of the best ways to learn some of the principles behind rope bondage, so I can create my own patterns and ties, and I think it’s one of the best methods of learning and enjoying the chance to be creative as well.
This post directly shows how freestyle rope bondage can evolve and produce some brilliant results.
Background:
One of my previous students, DexterFire, and I were having a chat about getting back into rope bondage.
It’s not uncommon to let rope slide for a time, while you focus on other projects and other important things. Lots of people have gone months and months after getting into bondage without actually doing any rope, because hey; life comes first.
I’ve done it myself, plenty of times; last year in fact, after publishing Rope Bondage The Smart Way, I spent some time focusing more on my day to day career, and when Blue began getting sick more frequently, we spent a lot less time playing with rope and other forms of kinky play, because quite honestly, it wouldn’t have been good for her or our relationship.
However, when we (rope tops) end up getting back into it, we might start off by replicating old ties and patterns that we’ve done quite a bit over time, but then, it’s often the case that we’ll transition into free style rope bondage work; that kind of creative, artistic, let’s-try-this-and-see-if-it-works kind of experimentation and play.
Why? Because it’s FREAKING FUN! You get to create and experiment and come up with all kinds of awesome stuff when you’re playing with freestyle rope bondage, and let your inner mad scientist run loose!
In fact, that’s exactly how I brought about my own process of creating my own ties, which is detailed in Rope Bondage The Smart Way; free style rope bondage applied directly in the situation.
So Dexter’s been getting back into things, and testing stuff out, and wanted to show off some of his results, and I thought, hey; this is a great time to have a discussion on freestyle rope bondage, whilst also showing off the rope work of one of my former students.
What can I say, I’m damn proud of him, and all the others who have contacted me to show off their progress. You guys are awesome.
So, without further ado, let me present a guest post by DexterFire.
Freestyle Rope Bondage: The Ruthless Experiments On A Dress Form In Dexter’s Lab
Well then, this went reeeaaal quick from a quick explanation of each tie to a full on dump of all my thoughts and things I like, things I don’t like, things I want to try, and things I want to change.
So one day after leaving rope for several months (1 and a half years), I wanted to play with some stuff again just to see what I could still do, so I grabbed my lady’s unsuspecting dress form and hit up the local google outlet for the Karada (world’s most loved body harness…also the only one I remember aside from the pentagram chest harness)
Did this, felt proud
Following not having done any rope for years and then tying the karada first go, I thought I’d try some more, so I looked up the pentagram. Success.
Following this I thought “maybe I should try doing ‘just whatever”, I’ve always wanted to but I’ve always been afraid to”, I wanted to try just tying a harness freestyle, with no plan, making it up as I go along, but the classic fear of failure always stopped me.
Then I remembered something a rock climber and new parent once told me; “a child isn’t afraid of not climbing up onto the couch, they just keep trying, and failing, and trying until they climb; do not fear failure, be like a child again”. So I tried starting from something really simple that I thought would give me options and I think it turned out alright. I guess the lesson here is “embrace failure”, it will teach you things at the worst, and at best you’ll realise that not everything is as bad as you think. If we all let fear control us we’d never get laid…
Rambling aside I think it turned out OK, a little unbalanced but it made me want to try more freestyle rope bondage.
Moving on, this one was started the same way as the last tie, not sure what I was trying to do here but I applied the same theory as the last one; the top half wants to move up if anything and I’ve already used all the ‘voids’ of the body to pass rope (between the arms and neck, and between the arms and upper torso). So I figured let’s use the void between the legs as a crotch rope to add to the amount of rope on the body and keep the upper harness from riding up, all in one go. The first crotch rope goes up and secures to the harness with a munter hitch, then over the shoulder, down the back and between the legs again. The second crotch rope passes up on the other side, making the piece more symmetrical.
I don’t really like this one though, it’s long and tall with not much around the middle, and doesn’t show up the breasts. It makes me feel it is very crotch focused; great if your partner likes crotch ropes, and just enough rope up the top to show “hey look at me I’m wearing rope”, not great if your partner wants to feel like more than just a crotch. One thing I do like, is that it’s different to most ties I’ve seen with a crotch rope (although I’ve not looked at many), in that there are 4 lines on the crotch rather than the usual two. This might make it a ‘friendlier’ crotch rope tie than others, someone will actually need to will need to try it live and see.
Final thought is that, to me at least, a harness should hug around a person; in a way it should feel comforting and secure, this to me is less of a harness and more just a crotch rope. I’ll have to try with a longer rope and start splitting my lines on the back and tying them to the front; like everyone’s favourite harness, the Karada.
It was getting late and I wanted to try something that deviated a little from the usual Shibari style (on-the-bight) method of tying. This piece starts with the centre of the rope behind the neck, with the lines weaved in opposing directions around the body.
I also wanted to try something that didn’t use a crotch rope for a scene where a rope bottom might not be in a sexual frame of mind, or if a person new to rope was being tied and wanted to try a harness, a crotch rope could be too confronting for them.
I really like this one. The feedback I got from a couple of friends was that it looked like an evening dress, for someone new to rope, or casually interested, this could be ideal because it makes them feel pretty without being too confronting. On another note, I really like the open back; it gives room for unobstructed physical contact if you’re being sensual, or impact play if you’re being impact-y.
I like less however, the look of a tie that is not done (shibari style) on the bight, where each band is made by a single line of rope. Maybe take two coils of rope and put one bight inside the other, like two links of a chain and start with that join behind the neck…
Now this one I am especially proud of, partly because of how symmetrical it is, and partly because it uses lots of little tricks that Pete Riggs taught me when I was first learning to tie, but mostly because it is so very simple, yet kinda neat. Twists, munter hitches, cows hitch, direction changes, crotch knots, frictions, a simple start; it’s all here.
The tie starts off (I think) just like the first two I did freestyle, but on the second wrap around the upper torso, a twist is placed between the breasts; a hitch is neither needed, nor symmetrical.
A munter hitch is then tied in the centre of the back (possibly should have been a cows hitch to make the tie symmetrical and balanced), and taken straight down into a crotch rope, I tied a crotch knot here for texture. The rope then comes up to the belly button and takes a right turn into a belt around the waist once, locking off with a munter hitch.
At this point I realised I had an unsupported X on the upper torso that’s tendency would be to ride up, if anything. I also had a belt attached to a crotch rope that would pull down, if anything. If I lock the two together then everyone can get along like a house on fire.
So I followed the belt around once until I got to the side, where the lower part of my X meets the belt, I started to tie a munter hitch, and just left out the last step; making a friction. This locks the right sides together. Following the belt round to the left side I do the same here, and now I have a fairly secure tie, not sure if I would call it a harness but I have some kind of tie.
I finished off at the front with a cows hitch, tied above the munter hitch on the line forming the crotch rope. I tucked the running ends away under the belt for the photo, but it looks fine with them dangling though.
Final thought, and lessons learned on everything are:
- Never be afraid to fail; it stops you trying things, which stops you learning.
- When you go to try something, just play. There is no failure when you’re just throwing a ball around with friends or building sand castles; try freestyle rope bondage tying and see what happens.
- Munter hitches are awesome.
- Directions changes are awesome.
- Use the ‘voids’ created by adjacent limbs on the body to pass the rope, change direction and go back through the same void or a different one. (I think Pete might have taught me this but I can’t remember exactly).
- #clichéIncoming – Have fun.
- Dexter (DexterFire)
- (Also, dress forms can be found in craft shops such as Lincraft and others for $80 dollars or less; I’ll be sad when I have to return the one I’m borrowing!)
Last note, this time by Pete; What I really liked about DexterFire’s notes on his freestyle rope bondage is the way he used his experimentation to find out what he liked, and what he didn’t like. I also thoroughly approve of how in the midst of his freestyle rope bondage work, he wasn’t just thinking about what looks good on the mannequin; he was also thinking about what would work for a rope bottom in real life, which is an essential part of the planning/practice process.
As you can see, freestyle rope bondage work can be pretty awesome, in terms of having fun, and in terms of doing mad science and finding out for yourself what you like, what you don’t like, and how the underlying principles of rope bondage work in different ways.
Now go try doing some yourself!
