than the rope itself. I knew then that rope was more than I could imagine, from these beautiful large scale artistic installations by Kinoko, to the extremely intimate and close scenes portrayed by Wykd Dave and Clover. As I recall this I think of what my impressions were before, probably influenced by those magazines and early VHS pornography that I had seen in my youth that rope and bondage was about pain, that the rope was there to provide restrain while something else was happening... and it is, but I learned that isn't all rope can be, it can be artistic, it can be intimate, loving, kind even... for some its meditative and connective, for others its challenging or silly. Through all this I found that rope to be much more diverse than I originally thought. Rope isn't just a tool, its an expression and that expression can show up in so many diverse and beautiful ways, one which I love to continue to explore and develop

I recall the first time I really saw rope bondage, other than occasional poor representations in top shelf magazines that I probably shouldnt have seen in my youth, was in the hey-day of Tumblr around 2016.

I stumbled across some images of a Kinoko series and was instantly gripped by the aesthetics of the rope struck by the contrast of colour between the red rope and the models alabaster skin. In its beauty I quickly forgot my preconceptions that bondage or rope was something painful, torturous and somehow vulgar. I was simply enamoured by the intricacies of the rope, how it enhanced and highlighted the human form. This single experience lead me down a rabbit hole,

I first learned at this point the word shibari and researched fervently, quickly coming across the work of Wykd Dave and Clover Brook (who would later become my tutors and mentors, something I never expected would happen) and their darker aesthetic, more focussed on the experience of the person in rope rather ...

i defintely share the sentiment that rope chose me not the other way round, from the first time I started learning to tie to now some 10 years later, it feels like an inevitability that this would be part of my life

Plenty of time left to make it, keep it up

Almost there, I've got 3 more to go. somehow I missed yesterday 😪 😫

Congrats

John oh wow, that's definitely intense, love it

Nice, I'm on 10 so getting closer, nearly there though

After posting this I noticed ø Zero ø uses almost the exact same mat I have, you can see it in their latest photo on here

its been so long since I've seen a colour pop photo, reminds me of some of my earliest rope photos, so nostalgic for me. Also love the tension in the bottoms body in this tie too, great floor work. (I also thing we have exactly the same floor mat, igusa?)