This past week has been both hectic and fun filled. Some of you may know that I got to go to a seminar on rope last week; I did attend and boy oh boy did I have fun! The seminar was presented by a local adult education group that I’ve been involved with for around a year now, and hosted at a dear friends house. Lovely space, tasty nibbly food laid out, and of course, the presentation.

The education group had arranged to have Michael Sol swing through on his way to present at HEAT in Houston. Michael Sol is a shibari artist. He makes rope sit up and sing. He’s one of the founding members of So Cal Shibari, a rope group in Southern California, and has been involved in kink and fetish communities for many happy and fruitful years. He now makes a living making and selling hemp rope and travels around the country presenting on various rope and bondage topics.

It was my very great privilege and honor to meet Mr. Sol, and to learn from him just a bit more about rope. If you have the chance to attend a presentation by him, I urge you to do so. He’s funny, personable and most of all, knowledgeable.

In the presentation I attended, I had a chance to learn a very basic tie, upon which more elaborate rope constructions can be built. This kata secures the arms behind the back and restrains the upper body. Mr. Sol also went over a simply yet elegant leg restraint that I can’t wait to try out!

It was also my great honor that Mr. Sol complimented me on my rope handling skills, telling me that I should definitely practice with the rope more, as I seemed to have a natural talent for it. I nearly fell over from sheer embarrassed pleasure. If you check out my wishlist, you’ll see rope and books on shibari. Feel free to feed my need for more rope! 😉

I did have a chance to get my ropes onto a couple of willing subjects last week as well. One of my victims, er, I mean volunteers was a lovely willing lady whom I hogtied and then tortured. For her, I used a crown cuff on her arms, up to a kata around the upper body. I secured her arms to her feet, and then tickled her while alternating with sensations from a TENS unit. Fun was had by all!

My second volunteer kindly let me practice the tie I learned from Michael Sol; in his words, afterwards, ‘it’s hard to move my arms now…’ as he attempted to raise his arms with a look of happy wonderment on his face. He said it was amazing how being tied in place could be such a workout. I’m looking forward to having the chance to practice my skills with rope in the future.

From learning awesome ties from the Two Knotty Boys to perfecting the frictions from Complete Shibari, all the way to learning to tie a suspension tie and send someone flying, I’m totally enamored of rope! If you’d like to take domination instructions from me and be tied up and humiliated, I’d love the opportunity to practice my skills on YOU!