What is Shibari?

In Japanese “Shibari” means to tie.

In the world outside of Japan it describes the art of Japanese style rope bondage.

This site is dedicated to my pursuit of that art.

Free Shibari prints!

Free shibari prints

Kayleigh Swenson tattooed by Sergio Sanches Art

https://www.instagram.com/sergiosanchezart/
https://www.instagram.com/kayleigh_swenson/

We’re offering a free print of our original art work to anyone who has our bondage work tattooed on them.

See our post here & the application form here!

It’s really amazing  to see our work tattooed on someone. I can’t say what a compliment it is for us to see our shibari on someone’s body!

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Who are we?

We’re WykD Dave & Clover a couple from the UK (though Clover is Irish) who love and live shibari bondage.

We teach our style of bondage all over the world combining education for tops and bottoms since 2010.

Dave is an internationally recognised rigger and his work has appeared in motion pictures, music videos, fashion magazines & Paris’ Louvre gallery amongst many others.

Clover is the author of the rope bottom guide and a great photographer of shibari.

Studio Kokoro

Kokoro (Japanese: 心) and means ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ’emotion’, ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, we feel is a good sentiment for our studio. Studio Kokoro is something of a dream for us but one we’re now making reality.

Like everything in our life this is a partnership and a shared dream to which we bring complimentary skills and ambitions.

We want very much to create a unique space with its own personality capable of hosting a variety of events and activities. We hope it will develop along with its use and the people who become part of its life.

Visit Studio Kokoro

What is this shibari stuff all about?

This site is about shibari bondage. It’s not the bondage of the tabloid press and sensationalist headlines that forget the human beings beneath the surface of the paper selling stories.

This is about the bondage called shibari or kinbaku that comes from the humanity of those that participate in this fascinating practice. This is shibari done with love and care. This is kinbaku that is done because it is beautiful, because it is an expression of love.

This is about the kind of shibari that I find beautiful and heartbreaking, the kind of kinbaku that I find most emotional

This is a world of intense emotion and sensation.

An expression I find particularly useful in describing this is ‘beautiful suffering’. It is where sensation is taken to the limits of what is possible, where emotion is experienced to its utmost. It is where we are alive as completely as we can be while being as together as we can.

It is also about the shibari art I love.

In the living experience of these moments in rope it is our utopia.

Dave Rickman
(WykD Dave)

I don’t do rope, I do people (but I do them with rope).

Shibari bondage, suspension in takatekote & futomomo. Model Xian.

Shibari travel & Bondage performance blogs.

More shibari travels blogs coming up soon, the latest from out trip to LA is up now and I promise I’m working to bring you up to date with the remaining blogs I’m behind with.

Also we have some epic travels coming up. Looking forward to sharing those. I’m really going to have to start keeping a diary.

Bondage Expo Dallas 2018

BED (Bondage Expo Dallas) is a special event for us. We’ve been involved with BED right from the very beginning and have been a part of it every year since. We count the BED organisers [...]

A week of bondage at BeachBind 2018

We were very happy to be invited back to BeachBind and we were very much looking forward to it. This is really a unique event taking place over a full week at a beautiful inclusive resort in Jamaica (Hedonism II). The atmosphere and the setting are incredible and the pace of the event is just perfect.

WykD TK 4 Week Course

A unique course on the WykD method TK over 4 weeks with 2 hours of tuition every week. In this unique course you will receive in depth information and tuition on every aspect of the [...]

FKA Twigs ~ Pendulum

This video won the MOBO award for best video 2015!

Recently I had the great pleasure of working on this video for FKA Twigs song Pendulum. This was a great experience working with some wonderful creative people. Beautiful song and a beautiful video directed by Twigs herself.

A great feature of this video is the incredible hair extensions that were made a part of the bondage itself. For that part it was a great pleasure to work with Japanese stylist Soichi Inagaki a very creative artist and an absolutely lovely person to work with.

Again I just feel lucky to have had the chance to work with so many really amazing people.

Recent posts and opinions about the world of shibari bondage

Bondage Expo Dallas 2018

BED (Bondage Expo Dallas) is a special event for us. We’ve been involved with BED right from the very beginning and have been a part of it every year since. We count the BED organisers [...]

Tokyo and Kyoto 2018

It was wonderful to be back in Tokyo again. We’ve been to Japan a few times and really enjoy it. We were excited but relaxed as we made our way from Narita airport to our accommodation. We like using AirBnB rather than hotels so we can have a private space where we can leave our stuff and relax. Also we buy our own food and eat out a lot more allowing us to experience more of Japan.

  • Kayleigh Swenson tattooed by Sergio Sanches Art

Tattooed Art

We have had some amazing compliments in our time but there is something amazing beyond normal description about learning someone has had your work tattooed on their bodies. We have been told by some that a particular image represents what they love about bondage to them. I can’t begin to tell you how it feels to hear something like that. In recognition of this we have decided to show our appreciation to everyone who has our bondage work tattooed on them by giving them a free print of the image they had tattooed.

Recent shibari bondage galleries

Shibari bondage videos

Shibari tutorials

We live only for the moment, in which we admire the splendour of the moonlight, the snow, the cherry blossom and the colours of the maple-leaves. We enjoy the day, warmed by wine, without allowing the poverty which stares us in the face to restore our sobriety. In this drifting – like a pumpkin carried along by the current of the river – we do not allow ourselves to be discouraged for a moment.

This is what is called the floating, fleeting world.

~Ukiyo Monogatari by Asai Ryoi

By the water lilies on the lake

Available as a fine art print up to 32″ x 24″

We are kinky, we are lascivious we are lustful we are experience junkies, we are sensualists.

From everything I know of myself and my friends, what we ultimately want is to experience life and our partners. The sensations of our experience, our interactions, the experience of our reaction to the reactions of others. Everything in kink is I think on some level about experience and sensation.

Why? Because it makes us alive. Life is about experience, the things that happen in it both good and bad.

As individuals in kink I think many are driven by the need to extend our experiences beyond the mundane, to not be limited in our experiences. To take an experience otherwise unpleasant and to pervert that into a sensual feast for the kinkster is I think the obvious expression of this.

Spanking, beating, flogging, caning, restraint, rope, chains, whips and all manner of roleplay scenario are pressed into the service of this goal. People roleplay and act out taboos. In fact this is one of the things that people misunderstand. Something that would in reality be very unpleasant is taken and turned into something fun, thrilling, erotic. To fail to understand the distinction between playing with the idea of something and the thing itself is to fail to understand how these kinds of play work entirely.

All of these things are about vivid, intense experiences. In extremis we are brought more presently into the moment we live and live that moment more completely.

Sometimes kinksters are reviled as sub human, freaks, lacking in feeling and empathy. This is I believe the opposite of the truth. It is very human to seek experience. I think those that limit their experiences are strange. I give my partner experiences and sensation because I have empathy, because in those moments we are so connected.

We yearn to experience… It’s only human.

Here you will find shibari related blogs, shibari tutorials and shibari bondage/kinbaku bondage photosets. Thanks for visiting.