Safety essentials

How not to cripple your partner

The most basic and vital knowledge any rigger and rigged regardless of style is the knowledge of how not to cripple your partner. This class gives you a hands on basics grounding in the facts of life of bondage safety, fact, fiction and what you need to know for safer tying.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie (optional).
Requisite skills: n/a.
Level: all
Type: lecture (some hands on).

An introduction to rope

A foundation in rope (all day).

A day of learning designed to give a strong, safe foundation in rope bondage that will provide all attendees with the knowledge they need to bind their partners in a safe and effective manner.

The day will include information on the history, practice and use of bondage as well as extensive safety information.

The class is of deliberately limited size to ensure that all attendees will receive individual attention as well as group learning.

It is the aim of the session that all attendees should thoroughly retain all that is taught. Therefore each student will be able to learn at the pace that is most effective for them.

Attendees are advised to wear loose comfortable clothing. If you do not have your own rope there will be high quality bondage rope available to purchase on the day, there will also be some rope on hand that attendees can borrow.

What to bring: Rope and a body to tie.
Level: beginner
Type: hands on.

Ties

The total TK breakdown

There are many chest harnesses but this one is the father of them all. The single most useful and informative tie you will learn. So it’s worth getting it right!

So do you want to not just learn how to tie this iconic bondage but to actually understand it fully and what it does.

Perfect for learning your first TK and for people who already know a TK variant and need to understand improve.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: basic rope handling and safety knowledge. You must have done safety and basic rope skills classes first!
Level: intermediate/advanced
Type: hands on.

Practice and understanding

Unthinking rope

Warning this class requires thinking!
Practice, practice and more practice, knowing without knowing, tying without thinking, and much, much more practice. Effective techniques for you to practice and also for practice.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: fully competent and confident in at least the basic TK and good safety knowledge.
Level: intermediate to advanced
Type: hands on.

Rope control and movement

Control of rope and movement can transform any tying experience both for the rigger and the rigged. Controlling the rope is both easier and harder than you think. Movement, anticipation, memory and practice come together to make good rope control an automatic part of your tying.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: good solid knowledge of all basic ties and a very good knowledge of safety.
Level: advanced
Type: hands on.

Tension

People often prioritise complexity and ‘impressive looking’ bondage over feel and also tend to push forward with more complicated ties without the technique to support it.
Control over tension and understanding its effect and importance is vital to helping develop better all round bondage.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: some tying experience.
Level: intermediate and advanced and very advanced versions available
Type: hands on.

Floorwork

Full contact floor work

Full contact floor work is about being up close and personal with your
partner, it’s about connection, intimacy, brutality and tenderness. It’s
about tension, torque, bodyweight and leverage.

It’s about dirty, nasty, sexy rope.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: good basic rope experience.
Level: intermediate and advanced and very advanced versions available
Type: hands on.

Floor work techniques

Thought and emotion via rope. Techniques to tease and torment. You’re both full of emotion, this class is about getting that emotion flowing through your rope.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: good basic rope experience.
Level: advanced
Type: hands on.

Human aspect

Connected

(Contains elements of Tension and OneRope but is less in depth than either.)
Rope bondage isn’t a craft project, it’s an interaction between two like minded people. Good technique and knowledge are vital but, without knowing how to utilise them it is all too easy to remain disconnected from your partner.
This class is about keeping you connected.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: n/a.
Level: intermediate and advanced versions available
Type: hands on.

One Rope & Minimalist rope

OneRope simply means ‘a single rope’ the use of a single rope can be a real stretch for many riggers. This class explores the possibilities of this excellent practice and play technique.

Doing as much as possible with as little as possible.
How far can you take a little rope? This hands on class explores the possibilities.

(Includes ‘66 Shibari 6 ties with 6 feet of rope! An exploration of minimalist shibari ties’)

What to bring: one rope (8M – 26ft) and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: basic tying experience.
Level: intermediate and advanced and very advanced versions available
Type: hands on.

Partnership & Working Together

Bondage is never one size fits all but in many classes everyone gets taught the same thing. What you may learn from one source might not work well with you and your partner. One of the greatest skills in rope bondage is learning to understand what works between you and your partner. This is best accomplished with the involvement and cooperation of top and bottom with communication and understanding. In this co-taught class Clover and WykD Dave work hands on with couples as top and bottom looking at what you actually do, to help you to resolve problems and find what really works for you both together.
Level: Advanced
Type: Hands On

 When a scene goes wrong

We all want to have THAT amazing scene we have been planning and looking forward to during a rope conference. With the amount of pressure we put on ourselves to perform at our best, be that submit or tie, together with hours of learning each day, lack of sleep, poor eating habits and great surge of emotions packed into one weekend, it is highly likely when it comes to having THAT scene in the late or early hours things may not go to plan. This class will look at things you can do to prevent and more importantly how to recover from a scene that did not go to plan.
Level: All
Type: Discussion

Aesthetic

Symmetry & Asymmetry and Rope

Concepts beyond the basic, decoration, completion, structure and thought.

While technical skill is important, and it is absolutely vital. It’s also true that people can get obsessed with technique and forget why they are using it. Not only should bondage be good, not only should it be feeling it should also be beautiful! For anyone interested in bondage beyond simple restraint these other factors come into play more and more as they progress yet they are rarely discussed or taught. Bondage has many dimensions in technique, emotion and aesthetic qualities. And all of them should be embraced. This extends to torture with rope. Suffering should be beautiful suffering. It should be effective, it should have feeling, it should be beautiful.
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Type: Demo

Torture rope

Semi nawa

Real rope torture
This class is about actual rope torture not about tying up someone and then torturing them. Everything comes from and through the rope.

What to bring: Rope and an experienced partner.
Requisite skills: Suspension worthy TK full safety knowledge and reasonable experience of rope and suspension techniques.
Level: advanced
Type: hands on plus demonstration and frankly some lecturing.

Partial Suspension

Stress!

This class is about stressful and beautiful partial suspensions. You can do so much whilst keeping something on the ground. Partials can be more stressful than some full suspensions.

What to bring: Rope and an experienced partner.
Requisite skills: Suspension worthy TK full safety knowledge and reasonable experience of rope and suspension techniques.
Level: advanced
Type: hands on plus demonstration and frankly some lecturing.

Suspension

Suspension line attachment and management

All you should know about attaching suspension lines. This is a worthwhile precursor to suspension as you should know very well how to correctly attach suspension lines before moving on to actually use them to suspend. In the middle of your first suspension is not the moment to realise you don’t know how to attach, release or manage a suspension line.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: fully competent and confident in required suspension tying.
Level:  advanced.
Type: hands on.

Managing your first suspensions

Concepts, safety rope and load handling, balance and distribution

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: fully competent and confident in required suspension tying.
Level:  advanced.
Type: hands on.

Suspension transitions

Concepts, practice and guided experience in this class for advanced students only. You will have to have attended previous classes giving a foundation not only in suspension but in all areas of rigging before this class is available. I will need to be absolutely convinced of your skills by demonstration if you did not take any or all previous lessons from me.

What to bring: rope and a body to tie.
Requisite skills: fully competent and confident in required suspension tying ideally including my preceding suspension related classes.
Level:  advanced.
Type: hands on.

*Individual teaching is normally done at our midland’s studio. We have no problem travelling but reasonable travelling and time costs will be added to any teaching fee.