Day 17: Diamonds
Creating a chest structure with diamond shapes is such a classic that you can find rope with pre-tied knots in some Japanese sex shop to create this tie. It is often referred to using the Japanese names karada 体 (body) or hishi 菱 (diamond). A similar tie is named kikkoo 亀甲 (turtle shell) for a variation with hexagons.
This type of harnesses is often used as a decorative tie, but you can attach other limbs to the structure for something more restrictive. The diamond shape can be more comfortable when we pull on it than the ladder structure because of how is distributes the pressure.
Opening diamonds
The most common way to tie diamonds on the chest is to place the bight behind the neck and make knots in the front. Then you can continue toward the back by going between the legs. After you catch the bight behind neck, you can come back to the front and open the ropes between the knots into diamonds.
Opening the diamonds will make the tie progressively tighter, watch out for the ability to breathe of the person being tied. Make sure you discuss ahead placement between the legs. You can split ropes after one of the knot to go around the waist instead.
Drawing Diamonds
You can also create a structure with a diamond pattern using half hitches and crossing hitches. The aesthetic will be similar to the Karada, but the difference in construction bring makes the placement of the rope more precise and the tension in the tie more constant throughout the process of tying.
If you make a spiral and then make a second spiral in the opposite direction on top of it, diamond shapes will emerge.
You can progressively add diamond shapes by making consecutive x shapes.
Practice Time!
Make your own diamond harness!
Self evaluation checklist:
- Frictions are compacted and tight with no undesired twist
- Ropes are flat against the body, no uncomfortable twists
- Tension is even across the tie
- Is the tie symmetric?
- Pull on the tie in different direction to measure it’s solidity
Exploration ideas:
- Different sizes/numbers of diamonds
- Different level of tightness
- Tie only on the upper chest, or expand to include the entire upper body?
- Single ropes or double ropes
- Try to use the diamond to frame or enhance something you like
- Reverse the tie to focus on the diamond on the back like a tortoise shell
- Create a harness with diamonds on both sides (front of chest and back)
- Create the diamond pattern without using any knots
Credit: Open diamond M: AlexK7 R/P: Ebi McKnotty – X Diamond M:_Era_ R/P: Ebi McKnotty – Spiral Diamond M: Miss_Soffia R/P: Ebi McKnotty
Next: Knots
May 14, 2019 at 6:09 am
Since you kindly invited me to comment on fet, I think some explanations could be clearer :
– The spiraling process for making diamonds gave me a hard time. I finally understood thanks to the frog ties pics that _there are actually not two identical spirals crossing one another_ and that _the front side and the back side do not look the same_. I think that a pic of the back side + some numbers giving the order of the frictions could help a lot the others newbies ^^’
– I still haven’t got the X-shapes one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I do not understand where the beginning is and I cannot guess how the tie is supposed to look on the other side ^^” (ok tbh I have not given it as much time as I did for the spiral one )
(Crap, I realise I am going exactly against my principle to give compliments in public and criticism in private T_T )
May 19, 2019 at 12:58 pm
Thank you for the feedback. I love these.
I didn’t put the full instructions on purpose to have different level of difficulty, these are supposed to be a challenge (I’m a sadist after all!). Maybe I should make is clearer that these are more of a stretch goal and give a few light pointers. It’s just not possible to make detailed instructions for everything, so searching for a middle ground.
Does it help with the X-Shape if we say the first rope is natural, the second is red, and the third is purple?