The full Starting with Rope video series is now available on YouTube! So excited that we now have a video for each of the activities in Week 1 of Rope365. You can watch them directly in the activity pages and on the YouTube channel. Enjoy the sound of rope and turn on the subtitles or transcript for instructions. Liking and subscribing on YouTube really helps the channel grow.

Second big news: you can now support and enjoy more Rope365 content on Patreon. Don’t worry, all my online educational content will remain free. The Patreon blog features:

  • Voting on which content I create next
  • Sneak peek of tutorial in progress
  • Photos and videos of my other rope projects like performances, photoshoots and installations.
  • Class notes of my in-person teaching
  • Photos and videos of my personal practice
  • Private classes for solo, duo or groups (limited)

Actually, the Patreon will allow to make this project financially sustainable and keep it free for everyone, especially those who can’t afford expensive rope classes. The reality is that growing rope365 further is expensive. I’d like to get better hosting, translation and get help from professionals for a bunch of things. We have set goals on how the money will be spent depending on how many patron we get. 

We hope some of you will join us for this extra content and help support the project being more sustainable for everyone.

Journey update

The feedback I received on the first videos was overwhelmingly positive. I’m glad I found an art direction where I feel I can make quality videos without spending too much time producing and editing. I also enjoy making something that is slow and zen in a world where everything else is speeding up.

The first person view of the first video was something I got a lot of good feedback on. Which made it difficult for the second one as what I had planned was a front view of the tie. I ended up labbing and finding a way to make it first person, and that was way more unique for sure. Sending both to my friends, feedback were very split, most prefered the first person view, but a few felt they preferred having a more global view, and another had motion sickness in first person. I tried mixing both but it was the worst of both world, and I really like that my videos are a single sequence. I ended picking the first person view keeping in mind I can still do a front view later on.

From there, I did prototypes of the remaining Days of Week 1 to build this Starting with Rope series. I had to wake up at 4AM so I could record without hearing the neighbourhood. Other than that, the process was pretty smooth, editing in the morning before going to work, trying to upload a video every week, sometimes two.

As I was getting closer to the end of the series, it got more and more obvious that the project was growing in an unsustainable way. There is a limit in what I can do for free in my spare time with the benevolent help from friends. I’m eternally grateful to all the people helping me, without them, this website wouldn’t exist. At this point, I also need help from professionals. 

I had been a big fan of Amanda Palmer and supported various patreons in the past. It felt logical to try this too. Especially as my video are reaching a professional quality level (I think). I’m both excited and scared. Are my perks too cheap? Too expensive? Is my content interesting enough? Are people interested in paying to support the project? I know I have to be patient, this is a long game. I’m still quite happy with what is there so far, and it feels like it should be easy to maintain as it is a documentation of things I’m already doing, and I have a pretty good backlog if I decide to take a break.

I’m very happy to have this first series completed as Week 1 is the most consulted content on Rope365. I do plan another update of the webpage for these topics. Next I will ask my Patrons what videos they would like to see next. Either continue with Weeks 2-3-4. Or jump into more technical stuff like the first few weeks of Fall.

Before I start shootings again, I’m heading to Japan! I’ve been wanting to go back but the country was closed. I’m very excited to rediscover the culture and see a lot of my rope friends over there. I’ll be posting pictures and recap of the trip on my Patreon, wink wink!

I’ve been teaching a lot of in person classes since the fall, learned a lot from these classes. And it’s time for a summer break. Once I’m back from Japan I’ll try to slow down, read, write, tie… but not stressing myself too much with being productive. We’ll see if I’m actually able to do this, ah ah!