Just like string instruments, vibration in rope creates an invisible music that is felt rather than heard. It allows communication without words, through touch. Tension is an essential element of the solidity of a tie and influences how sustainable it can be. It is felt more than seen, which is why it is so hard to describe and so important to the experience of rope.

The goal of this week is to get a better understanding of how tension works and improve control with practical exercises.

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Day 57: Presence – With a partner, each person holds the rope with a distance between each other. Explore different levels of tension (pulling hard, letting go). Move around the room. Close your eyes and feel the other person. Solo variant: attach the rope to a piece of furniture that can move.
Day 58: Uniformity – Wrap around the body and focus on keeping even tension. Practice switching hands and feeling the tension in your body. Try a communication game: every time the person being tied feel a variation of tension, they make a sound to indicate the issue.

Inspirations and Resources

Day 59: Intensity – Explore different levels of tension, tight, loose, and anywhere in between. Pick a tie, then make it much tighter, now make it as loose as possible. Which one is more comfortable?
Day 60: Shifting – Explore with moving the rope once on the body, move a wrap up, then down, how does it feel? Try to create ties that require moving rope on the body to make the structure such as a knotless diamond harness and reverse tension mermaid tie. 

Inspirations and Resources

Day 61: Holding – Friction and tension can work together to hold rope. Just wrap the rope on itself, then continue tying. You’ll have to maintain tension in order for the tie to stay in place.

Inspirations and Resources

Day 62: Dressing – Explore with the dressing up the tension of the rope and the skin under it. Create a structure with wraps, pass a finger between the skin and the rope and slide. Compare different directions and note how the rope interacts with the skin. 
Day 63: Vibrations – Try adding some vibration to your tie, either by using your hands to wiggle the rope or a vibrator. Try different location in the tie and notice how tension influence the propagation of vibration.

Gallery

Inspirations and Resources

Credit: Ideas inspired by Wykd Dave & Clover, Pedro and Midori. Banner, 5A M:NathanielFlumen R/P:Ebi McKnotty – 1,2,5B,5C,7A,7B M: Mona, R:FreakyFerrert P: Ebi McKnotty – 5 M: AlexK7 R/P: Ebi McMnotty – 6 M:SarahToninGirl R: ARareVintage P: Ebi McKnotty – 7C M: Isshtar R: Ebi McKnotty P: Bendy Dude

 

Let’s continue with Movement

 

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