Choosing The Best Rope For Your Bondage Experience
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Let's get knotty!
Choosing the right rope for your bondage needs is important. Let's check out what The Art of Loving has available!
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Some general advice when playing with rope:
Safety for Both Partners
- Communication is important! Know and communicate your limits, experience and ability. Make sure you trust and are really comfortable with your rope partner.
- Do not play while intoxicated.
- Always check in before the first time you play with someone - don't assume they know what they're doing or how to be safe. Make sure you both feel comfortable with each others abilities, and have hashed out what exactly you're going to do before the rope comes out. Figure out and discuss ahead of time what your plan is, and what your boundaries are.
- Know and communicate your aftercare needs (cuddles, comfort, snacks, space, etc.) before you play.
- Have safety shears on hand just in case. Find them HERE.
Playing with rope bondage is usually an emotionally intimate space to share. It can be rough and sexual, soft and non-sexual, or anywhere in between.
Onto the ropes!
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Nylon bondage rope:
The type of rope is is extremely strong, cool, and dazzlingly bright. The price makes it a perfect gateway rope for curious beginners, or for those looking to tie a partner to a bed post rather than use under the bed restraints.
Nylon is a synthetic, oil based product. This makes nylon cheap as grass to produce. For this reason, nylon rope costs half of what jute and hemp does.
Nylon fiber shines brilliantly too. This makes it by far the brightest possible choice.
Like all plastics, this rope is strong and has great durability. It takes to water without a hitch and feels cool against the skin on hot summer nights.
These ropes do not flatten at all. They maintain their shape perfectly. This makes them ideal for decorative knots. Unfortunately, they do not have as much grab as natural fiber ropes, so tension based Shibari bondage systems are a lot harder to implement, as nylon ropes tend to slip and slide all over the place unless expertly handled.
Many bottoms also report feeling disconnected from nylon ropes, as compared to hemp and jute.
In terms of weight, nylon is close to being on par with hemp.
Find nylon rope in an array of colors, either 15ft or 30ft HERE !
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Hemp Bondage Rope:
This type of rope is soft, strong, and supple. Its earthy smell further enhances the sensuality of this rope, resulting in a perfect rope for the ideal rope bondage experience.
colours: natural, red, black, turquoise & purplesizes: 15 ft and 30 ft
What stands out about hemp is its softness. That is not to be mistaken for dowiness. Well treated hemp rope will glide across the skin with a firm gentleness. It feels solid, dependable, and masculine.
Hemp bondage rope also have a great earthy smell. This makes hemp ropes a common favorite among many bottoms who prefer sensual rope play and likewise with many tops.
Hemp fibers have a great deal of bend in them, more so than other ropes. This means that hemp ropes will fold themselves around the contours of the skin or surface, while still letting it breathe, and stay in place with only a minimum amount of tension. This makes it easy to tie complicated patterns over the body, involving only tensioning. The flow of the scene remains uninterrupted by pauses to tie complex knots to keep everything in place. In this category, hemp ropes dominate the field.
Hemp knots are very secure.
The ropes are washable and may be put through the dryer. After drying, the ropes need to be stretched firmly to regain their lengths. That said, hemp ropes will weaken with every wash.
The softness of hemp also carries a downside. Under tension the ropes will flatten against each other. This has no practical consequence when doing bondage, but it means that elaborate knot-work will clump rather than keep its shape. In systems such as Shibari bondage, which does not rely on knot-work, this is completely irrelevant.
Hemp fibers lean toward the heavier side. This is a sign of density, which speaks to the strength of the rope (more on that later), but it can also make the transition a little unflattering for someone used to rigging with lighter ropes.
In person, hemp looks fantastic, but it can look grainy and dully in photographs unless lighted properly.
Because it is a natural fiber rope, which must be grown, processed, and conditioned, hemp ropes are more expensive than synthetic fibers.
Find them in an array of colors in either 15ft or 30ft HERE !
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Jute Bondage Rope:
This type of rope is the preferred bondage rope of the Japanese Nawashi, the originators of rope bondage. Its lightness and glossy look make Jute Bondage Rope a favorite among bondage photographers and Shibari performance artists.
Rope bondage has been practised in Japanese culture since ancient times and has seen an upsurge in popularity recently. You can find several social clubs here in Vancouver devoted to the culture.
Jute bondage rope and hemp are the most popular materials used in shibari. The rope is often seven to eight meters long, four to six millimeters thick, and usually consists of three smaller strands twisted together. Natural fiber ropes have more grip, a necessary quality here "” shibari doesn't use many knots, and its wrapping techniques require the rope have grip "” and so are better than silk or synthetic ropes, which don't hold friction well and can also lead to faster rope burn. In my opinion, natural fiber ropes also look better and the unyielding tension feels better for the bottom.
As the other natural fiber rope, jute serves as hemp's counterpart. The two contrast each other on almost every particular.
High quality jute rope starts out very firm. This makes it a favorite rope among many sadists and masochists who want a little more edge to their play.
The firmness of the ropes also means that decorative knots hold their shape marvelously in jute rope. In general, jute rope is a photography whore. The natural sheen of the ropes really plays to the camera.
Jute fiber weighs next to nothing. This adds a lot to the process of rigging. Movements become more fluid and elegant. The weight also applies to those who want to do outdoor bondage. A jute kit weighs one down far less than a kit of another fiber on a long hike.
Its tight weave also makes my jute ropes very durable, although one should be weary of other suppliers. Traditional jute is loosely woven which results in a very short lifespan for the ropes. When buying jute, it's important to ask about the weave.
Jute ropes have enough grip to stay in place, but not as well as hemp. Careful tensioning is very important when rigging with jute ropes.
Jute also requires more handling when going through the wash. Jute ropes must be stretch dried under tension to prevent shrinkage.
Available in Scarlet red only at 15 ft or 30 ft lengths. Find it HERE !
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Happy tying!