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Loved the previews you’ve just been posting on Twitter from your week in Cornwall and noted the multi-coloured ropework there. Mikki and I were already thinking about your coloured rope after admiring the stunning red rope (with matching lipstick) worn by Helen Stephens in “Pin Up Girl Bound”. So we wondered if Hywel or Ariel (or any other member) had any advice on buying coloured rope for people like us.
We are currently planning to invest in an increased stock of rope: our previous play relying on metal, leather and a couple of pieces of white nylon rope from B&Q. Taking careful note of the “Bondage Tutorial No 2” video, we were planning on buying hemp rope since we would be the only users and washing would not be a priority. Mikki liked the scarlet colour from Twisted Monk. The sample colours on their site do not look anything like as strong as Helen was wearing. We guess hemp can never be as strongly coloured as nylon but wonder if there is still a good effect in use.
It may help to add two other points about us. At the moment we are thinking only about personal play. Neither of us has any illusions that we are or want to become a serious photographer. Second, our rope play will be pretty basic. For the moment we are not interested in (and certainly lack the skill for) anything sophisticated like suspension.
We appreciate, of course, that the final decision is ours depending on what we think is important but we wondered if any views had changed since “Bondage Tutorial No. 2” or if anyone had anything to add. For example, is cotton rope now worth considering? It seems to be rather dismissed in the Tutorial but some tweets make us think Ariel is looking at it more seriously.
Any advice and thoughts welcome.
Andrew and Mikki
Hi Andrew and Mikki!
For tying with, natural fibres are generally the easiest. They have more “bite” which means that the knots stay tied and the ropes are less likely to slide, slip or pull through and tighten. Most riggers seem to prefer hemp, and Twisted Monk is the best supplier we’ve found. The drawbacks are:
1) Tends to leave more pronounced rope marks.
2) Will not take the really bright colours, so only available in fairly earthy shades.
3) Can be expensive.
4) In theory, needs care- oiling after washes, etc. In practice this hasn’t turned out to be much of a hardship.Nylon is horrid to tie with, slippery, slidy, no bite, some batches seem to be a bit stiff for a long while too. But… it is available in super vibrant colours, which really suits the Restrained Elegance look. When it does soften up, I think it is kinder to the skin than hemp, too.
We get ours from http://www.rainbowrope.com
Buy the 6 mm solid braid MFP (1/4 inch) stuff, the thicker variants I found tend to be stiffer and not hold the knots well. I tend to buy a couple of hundred metres at a time because the colour does vary from batch to batch. Import duties, VAT etc. need to be paid so as usual I’d reckon on the final price in pounds being about what the numerical dollar price initially looks to be. (i.e. $100 ends up as £100 by the time you’ve paid all the taxes).The red hemp rope from Twisted Monk is a deeper colour than the scarlet from Rainbow Rope, but actually is the closest in colour of any of the hemps to the vibrancy of the nylon. If I were to buy any one batch for play myself, I think I’d get a selection of the red hemp from Twisted Monk. It looks like this:
and it is really nice to tie with once it has softened up a little.
Yup, Ariel’s just bought a reel of cotton rope of her very own to experiment with. I’ll ask her to report back on how she finds it when she’s had a go at rigging with it.
Cheers, Hywel.
Thank you, Hywel, for the prompt, relevant and precise info.
Mikki is at this moment going to Twisted Monk where, indeed, we had in mind getting one of their selection packs.
Thank you also for the picture. It’s very helpful about the rope colour – but somehow I don’t think it would look anything like as good as that on either of us! 😆
Andrew
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