The Cinch
- A really useful concept in bondage is "the cinch." When
you're tying someone's knees or ankles together, for example, the initial
impulse might be to just wrap the ropes around the limbs and tie the
ends together.
Sometimes you can get away with this with no problem, but to make the
bondage more snug and finished, it's nice to run a few turns of the
rope perpendicular to the original turns, tightening them down. This
makes for more secure tying and can really add to the sub's feeling
of being "tied up."
The following few ties show some examples of the cinch:
Double limb
ties - In tying two limbs together, I usually start
out with a larks head, forming a loop around the wrists, for example.
Then you wrap several turns around the wrists, and feed the ends back
through the loop made by the larks head. Then you do the cinch, wrapping
between the wrists, perpendicular to the wrapping turns. You separate
the two ends, passing one end under the wrapping turns and tie a square
knot.
This same kind of tie can be used on ankles and knees. In fact, you
can use it to tie nearly any two body parts together: wrist to ankle,
wrist to thigh, ankle to thigh, upper arm to chest, and so on.
Below
is a simple variation of a wrist tie done with a single strand of rope
rather than doubling it up like I usually do. You wrap in opposite directions
around the wrists, cross the ropes and go in opposite directions. Then
you do the cinching, tightening down perpendicular to the wrapping turns,
and finish off with a square knot. Some people call this technique the
"Paula Klaw" tie, from the classic bondage photographers Irving
and Paula Klaw.
Reversing directions -
Another useful concept is the idea of "reversing directions"
when you tie. Recently I saw a Julie Simone bondage demo where she said
that nearly all her tying is based on this idea. You run the rope back
on itself, tightening it down by looping it around other ropes. The
larks head is an example of this, as is the "crossing the ropes"
step in the single strand tie above.
Some variations
on wrist ties include tying the hands back to back, crossing the wrists
behind the back, tying the wrists parallel to each other and so on.
To avoid this, you need to pass the rope underneath all the wrapping turns so that you form a cuff with equal pressure on all the wraps. Below is one simple way to do that. You just make a loop under all the wrapping ropes, run the ends through the loop and tighten down. There are lots of variations. I like this one because it's simple and looks neat.
The spreader bar tie is useful for tying the elbows together or for leaving some space between the ankles to allow the sub to walk. Most subs can't touch their elbows, but with the bar tie you can still tie them together. It's just like a regular double limb tie, just spread out wide, and then the cinching is wrapped again and again to make the bar. You can make it as wide or as narrow as you need. The spreader bar tie was highlighted in Photoshop in the picture below.
These are only a few simple ties, but once you know the basics you can apply them to many different situations.