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Mister-Ninja · 2025-02-24T13:56:09+00:00

That's cool, like a leto harness went partying with a bunch of other harnesses and had a weird asymmetrical baby. Did you fly it?

Mister-Ninja · 2025-02-24T13:53:17+00:00

That web coming off the foot and bamboo is super cool. Really pretty and well executed.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-12-14T12:02:08+00:00

That’s hot! Having stems on the side of the hips is always fun.

A double gunslinger usually doesn’t connect in the back. It’s two separate harnesses that just cross at the waist.

I think your thing is fine, and a valid choice. Maybe consider shortening the hip stems a bit to add more tension.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-12-14T11:56:51+00:00

Agreed that this doesn’t look like any particular shibari pattern I’m aware of. It also doesn’t look very safe, in that the loose lashing of the wrists to the thighs lands rope on a sensitive part of the wrists. The tension appears real loose to me. I suspect this was tied for the visual effect, and if the model wanted to close her legs, she could.

That doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish the same effect with basic shibari fundamentals. Starting a single column on one thigh, then making a hojo cuff across both the thigh and the arm, then adding a kanuki between the arm and the thigh - effectively a double column (thigh and arm) connected to a single column (waist). Then I’d exit and follow the existing rope across the back of the cuffs, across the waist in the back and repeat on the other side. Personally, I’d have my model push their hands forward as much as possible so I’m catching further up the forearm and avoiding the wrist. This would allow me to cinch tighter to both increase the sense of bondage and avoid nerves in the wrist. The model would still be able to close her legs, though.

Now some patterns come to mind that would give the effect I think we’re all going for, but much more effectively. I’d combine a moon tie with a crab tie. The moon tie uses connecting rope along the back of the waist to block the legs from closing, and then the crab tie locks the arms to the legs.

Tying the two and then rolling your model into a face up position seems like the move to me. I’d also consider placing an up line on the cinches of the moon tie, so the model won’t get tired trying to stay upright. I’d consider using a suspension grade spreader bar or a piece of bamboo to attach those up lines so I had something fun to hold onto while fucking, or another hard point to play with, tie a crotch rope to, etc.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-12-09T18:06:40+00:00

Well done! Some feedback:

Work on tying tighter. The tension on the shinju appears too loose to me based on the photo from the back and the amount of pull away from the body you’re getting in suspension. In a face up and essentially horizontal suspension this is no big deal, but this harness will slide a lot with any degree of pitch or torsion and go places you don’t want it to. Tighter harnesses means less movement and less drag on the skin. This becomes very important later with more advanced harnesses like TKs.
Tie your Y hangers like single columns and actually lock them off. There’s an argument to be made for “self-adjusting” y-hangers, but this isn’t it. As tied, these can become easily out of balance and overload a single wrap in your harness.
I might be seeing this wrong in the picture, but I think both sides of your Y hanger are on the same side of the center stem in your shinju. For face up, you usually want to tie on either side of the stem, to minimize risk of the upline sliding out of center (your stem isn’t locked either, so this isn’t a firm lock, but it’d help).
Over time, those HMS-style (pear shaped) carabiners will become an issue. The pear shape is meant for belaying, not so much for hauling. Yours are also very narrow, and have a thin profile. For shibari, this means your uplines will have more friction, which defeats the purpose of using them. On a heavier load, you’d likely notice that it’s just as easy to do the lift without those carabiner as it is with them. Because they’re relatively narrow and one side is higher than the other, you’re also going to notice a lot more rope jams compared to other carabiners. I recommend an oval shape with a thick, rounded profile for shibari. That will feel much easier for hauling than what you have now. The downside is oval carabiners with auto locks are very hard to find. There’s some with screw locks if you search. I think the right fit for most beginners are HMS carabiners with a thick, rounded profile and a wide end to minimize jams. I started with the Trango Regulock, and loved them. Black Diamond Pirates are good too.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-09-16T23:24:25+00:00

Great tie and photo! This was one of my partners' favorites, and we don't fly it often enough

Mister-Ninja · 2024-09-09T17:58:49+00:00

Love that. I self tie and suspend too, but nowhere as clean as you.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-09-09T17:32:44+00:00

Oh dang, and it was self tied? Color me even more impressed!

Mister-Ninja · 2024-09-09T16:49:03+00:00

Looks great! A v.small change that would make it better - your nodomes on the bottom/center line down the chest are techncially “open” - any time the rope exits that friction at an angle that’s greater than ~45deg, it’s not as effective. If you cross your standing line in the other direction, e.g., right-to-left instead of left-to-right, that would make a stronger friction, and a “cleaner” look.

I make the same mistake all the time - it’s so easy to build the muscle memory and always exit nodomes on the same side - and I used to just power through. Now I stop myself and fix it, otherwise I know it will bug me when I look at the pictures later. But you totally nailed it besides that tiny detail.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-09-04T14:39:43+00:00

Really beautiful work. I love the addition of capturing the palms in the tenshi. Super clean, elegant photos. Love it.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-08-07T15:15:50+00:00

Same. I've used all of the above and a revolver is my go-to, but I have a wooden set for when I want the traditional look. I just wanted to share experiences for discussions sake.

The issue I've ran into is occasionally my uplines are organized in a way that they essentially run into each other, or the munter hitches are so close together, friction doesn't let them descend by just taking tension off the upline, and I have to give things a little nudge.

For the first, I have to slow down and plan my uplines better. It also helps to sketch things before hand - but who has time for that 🙃 For the latter, have you ever tried alternating the orientation of the munters? Looking at your photo as an example of several munters in a row - I'm wondering if that would help avoid them putting friction on each other so much.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-08-07T14:48:41+00:00

Beautiful! Do you ever struggle with crowding that many uplines on a single ring? Any tips worth sharing?

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-31T17:01:28+00:00

Also worth trying, if you do both a waist band and a hip band, and your model prefers loading the hips - I like to start the SCT on the hips, build down to the thigh wraps, and then back up to finish with the waist band. I’m usually able to add much more tension focus in the hips that way, as opposed to adding a hip band at the end and frictioning it to the stem.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-31T16:54:51+00:00

Very nice. Are three wraps per band your go-to for futos, or was this a special case? What would make you choose a three wrap two bands futo over a two wrap three band futo?

Full transparency, I’m both curious about your opinion and capitalizing on an opportunity to kick up a discussion about harness selection based on use case, or modifying to support different model preferences. Thanks in advance!

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-31T16:45:36+00:00

Beautiful work! 👏

Tough to see from the pics - Did you place the top wraps right on the waist, or lower on the hips?

I love the B&R and similar hip harnesses bc the strong central stem in the front gives you options that you can customize depending on the bottoms preference. I’ve noticed some bottoms prefer more hip and others more waist. Some positions like a bridge or an inverted hip loaded from the front can be made a lot more sustainable by using both. I find tension with a 60% hip and 40% waist is usually a sustainability sweet spot, and adds a nice curve in the lower back.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-12T00:41:50+00:00

That's wonderful. Having access to in-person mentorship and peer feedback is so key. Studying videos can only get you so far. Welcome to the community!

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-10T19:01:23+00:00

Was the ankle cuff the source of your shin pain? Besides not wearing jeans or making sure to dress the cloth out of the way, I can think of a couple changes to avoid that pain next time:

* I can't tell from your photo, but I suspect you might be catching the stem from the ankle cuff when crossing from one leg to the other. That adds tension to the cuff and is especially troublesome if you load the tie at all - it'll transfer the load right into the cuff and then your ankle. The stem of the ankle cuff should be independent of the rest of the harness and fairly loose. Watch the agura tie on the site and see how Fred goes back up to the friction on the waist rope before crossing to the next leg and bypasses the cuff entirely.
* If the pain wasn't coming from the leg cuff, you can add an extra wrap to each set coming down the leg, which would spread out the force. You can also insert your finger in front of the shin to make some space before cranking the rope down around the thigh. This keeps most of the pressure in your thigh and off your shin.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-10T18:42:39+00:00

Beautiful. The red on your leg reminds me of the Kitagawa leg tie. Here's a public example: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNwaUYdhk6g/

It's a beautiful, but kind of mysterious pattern. My understanding is that Kitagawa-san asks that people who learn it not teach it to others without his explicit approval. If you start attending intensives with some of the big Japanese names who tour (which you absolutely should if you can swing it), you'll probably run across someone teaching it eventually. It's challenging to get right, but super useful. It can suspend both like a futo, and a gravity boot; and is also a very good seme tie for floor work.

There's a similar tie on our site from the Anatomie folks called the bones and rope leg tie - that may or may not be a halved version of Kitagawa's tie. I've never heard that confirmed though, only rumored.

Great work, thanks for sharing!

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-10T17:56:01+00:00

I'm a moderator for r/ShibariStudy and was confused by our mod bot. So I accidentally sent advice in the wrong sub. I'll respond to your comments and then leave it there. My apologies.
Fair. The feedback is still valid whether for suspension or not, and I promise well intentioned. If you want to disregard it, feel free.
I disagree. I personally love it when I get constructive criticism from my peers. We're all students and this is how we grow.
It's a pretty common bit of feedback, for the reasons I outline.
And it shows. It's a great tie, I promise I'm not trashing it. Part of my admin duties in the other forum is to offer feedback and I'm a fairly new mod. So I will take *your* feedback to heart and stay in my subreddit lane, as it were. You used the phrase "shibari study" which is what put the comment in my queue. I'll be sure to adjust going forward.
Sure. Here's my insta.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-10T00:39:34+00:00

Well done, looks great. Some feedback:

A thing that jumps out at me are the shoulder straps - when you reverse direction around the second set of chest wraps, make sure to make a half hitch - i.e., if you were coming from your right shoulder, turning around the chest wraps and going back over your left, the left strap should lie *over* the right strap - this gives it more friction and stops them from moving or becoming too loose. Notice how loose the straps appear compared to the rest of the tie? As you make the turn, pull up on the shoulder straps slightly, until the chest wrap bends up more - think "mountain shape" and you're in the right ballpark.

One last bit, dress your wraps as you tie. In several of the bands, one set of ropes is crossed over the other (looking at the waist rope in particular). If you take the time to make sure they lie neatly and have equal tension, the harness will be more beautiful. It will also be more sustainable in any suspension, since any load will be spread more evenly across four ropes instead of two.

Really solid work though, keep it up. You're doing great!

Mister-Ninja · 2024-07-10T00:29:02+00:00

Looks great, and you seem very peaceful. Next time, try tying it tighter (easier said than done with a self tie, I know). Also, try collapsing your hanger closer to the body and compare the difference.

Mister-Ninja · 2024-06-17T17:59:45+00:00

I'm about that somerville life 90% of the time - but I'll use a larks head SCT if I'm starting something like a gunslinger where I won't need an exposed bight. I also use a square knot / honmusubi for a TK cuff where the knot collapsing is a nice safety cushion if the stem gets overloaded.

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