This has been a busy week or two for Shibari.TV. So far, we have aired the first two parts of the serialisation of my tutorial DVDs. I need to get the hang of running multiple short videos or edit them into one video as we had a couple of false starts. I think we had a few gremlins as I lost the connection a couple of times or at least think I did. Overall, things have gone very well and reports on quality have been good. The final part of ‘Japanese Rope Bondage’, Volume one, concludes at 18:00 GMT on Saturday 2 November.
We have also had a very basic live class with Alex ‘Cobra’. I can see that he intuitively understands using the rope as a tool of communication and his fingers are nimble. It seems that a lot of his legendary single tail and bull-whip skills are eminently transferable. Although, I am always cautious about thinking nautical experience helps, it certainly doesn’t seem to have done any harm in his case either. I think he’s going to be a fast learner.
Later in the week, Nina once again steeped in as model and teacher inside the ropes for a young lady who has just begun tying the classic Kanna derived gote. First, we brushed up her single and column ties. After all, even a gote is pretty much 3 single column ties, albeit two are closed with frictions usually? The main thing we needed to work on was rope handling. How best to move rope on the body, adjusting elegantly when you have the wrong length, using single fingers, tricks for laying rope flat and so on. We could see that her practice just noodling and playing with frictions at Hitchin’ Bitches had taught her a thing or two about keeping close, using the rope and putting some energy into what she did. The class ran on for about two hours. She said the time flew by and had only thought we had done 30 mins!
Once our students shave gone and done their homework, we’ll have them back to see how they got one. Hopefully, we can move them forwards. I don’t think it will be too hard as they both seem to have their aptitudes.
As you can see from the schedule below, Nina Russ and her favourite sultry Spanish model MaYa will be doing another two full-on one hour sessions this week on Thursday and Friday at 19:00 GMT both nights. There’s no doubt that Nina is becoming a very competent and innovative rigger. Not for her are the unbiquitous 3-TK and futo momo, it’s rare to see her repeat the same moves twice. Her rigging is great by any standard but when you consider she is working with a model 50% heavier than her, it is nothing short of outstanding. To put it in perspective, it is like a 170lb/12st/77kg rigger with a 255lb/18st/115kg model. I’d like to see some of the hot-shots around do a good job with that weight disadvantage!