The Basic Karada

The karada or diamond harness is one of the most basic harnesses that is often taught to beginners. It is decorative, fun and pretty easy. It is also pretty non-threatening so it is great for a first time rope bottom.  It is also one of the ties that a lot of people mess up. There are a few things to keep in mind while tying this one. The two biggest things to watch out for are the length of the rope behind the neck while starting out and how the ropes are placed when going through the diamond pattern in the front. Read on for our suggestions to help you out with this.

The rope used was a 30' piece of hot pink MFP (as we like to say Mother Fucking Plastic). That was about perfect for our bottom in this case. Your mileage may vary.

Place the doubled rope behind the bottom's neck. Pull it down a bit so that you have a little space. This is very critical for the karada to fit properly. You want about a hand's length of rope from the back of the neck to the bight in the rope. Of course this will vary with the length of the hand and the size of the bottom. A bit of experimentation will help you out. 

At the bottom of the bight put an overhand knot. This does not need to be a well tied knot: it is simply a place holder to help the tie. 

In the front you are going to want to put a series of knots. Many different knots will do: the overhand is the simplest but the Figure 8 is a bit more decorative and some folks like even more decorative knots like the Double Coin. Do what works for you.
The first knot should end up fairly close to the neck. That will place the first diamond above the breasts of your bottom. 

There will be a series of knots in the front. In this example we used 5. This tie can be kept simple and only use 3 knots which will give a very large diamond pattern or you can use more which will give a smaller diamond pattern. When thinking about this remember that the more diamonds you have in the front the more rope you will need. 

The knots should be about hand width apart. Try to keep the knots evenly spaced for a clean looking tie. 

This is how the series of knots should look in the front. 

For fun the last knot can be strategically placed for maximum enjoyment of the bottom. In the case of female bodied bottoms a knot placed right on the clitoris and for male bodied bottoms right behind the goodies on the perineum seems to be most fun.  As a bonus, you have to reach between your partner's legs (yay!)

Bring the doubled rope up the spine to the bight you have tied off at the back of the neck. Undo the knot that you left there as a place holder then run the rope through the bight from behind as shown. Then split the tails. 

Bring the separate sides of the rope to the front. The next steps are one of the places that people make the biggest mistake. 

Run the rope between the first two knots. Go in from the front not the back. When the rope comes out from behind it needs to go over the top of where it came from. The friction provided by the rope crossing helps to keep these lines in place. This is critical. When looking at photos on various websites it is very common to see this done incorrectly and the ropes won't stay in place. 

When done properly it will look like this. When you pull this tight it will create the diamond pattern between the knots. When you pull the diamond open it uses up some rope in the back. That is why you started off with all that space behind the neck. 

Bring the ropes behind the bottom's back. Cross the ropes as shown. If you do it this way the harness will shift with the bottom as they move. 

Continue the tie, bringing the ropes from the front to the back making more of the diamond pattern that you started with the first set of knots. This is how the back should look.

As you continue the pattern be sure to maintain a fair amount of tension. Keep it nice and tight. Most bottoms prefer the rope to be fairly tight and it will help to conserve rope.

The front will look like this. We ran out of rope at the last diamond and the rope was tied off on either side of it using the Cow Hitch. 

Added bonus... when you put a vibrator on rope it "lights up" and transmits vibrations very well!

Takedowns

Here's a tutorial for those of you looking for ways to bring your bottom safely and sexily to the ground before throwing rope on them. In this video we cover three ways to do that (and NOT to do that). Enjoy and have fun! Hyahhh!!!

The John Willie G-String Tie Variation

John Willie was a well known photographer and fetishist for the magazine Bizarre back in the 1940's and 50's. His work has certainly influenced today's kink scene in many ways, especially the photograph aspect of it. He also developed some rope bondage techniques. We are borrowing on one of those, his G-String Tie, for this post. The tie presented is a variation of the original which can be found here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/John_Willie_-_G_String_Tie.png

It is a fun and fairly quick tie but as it is presented it is not an inescapable tie. If you want something that will look good and combines traditional American rope bondage with a little shibari thrown in, give it a whirl, we think you will like it!

Start with the mid-point of the rope at the back of the neck and split the tails so the two halves go down either side of the body in the front. 

The two tails will be on the outside of the chest.

Bring the ropes behind the back to form an X. It doesn't matter which rope crosses. The two color arrows are to help illustrate how the ropes should look. The tails will end up on the opposite side that they started on. 

Bring the two tails back to the front, coming over the hip bone. Bring them back together between the legs. For an interesting variation on this you could strategically place a knot for a more interesting experience for the bottom. 

Bring the rope, now doubled, back between the hands. Form a 90 degree angle and bring the rope around one wrist. 

The photo might be a bit confusing, but the concept is fairly simple. Bring the rope around one wrist the back around the outside of the opposite wrist then underneath the bend you formed in the last step. Take a moment to dress this wrist lock to tighten it up. Keep in mind that this tie could tighten as it is presented. A lock knot before moving on to the next step would prevent that from happening. 

Take your rope and bring it up behind the X in small of the back then reverse direction back to the wrists. 

The rope then goes under the cuff between the wrists. 

At this point simply "vine" or wrap the rope around itself and finish with a half hitch. 

The final product will look like this from the back and the front is shown at the beginning. A very simple and fun tie that gives a lot of access...

Green Mountain Cabaret Halloween Rope Performance!

This is our fourth performance with the Green Mountain Cabaret. We used the song, "Once Upon a Dream," by Lana Del Rey and had it mixed by Noah Hirka. Happy Halloween!

p.s. Sorry we've been slacking on the blog this month. October was a whirlwind for all three of us and we had to prioritize other competing obligations in our lives. We will resume our regular posting schedule in November. Thank you for "hanging" in there!