ROPEMARKS RYŪ
Articles
Writing about kinbaku, teaching, rope technique and the ideas behind RopeMarks Ryū. These articles go deeper into subjects that do not always fit inside a workshop.
FROM THE ROPE LAB
Latest articles
Technique, experience and thoughts from years of studying, tying and teaching kinbaku.
KinkOn 2026: Two Workshops, One Heatwave, and One Very Good Model
Two RopeMarks masterclasses at KinkOn 2026 in Bologna, an unforgettable heatwave, an amazing model, and a weekend of playful, dirty kinbaku.
Balkan Bound II – Fall 2025
For Balkan Bound II (2025) I travelled to Serbia with Keira as my model. We taught Playful and Dirty Kinbaku, hosted two kinbaku talks, explored Belgrade, and closed the event with a performance. A few impressions from our time at the festival.
Jute Rope Strength: What Riggers Need to Know
Don’t Trust Jute to Be Strong. Trust Yourself to Use It Well People often ask me how strong jute rope is. I get the question in workshops, in messages, and [...]
Kinbaku tutorial books
When I teach workshops or when I'm at events one of the many questions I get is "are there any good kinbaku tutorial books to learn from?". Learning kinbaku is not all, [...]
Pinse Camp – Denmark, May 2024
We’ve just returned from a weekend of teaching at Pinse Camp in Denmark, where we had the pleasure to spend two full days with around seventeen rope couples in the intermediate/advanced [...]
RopeMarks Ryū weekend intensive @ Kinbaku Studio, Vienna
We - RopeMarks & the Shady Lady - are currently on an airplane that is taking us back to Amsterdam, after having spent five days at the Kinbaku Studio right in the [...]
A quick rope bottoming guide for beginners (part 2/2): being in rope
What should beginning (or aspiring) rope bottoms know? This quick guide aims to present some answers to that question. It’s based on my personal experience of when I just started getting tied, [...]
A quick rope bottoming guide for beginners (part 1/2): making your way into rope
What should beginning (or aspiring) rope bottoms know? This quick guide aims to present some answers to that question. It’s based on my personal experience of when I just started getting tied, [...]
Semenawa: what it is, and what it is not (part 3/3)
Tying or being tied semenawa-style is quite popular in today’s Japanese inspired rope scene. Semenawa is often understood as ‘torturous rope’, but is a context-dependent and nuanced term that can be understood [...]
