Geek Alert
Something I’ve been doing for a while, which apparently not many other people seem to do, is colour code my lengths of rope. Mainly because I like have different rope lengths for different purposes:
- 2m great for linking things, tying off to beds, etc.
- 3m great for wrists
- 4m great for ankles
- 5m & 6m great for knees and thighs
- 8m ideal for chest harnesses
- etc.
When I’m tying, I want to be able to easily grab the right length of rope for the purpose, I typical daisy chain my lengths anyway (my very first way of recognising the different lengths) but this doesn’t help much when you’ve taken them off and are about to reuse them without tidying up as you go along.
So having a quick glance code system makes this much easier (particularly in low light conditions, piles of rope mid-scene, etc.)
My second system, was having a different colour electrical tape, wrapped around the ends (which also helped stop the ends fraying) .. so blue was wrists, yellow was ankles, black was chest, etc.
But then as I started to get even more lengths, I’d start combining colours (black & red was 12meters for a simple karada, etc.) but again, this too much of an organic growth, and wasn’t particularly scalable.
When I was a young kid, Mr Johnny Ball taught me in his book, how to do binary on my hands, and I didn’t forget it.
Binary is either ‘on’ or ‘off’ (1 or 0), so counting from right to left (rather than left to right),
- the right hand thumb has a value of 1,
- the right index finger = 2,
- the long finger =4,
- the right ring finger 8,
- the right little finger = 16,
- left little finger = 32, etc..
With with three fingers, on the right hand alone, you can count from 0 to 7 (a three bit system, so 8 potential outputs), add a fourth finger, and you can count up to 15 (16 potential outputs), etc.
As not many of my rope lengths are more than 16 meters, I figured ‘four bit’ should work, so started using a simplified rainbow to mark each finger position / value:
- red = thumb = 1,
- yellow = index finger = 2,
- green = long finger = 4,
- blue = ring finger = 8,
So if I wanted a three meter length, I’d grab the red/yellow stripe on the end. Five meter would be the green/yellow stripe. eight meter would be the clear blue, etc.
But apparently, this was a bit too confusing to describe to other people simply.
So, going back to more basics, I’ve already spent a lot of time using sailing whipping twine to whip the ends of boat ropes (on boats, you can’t use the knots generally used in Shibari, to tidy the ends, otherwise the lines can’t pass through jammers and the like when you actually want them to).
Whipping in this term, is effectively wrapping a length of thin twine multiple times around the end of a rope, and tying it off in such a way as to keep it clean and tidy. There are loads of tutorials available online.
Whipping twine is pre-waxed (much like you want your jute rope to be), it’s strong, and with the right tools (a large suitable needle, some pliers, and a palm thimble thing), it’s easy to use, just a little time consuming to do.
Whipping twine can come in a choice of colours (but not all boating Chandler shops sell anything but white). So as my own rope is typically black or white, I wanted colours that would contrast well in the dark.
I settled on blue for ‘off’ and red for ‘on’, so this would be clear against my black and white ropes.
Then using the good old binary system again:
0001 = 1
0010 = 2
0011 = 3
0100 = 4
0101 = 5
0110 = 6
0111 = 7
1000 = 8
For my new jute, 8 meters lengths is the longest, and also most common for Shibari.
So as I couldn’t really be bothered using a four bit system (because that would add 33% more work adding that fourth wrap), I figured I’d just use a three bit system (up to 7 meters). And then as I can’t have a zero meter length rope (apart from with my hype-bondage), blue/blue/blue = 000, which I figured would work for 1000 = 8 meters.
So that’s what I use now!
New demonstration photo here, although if you look closely at my older photos, you’ll see the old colour code systems in place there too.
My latest system has already proved particularly effective in the typical dark of dungeon play, and in a big pile of rope mid-scene I can quickly grasp a triple blue (8 meter) or a red/blue/red (5 meter), etc..
Quite a few people have indicated an interest in how I’d done it.
So I wanted to share my method more publicly, than the personal descriptions I’ve been giving to people or a few years now 🙂