Coconut Rope

In this shibari tutorial, Lief and Icky offer a deep dive into the risks and rewards of playing with coconut rope, as well as techniques for utilizing it on the floor or in suspensions.

Mean, scratchy, messy, difficult to handle and impossible to break in, coconut rope will shred your fingers, shed all over your floor and insult your mother. Of course, what makes coconut rope so challenging to tie with is also a large part of what makes it such a fun tool for sensation play in shibari – if you know how. In this series, Lief and Icky detail what to expect from this rough and unwieldy fiber, including the very real safety considerations for both bottoms and riggers, and how these should influence how you use and apply it.

In the first video, they offer advice for the basic handling of coconut rope, using a futomomo tie as an example for how to place it on the body, as well as sharing their tips for the kinds of applications coconut rope is and isn’t suitable for.

In the second video, they demonstrate how even just one hank of coconut rope can be used to create a compression chest harness, exploring both breath play and sensation play in one mean-but-minimalist tie.

In the third video, you’ll see how coconut rope can be used to create a tengu tie for more sadistic floor play.

In the final video, Lief and Icky offer insights for how coconut rope can be used in suspensions – not for load-bearing structures or uplines, but to add sensation and intensity under your other suspension-suited fibers.

This course offers guidance for how coconut rope can be used at every level of your rope practice. However, due to the risks involved, it’s important to be absolutely certain that playing with it falls within your risk profile as well as that of your tying partner/s. Start slow and always keep your skill set in mind.