One of the great things about rope bondage is that the building blocks you learn as a beginner never lose their usefulness. They simply become components of more advanced and complicated bondage. One of the basic building blocks for almost any kind of rope bondage is the single column tie. A column is any part of the body. It's commonly a wrist or ankle, but it could also be a torso, etc. You can use the single column tie to bind your partner to the four corners of the bed or to bind one part of the body to another; wrist to ankle, for example.
Much of rope bondage has to do with the control and flow of the rope, so try to handle the rope in a way that maximizes efficiency. Most styles of rope bondage use a piece of doubled rope, starting with the bight (the middle of the rope.)
Tying Up Your Partner
First, pull out about an arm’s length of rope and drape it over the column to be tied.![hand with aqua nails holding loop of green rope against gray background]()
Wrap the running end of the rope (the one with the bight) around the limb several times. Three wraps seems to be ideal for comfort. The wider the wraps, the greater the area over which pressure will be distributed.
![hand with aqua nails holding wooden rod with green rope draped over it]()
Cross the running end over the wraps.![hand holding wooden rod with green rope wrapped around it]()
Next, pull the running end underneath all the wraps (between the rope and the limb.) At this point, you simply tie the running and standing ends together. There are several ways to do this, but the simplest way is to create a loop in the long end of the rope (the standing end) by twisting it in toward your wraps.
![hand holding wooden rod with green rope wrapped around it]()
![hand holding wooden rod with green rope tied around it]()
![hand with aqua nails holding green rope tied around wooden rod]()
Finally, pull the bight through and tighten down. (Depending on how slippery your rope is, you may need to add another half hitch or overhand knot to make sure this holds.)![hand with aqua nails holding green rope tied around wooden rod]()
![hand with aqua nails holding green rope tied around wooden rod]()
The important thing to look out for with any bondage tie is that it doesn’t tighten down on the limb when it’s pulled on. If you’re going to have someone in bondage for a while, be sure to check on your ties regularly.
Once you get the hang of a few basics, there’s a whole world of decorative and functional ties to discover!