Greetz!

If you're just tuning in, I've been working on treating some raw hemp rope that I bought online. So far, the process has proven to be long and continues to be so.

So far, I've boiled the rope, washed the rope, dried the rope.

Last night, I moved on to stretching and singeing the rope.

I tied the first strand to a stand and started the singeing process. I used a candle lighter, which worked great. I basically just lightly licked the rope with flame. It was neat to watch all of the little fur ignite and burn out. This took me about 20 minutes for the full 40' strand of rope.

Next, I tied the rope to a hitching post I have setup on the office wall. My first attempt at stretching the rope didn't work out so well. I grabbed the rope with both hands and used each hand to pass the rope through the ring. This didn't really work that well. Next, I tried tying one end of the rope to the hitching post, and just pulling the other end. That worked out great except that the rope was so long that I was outside of my apartment pulling the rope. I'm sure this looked weird to my neighbors. Some guy standing on his stair case tugging on a piece of rope that leads somewhere in the house.

I started on the next strand, but I'm trying something different with this strand. I'm wondering if it's even worth singeing the fur if I'm just going to boil, wash, dry, repeat again. So, I skipped the singeing part. This one, I just stretched and recoiled.

I let it boil again for 2 hours, then let it cool overnight in the pot. I emptied the water this morning (still nice and brown) and stuck the rope in the washer before I left for work. When I get home, I'll throw the rope in the drier and finish a set of zippers I started last night.

So far, so good :) The rope was a bit softer after the first round of washing/drying/etc. I'm curious to see how much softer it gets after every cycle.

The first two parts of this installment can be found here, and here.

bfn!

Tags: rope shibari crafts bdsm diy