About Us
Zach
Founder, Lead Instructor of Heartland Kinbaku
Zach discovered Japanese rope in San Francisco in 2015. In his first few years, he explored widely and took classes from rope instructors across North America, Europe, and Japan. Since 2019, the style and instructor that resonated most is Kinbaku Luxuria style, developed by Riccardo Wildties of Italy, ichiban deshi of Naka Akira. He is a certified KL educator and has been dedicated since 2021 to building the strongest possible community of dedicated and passionate students to spread KL style in North America.
Outside of rope, he works in the nonprofit sector and enjoys rock climbing, boxing, and competitive shooting.
ClaraRosa
Instructor, Bottoming Instructor
ClaraRosa is a rope fetishist and sadomasochist who had an unhealthy fascination with kidnapping scenes as a child. She has been bottoming and tying since 2016 and hosting rope events in Chicago since 2018. She believes firmly that rope is for every body, and she finds it deeply fulfilling to make kinbaku and semenawa practice accessible to people who desire it. She enjoys rope both as a medium for fantasy enactment and as a means of emotional connection and catharsis. ClaraRosa works in the medical field and has made her home in Chicago for over a decade.
We find deep inspiration and compelling beauty in traditional Japanese rope bondage. We explore rope as a medium of intimacy, vulnerability, trust, altered states of consciousness, aesthetic expression, and deep connection.
Our practice and curriculum is inspired by the work of Riccardo Wildties as well as Japanese artists. Zach is a certified Kinbaku Luxuria educator under Riccardo Wildties, and teaches workshops and private lessons in that system. Our core curriculum is inspired by other Japanese styles, infused with the safety, aesthetic, and technical skills adapted from Wildties.
While we have tools and skills to adapt rope to all types of scenes, our primary interest and focus is in rope as an exploration of SM play, suffering, and surrender. The rope styles we are inspired by are often described as semenawa (tormenting/torturing rope). The style that inspires the core curriculum focuses on compacting the body, restricting freedom of movement, layering challenging sensations, and promoting a playful, intimate, engaged tying dynamic. In our intermediate/advanced classes, we also offer content inspired by a style that explores twisting, more extreme suspensions, objectification, surrender, and aesthetics.
We’ll discuss in depth during the course the various ways this kind of tormenting rope can be enjoyable and how to approach it to cultivate a deeper appreciation for it.
In general, we’ll be demonstrating exercises and techniques the way that we like to play with them, but are happy to accommodate a wide variety of rope tastes and desires and will provide suggestions and modifications to suit your tastes upon request. Modifications and adaptations for each student as desired, based on body type or experience preference, are available!