Rope Jam Studio
Queer- and FLINTA-inclusive kinbaku studio that moved into a new space in 2025 and teaches its own graded curriculum, Tiger Nawa Ryu, alongside weekly foundation classes. It hosts a Thursday open-studio rope salon plus themed salons, skill labs and weekend intensives.
Rope Jam Studio (styled “Ropejam Studio” on its own site) is a kinbaku and shibari studio in north London built around the motto “Unconditional Rope Love”. It is run by Lola Tiger Nawa, who also works as an artist, filmmaker, yoga teacher and sound practitioner. Lola traces a first contact with rope to sailing in childhood and later studied traditional kinbaku, naming Osada Eikichi, Yukimura Haruki, Osada Steve, Nureki Chimuo, Kazami Ranki and Akechi Denki as influences. According to the studio’s blog, its current space opened in September 2025, and a post in July 2026 looked back on the first year there. The room is described as intimate, on the ground floor, and arranged using feng shui principles.
Tiger Nawa Ryū. The studio’s own curriculum combines the tenderness of aibunawa with the intensity of semenawa, a blend Lola calls “Romantic Seme Nawa”. It is taught in seven progressive levels, each a weekend, which can be taken across a twelve-month “Full Journey” pass; the levels move through connection, structure, intensity, composition, gravity and personal expression. The studio stresses that the path is not a race toward suspension but a way to find out whether one is drawn to the role of bakushi, ukete or both. Teaching is described as maieutic: drawing out a student’s own understanding rather than handing out answers.
Other formats. Rope Foundations classes cover rope handling, communication, consent, body awareness and first structures for complete and returning beginners; the autumn 2026 listings show weekly Foundations 1 and Foundations 2 evenings. “Shibari Elements” labs each take one subject, such as futomomo, rope handling, the gote or predicaments, and masterclasses with Lola and visiting teachers serve established practitioners. A weekly Thursday open-studio rope salon gives practice time, alongside themed salons and workshops such as self-tie and self-suspension. Private tuition is offered to individuals, couples and small groups.
The studio describes itself as LGBTQIA+, FLINTA+, trans, non-binary and BiPOC inclusive and says difference is celebrated rather than merely accommodated. Beginners can come alone or with a friend, and rope is provided in class.