Flower and Snake
A Capitol Hill rope arts lounge with several tying stations built around bamboo poles and columns, open for drop-in practice from Thursday to Sunday. It also runs a monthly box-tie (gote) class, beginner partnered-tying sessions and weekend intensives, with a paid membership program.
Flower and Snake is run by Jacques LeBouc, its owner and teacher, and co-owner Madeline Dahl. According to the studio’s team page, LeBouc began tying in 2014, studied a range of styles while traveling, and now concentrates on the Naka style (see Naka-ryū); he also shoots film photography. Dahl has been a rope bottom since 2018, learning alongside him, and is also an erotic performer and fine artist.
The owners explain that they wanted a room where rope is treated as an art form rather than a few hard points squeezed into a corner. The center of the lounge is a custom, hand-built wooden structure; they describe its traditional construction as a link between their contemporary Western practice and the lineage of Japanese rope. The space has six tying areas sized for two to four people, each with a seven-foot bamboo and a column for hashira work, set in natural materials, earthy colors and low light.
The main offer is open tying time, the Rope Lounge, which runs Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Around it the calendar adds ongoing rope development classes, intensive workshops and sessions on photography and professional rigging. The November 2026 calendar, for example, lists a self-tying meetup (see self-tie), recurring “Partnered Tying for Beginners” evenings, a beginners’ lounge night, a hashira workshop, and an evening plus a weekend with the visiting teachers KnotReallyDead and Specimen Red. The lounge also takes part in the Second Thursday Capitol Hill art walk.
Flower and Snake is funded partly through memberships, including a Patreon, and sells items through an online shop. It is located on East Pike Street in Capitol Hill.