About the Monarch: it is a moderate difficulty build requiring proper tensioning, especially in the initial construction of the waist and thigh bands. It is a build that gets better with practice ~ you will discover how much tension to use and where, on which positions on your body do the frictions sit best, how much rope you will need, etc..
It is a fully suspendable hip harness featuring a pareidolic butterfly hishi pattern on the front and a net of diamonds across the back, which helps to distribute weight across the booty when in suspension.
This builds requires multiple ropes and is shown built in 6mm jute
Pictutorial:
1) Create a single column tie (sct) abutting the top of the hips
2) Ensure there is ample slack in this initial sct as we will be frictioning around this band 3 times as we continue
3) Create a thigh band with the friction positioned along where the side seem of pants would be, and pull the band up into a slight v shape, exiting to the back *we will be frictioning around both thigh bands 4 times during the build so ensure there is enough slack in these bands to account for that
4) Simple twist at the midline spine, pulling the waist band down slightly with tension
5) Continue by creating a mirrored thigh band on the other leg, exiting to the front
6) Now make a 180° turn beneath our initial knot, following from my fingertip to base, exiting above our proceeding line
7) Continuing toward the back and slightly downward, place a munter's hitch (mh) at the intersecting line
8) Booty bridge: a bridge in shibari is essentially a "broken" sct secured with a mh ~ it is a cuff with a mh in the middle which separates the cuff into 2 equalizeable loops To build: stretch your rope across the back toward the opposite thigh and move under the thigh band from above
9) Move across to the other leg and again move under the thigh band from above
10) Bring your rope over and behind both of these booty bridge lines from above
11) To finish the mh on our booty bridge, move up and behind the initial line leading to the beginning of our bridge, exiting up diagonally to mirror our mh at the intersection
12) Create a mirrored mh at the intersection exiting toward the front
13) Move under the stem
14) Reverse direction with a firm pull
15) Move under 2 diagonal lines and create another bridge this time at the crotch ~ the vertical lines of this bridge will act as the standing lines for our hishi or diamond pattern at the front
16) Build bridge
17) Exit by moving under the standing diagonal lines to mirror the other side, and ensure equal tension in both sides of the vertical bridge lines ~ and ensure the thigh wraps sit nice and flat beneath the loops of our 2 bridges
18) Move up around and behind the first side of our waist band - (on the side that we finish our bridge, to one side of our starting knot)
19) Move down and over the 2 standing lines this time, where previously we moved behind
20) Pull open half our hishi pattern by throwing a half hitch hh around our first set of vertical lines from our front bridge
21) Continue holding the tension of the opened hishi as you throw another hh around the thigh band on this side ~ ensure the thigh band sits flat
22) Continue up diagonally by placing a mh at the intersecting line
23) Place another mh on the intersecting line above as you continue back and at an upward diagonal
24) Simple twist aka hh around the waist band with the placement of the friction being about half way between the spinal midline and the last mh placed on the standing line below
25) Continuing diagonally downward, create another mh on the intersecting line with its placement approximately halfway between midline spine and the hh you just created on the side of the waistband
26) Continue down and diagonally toward the opposite side of the back and place another mh at the intersecting line
27) Create a cow hitch from outside to inside around the thigh bands
28) 360° around the top of the booty bridge with a firm pull, exiting above the proceeding line and toward the opposite thigh to mirror our cow's hitch
29) Mirror the cow hitch building it from inside to outside this time
Click here for a closer look at the cow hitch
Moving up and diagonally mirror the mh on the intersecting line you meet
Mh dead in the middle at the intersecting line, continuing up and diagonally
Mh at the intersecting line
Mirror the simple twist around the waist band off to the side of the midline spine exiting toward the front
Mirror the 2 mh on this side of the front as well as the hh around the thigh bands
Pull open the other side of our hishi pattern by throwing a mirrored hh around the vertical standing lines and pull with good and even tension exiting up toward the starting knot stem
To finish, mirror: move over two standing lines, behind the other side of the waist band, and 360° vertically around the entire stem, exiting below the waist band to either side
360° beneath our starting knot horizontally and cinch tightly ~ like a belt around everything at the front knot
Secure as you see fit ~ 2 options amongst many are: Yuki knot around our starting bight or split tails and square knot through the bight