Fire Polished Flower

Step 1

To make the flower

Thread your needle with 2.3 m of thread and pick up the IP. Leaving a 15 cm tail, pass your needle through the IP again so that a thread lays on the outside edge of the bead. Pass your needle through the IP 3 more times and arrange the threads so that 2 lay on either side of the bead on opposite sides (fig. 1).

Step 3

For the next row, work an alternate increase. Begin by picking up 2x R10 and passing your needle under the thread bridge created between the first and last R10 added in the previous row, and back through the second R10 just added (fig. 3a).

Pick up 1x R10 and pass your needle under the next thread bridge along and back through the R10 just added. Pick up 1x R10 and pass your needle under the next thread bridge and back through the new R10, and then work an increase by picking up 1x R10 and passing your needle under the same thread bridge as the previous bead and back through the new R10 (fig. 3b).

Continue working in this manner adding 1x R10 to one thread bridge and 2x R10 to the next thread bridge (adding 1x R10 at a time). There should be a total of 21x R10 in this row (fig. 3c). Complete the row by ladder stitching the first and last R10 together to join them into a ring as shown in figure 3d.

Step 5

To begin creating your first petal, pick up 2x R10 and 1x FP and pass your needle under the thread bridge created between the first and last R10 added in the previous row and back through the FP. Pick up 2x R10 and pass your needle under the next thread bridge and back through the 2x R10 (fig. 5).

Step 7

Work another increase row as follows - pick up 2x R10 and 1x FP and anchor them to the first thread bridge, 1x FP to the second thread bridge, 1x FP to the third thread bridge and 2x R10 to the third thread bridge (fig. 7).

Step 9

Work another decrease row as shown in figure 9.

Step 11

To add the tip to your petal, pick up 1x R10 and pass your needle down through all the R10 on the outside edge of the petal. To get into position to create the next petal, pass your needle down the R10 at the base of the petal (added in step 4) and up the R10 next to it (fig. 11).

Step 13

Travel through all the R10 around the outside edge of your flower (including the R10 added in step 4 at the base of each petal) pulling your thread firmly so that little or no thread shows and the petals of your flower furl slightly. Tie off and trim both the working thread and tail thread.