For the base for my rose, I used a rose kit from our friend Richard at 42 Fab, which he cut on his CNC plasma cutter.

First, I separated all my pieces and clamped the sheet down to a table. Next, I used an angle grinder with a cutting wheel. I realized I was able to bend the pieces back and forth to separate them by hand.

After I clamped each piece down, I used the same side of the cutting wheel to sand sharp nubs left behind from the tabs.

After I had all my pieces ready, I began the assembly.

First, to secure my two pieces I used a series of tack welds, which did not need to be pretty because they wouldn’t be visible once the flower was built.

Next, I used my torch to heat the first petal until it glowed. Then, I used a plier to bend the petal upwards. Because the thin steel didn’t hold heat for long, I clamped the torch directly to the table so I could easily pop it in and out of the flame.

Next, I took each gradually bigger petal piece and slid it on the steel. Then, I welded each piece and bent it similar to how I did before.

The shaping of the petals was the most time consuming. A larger heat source would have sped up the process, but the mapp gas torch was sufficient.

To make each petal look more life-like, I roughly placed each petal in an overlapping pattern. Then, I went around a second time to ruffle the edges.

To ensure the finished rose would not be short and stout, I welded the last piece with a half-inch gap between the base of the existing flowers and the last piece.

I took the most care shaping the very last layer of petals because they would be the most visible. I was also careful with the placement of the first leaf piece so it would mask the seams between the outer layer of petals.

Then, I played with the positions of the final two leaf pieces and welded them into place. I didn’t feel the need to finish the final pieces because roses naturally have somewhat angular leaves.

Lastly, while still wearing a glove, I used a brush to remove the slag from the rose.

Overall, I was really happy with how the rose turned out.