Step 3 - Horizontal Bracing

When you have finished row 18 begin strengthening the rows. Turn the cactus inside out and add beads in between rows 6 and 7 and rows 11 and 12. These will be your bracing rows. Pull tight.

This will form a slight ridge around the inside of the cactus but it will help it keep its shape when turned inside out.

Step 4 - Vertical Bracing

With the cactus still turned inside out, strengthen the vertical ridges of 8/0 beads by running    11/0 green beads down the middle of the ridges like you did for the horizontal rows. When you are all done strengthening the inside you can turn it inside out and tighten the base (row 18), by running thread through all the beads at the bottom without adding beads in between. Pull tight. Your cactus should be able to stand on its own.

Note: If at this point the cactus does not seem stiff enough you can add beads down the outside of the vertical rows if you have room in the beads for more thread to pass though.

Step 5 - Adding the Spines

Stitch: Stacking

Colour guide: Clear silver lined     

There are three little spines (made with bugle and seed beads) erupting from each white 8/0 bead.

To make this, start at the top and bring your needle out a white 8/0 bead, add a bugle bead and a seed bead. Skip the seed bead and run your needle back down through the bugle bead. Because there is no room now in your white bead for more thread you will need to anchor your bugle bead to the thread that runs vertically through that row. So take the needle under and around the thread that runs down the vertical spine of the cactus before adding on the second bugle and seed bead spine. Skip the seed bead, run back down the bugle, take the needle under and around the thread that runs down the vertical spine and add the third bugle bead spine.

After making the third bugle spine weave your way down the vertical spine to the next 8/0 white bead and repeat the process until you run out of white beads in that row. You should end up with 8 vertical rows with 6 groups of spines, 3 spines to a group.

Step 6 - Making the Base for the Flower

Stitch: Square stitch

Colour guide: Orange

The flower is made up of 2 rows of petals. These are joined to the top of the cactus by 2 rings of square stitch.

Note: The graph shows the inner ring on the outside. This was done to show the thread path more clearly; however when you are actually sewing the beads to the top of the cactus the outer ring of the graph will actually sit on top of the first ring and slightly inside of it.