A Clay Rose for Mary

I am making an Immaculate Heart of Mary bead, but first, I needed to make a rose for the crown of roses.  I decided to upgrade my simple roses to a little more sophisticated look.  Let me know what you think.

First I started mixing the many shades of rose that I need for the rose. Since Mary's heart is going to be red, I need a slightly lighter color for the rose.  I chose this dusty rose color.
Believe it or not, this process took about 85% of the time to make the whole bead. 

Then I rolled out each color and layed them on top of each other so I could slice off the "petals" one by one.

 I started with the inside of the rose and worked my way out.  Here is the inside of the rose. 

Not too much later, I was done with the rest of the rose by putting the petals on one by one.  When the rose gets smaller, the shades of rose with blend together better than what you see now.

Now I just have to fill in the outside of the rose with the background color.  Then I can get started on my Immaculate Heart bead.  I will use the other half of the rose for other beads that can be used on the rosary or jewelry.