Here's an update to what I've now got. I have not added the stamen yet; I've spent some time reworking the diffuse and ended up using an Sub Surface Scattering material to get some more depth. I think the color vibrancy is much better now. My next step is to get the unbloomed (word?) stamen in there and rework the small…
Hey how's the hammer coming along? I've seen tutorials that use the Helix in Zbrush, and mess about with Initialize and Deformation to make knots. Might give that a try if you like :)