Piping Roses with Star-Cut Tip #64

I found an unusual tip this weekend: the Ateco #64, which is considered a star-cut tip. It's a curved petal tip (like you use for piping violets), but it has a couple of teeth carved into the inner curve by the narrow end. The teeth cause whatever you pipe to have a ridge:

I can imagine this tip being useful for borders and swags, but I wanted to try piping a rose with it (only because it looks so much like a violet tip). I started by piping the rose bases in advance and allowing them to firm up. Go here to see why this step is important. 

 Dab a glue stick to a flower nail, then carefully place one of the bases on. If it comes off the paper, stick it back down with a dot of icing.

 I'm not going to bore you with details of how to pipe the petals; I'll let Wilton do that. ;) Seriously, I go sort of nuts thinking about all the angles, hand positions, number of petals, etc. that are involved in piping roses. The basic thing you need to do is pipe a center wraparound petal…

 …and then pipe as many petals as you need to sufficiently cover the base. The petals should overlap, be staggered (not be in vertical rows), and angle increasingly outwards from the base as you reach the parchment.

 Generally, when you've piped the base with the round #12 tip, you can fit on 3 rows of petals beyond the first wraparound petal. The rows might consist of 3, 5, and 7 overlapping petals.

As you can see, these look more or less like traditional roses, but with a grooved edge. This might be the perfect variation for you, if you're tired of piping roses that look like everybody else's. Try piping roses with other non-traditional tips!