This temari commemorates the host city of the first Temari Southern Style meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham was founded on the sweat and hard labor of the miners and steel workers. The city had all the natural resources for the production of steel: coal, iron ore  and limestone. Until the early 1970s, the glow from the blast furnaces could be seen against the night sky. The furnaces are now shut down, but the memories are displayed in the colors of this ball. The red orange thread in this ball represents the iron ore, the gray thread is for the limestone and the black thread represents the coal from deep in the earth. Both the center stripe and the starbursts in orange metallic symbolize the fire from the blast furnaces.

This ball is approximately  2 inches in diameter. It uses 2 colors of thread and a metallic for the marking threads and starbursts.  Mark with metallic thread a simple 4 division and obi.  Add 4 pins to the obi so that it is now divided into eighths. Add 2 pins at each point where the marking thread crosses the obi. With you first color of thread come up at the north pole and take the thread to the inside of the obi marking thread and back down to the south pole  passing between the two pins and CROSSING OVER to the other side of the marking thread. Now bring it back up to the north pole again staying just inside the obi marking pin, passing between the two pins and crossing over to the other side of the marking thread. repeat for other side of this diamond shape. That is 1 round. Continue for 4 rounds. End off an bury the thread end.

With second color of thread,  come up at next pair of obi pins and repeat above steps for 4 rounds. Go back to first color thread and first diamond and lay 4 more rounds moving towards the center of the diamond. Do the same with the second color of thread. Continue alternating between diamonds until you reach the center. Finish off.

With metallic thread, tie each obi thread crossing area with three bundle wraps and finish off. With the same metallic thread make a starburst pattern in the 4 blank areas.

Finished!