Make two more duplicates of the top shape and place the top duplicate shape slightly above and slightly to the right of the other.

Combine Shapes > Subtract Shapes. Skew the shape to the right a little.

Use the Shape Editor Tool to shorten the right side of the shape by dragging the points toward the center.

Apply a 2-color Linear Fill.

Add a Linear Transparency.

Position the reflection over the top shape as shown.

This completes the top half of the thread.

Make three duplicates of the bottom half and position them as shown.

Combine Shapes > Subtract Shapes.

Apply a 3-color fill.

Using the Shape Editor Tool, resize the ends as shown by dragging the end points in the direction of the red arrows. (The blue shape represents the non-edited version).

Place the reflection over the bottom half as shown on the bottom.

Group the thread elements and center the thread top and center over the cylinder shape.

Reduce the height only (not the width) of the thread to 80%.

Make three duplicates and position them as shown.

Use the Object Alignment menu (Arrange > Alignment) to evenly distribute the four threads.

NOTE: Leave a space of about one thread below the bottom of the cylinder.

Select the four threads and click twice to enable rotate/skew mode. Skew the right side of the threads down to the bottom of the cylinder.

Group the threads and cylinder and bottom pieces. Reduce the group to 80 pixels.

(Remember, we created the thread portion larger).

On completing the image, I noticed some things I wanted to change. Being too lazy to redo the entire tutorial, I decided we could change them together here.

Reduce the iris and blood vessels to 90 percent.

Using the Shape Editor Tool, and with the bulb's outline selected, round off the place where the round part of the bulb meets the bottom portion. The best way to do this is to add a point at either end  of the area next to the black curved lines, which I added to illustrate the shape of the curve. Delete any in-between points. The line will now be a straight line which you can gently shape with the Shape Editor Tool.

I also added a panel in the very center with a two color fill to add an additional reflection to round the bottom portion of the bulb.

So what do you think? Is anybody here? Or has everybody run screaming into the night? If you finished this tutorial, or even if you didn't, I'd appreciate hearing from you. If you encountered any problems, or mistakes, let me know these as well. (I'm only human).

On the next page is a slightly different version of the eyebulb image which lead to this tutorial.