The purpose of this research was to examine the ways that a metaphor could help describe and make sense of the facilitation practices of a teacher educator who collaborated in a self-study of teacher education practice project with colleagues in Norway, and an international critical friend. Our research question was: 'How does the metaphor of orchestration offer an understanding and elaboration of the complex and dynamic processes of facilitating teacher educator professional development through self-study of teacher education practices?' Data generation involved three layers composed of reflective diaries written troughout and at the end of the data generation, and audio records of pair and group meetings. The metaphor of orchestration provided insight into the ways the facilitator initiated and tried to steer dynamic and uncontrollable teaching and research practices while providing some concrete examples of how metaphors might be manifested in the practices of facilitators of professional development.