Peacock Swirl

Peacock Swirl? Not so much. More like:

Attack of the crazed, alien peacock

My first attempt at a peacock swirl - the first challenge from Amy Warden's Soap Challenge Club - was not the beautiful, delicate meanderings of colour and form that I had envisioned it would be.

Instead, it is more of an abstract, poultry-derived mishmash of  green, white, orange and a shy violet peeking faintly around the other colours.

Don't get me wrong, the whole soap is actually not that bad. It has a certain vague watercolour quality to it, reminiscent of some of Monet's works. But Monet painted ponds with waterlillies and pretty bridges. No peacocks, none within ten miles.

The problems began when I elected to pour the white soap base before mixing the colours. This gave it plenty of time to set. Like cement. OK not quite as thick, but thick enough. Then, when I ran the comb through the soap to start the swirl, I dug the thing too deep and started dragging the thick base along with the colours. 

This flash of brilliance on my part, plus the fact that the teeth of the comb were a bit too close together, caused it to get all gunked up with the white base thereby turning it into more of a paddle than anything else, and the delicate design became more of a gobble dee gook!

So there you have it. My first attempt, but by golly, not my last! We shall soldier on! So, for now, enjoy the video.