you made a peacock swirl???

lionprincess00 · Sep 2, 2014

I made a contraption with bamboo skewers to attempt a peacock swirl. I read someone's blog somewhere stating the closer together the skewers, the less clean looking lines. So did you find peacock swirls do better with wider spaced teeth? My skewers are currently quite close, and I'm contemplating removing every other one. Thx so much!

IrishLass · Sep 2, 2014

The bamboo skewers in my homemade contraption fall in the range of 1/2" to 3/4" apart from each other. I tried to get them spaced exact, but the best I could do was keep them in a tight enough range. For what it's worth, though, it works great, and I'm more than very pleased with my resulting swirls (whoever came up with this method is a genius!).

IrishLass

Dorymae · Sep 2, 2014

Depends on your batter. I made two, one close and one spaced a bit farther. To use one closely spaced your batter must be emulsion only. If you hit trace, it will be blurred. Just have your colors ready, use a very slow moving recipe and do not even think of stick blending your colors, just mix well.

If you stay at emulsion the design is exquisite. I would say try it, then if your recipe traces to fast, remove every other one.

If you know your recipe will trace, then just remove every other. It will be beautiful either way.

My close pegs are 1/4 inch apart. My regular are just over 1/2 inch. Had to add I don't use skewers, I use cocktail sticks. They are about 5 inches long.

lionprincess00 · Sep 2, 2014

Mine are 1/4" apart. To confirm, rookie alert! Just to emulsion is when the oils no longer separate in the batter but you can not make trace lines if the batter is dribbled onto itself, correct?
And yup, got my handy risk ready for no more stickblending after the lye water is added and blended. Thx for the input!!! I guess I'll remove every other one hastily if I DO trace.

Wisk not risk. Gah.

Dorymae · Sep 2, 2014

Yes, emulsion is blended so the oils and water are fully combined but the batter does not leave lines. I think your batch will be a success no matter what. You'll learn a lot from making it and should end up with beautiful soap even if the peacock swirl doesn't work out, just think of the swirl of color you will have! You can't lose. Good luck! :thumbup:

godschild · Sep 2, 2014

Pics please! I love seeing peacock swirls. They are my favorite swirl but I've never made one yet. I want to as soon as I can find a slow recipe that uses lard, coconut oil, and rice bran oil

I have looked everywhere for one that someone has used before but haven't found one yet and I don't trust myself to make a slow moving recipe because I never have before.

IrishLass · Sep 3, 2014

It's not as perfect as some I've seen, but for what it's worth, here is a pic of the very first peacock swirl I ever made. I used the same homemade contraption I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread (i.e., with my skewers spaced between 1/2" to 3/4"):

I used Love Spirit (a Love Spell dupe from TheScentWorks), which is a very well-behaved/slow-moving FO. My soap was at a medium trace by the time I got to swirling, btw.

For what it's worth, I alternated free-handing it (i.e., carefully hand-pouring each color from measuring cups) in a snake-like pattern from one end of my slab mold to the other. Then, when all the soap was in, I made one swipe from one end of my mold to the other with my peacock skewer tool, and then I finished things off with a chopstick, drawing curvy lines of 's' patterns spaced about 1" apart with it from one end to the other across the entire mold through the swirls I had already made with the tool.

IrishLass

lionprincess00 · Sep 3, 2014

Thx! It didn't work for me. I did post pics, but it was moved to the pic section....The skewers were way too close and it blurred in the bottom right corner pretty badly. I also layered the entire thing with squirt bottles, but when I dragged the skewers through the entire thing....the bottom didn't swirl peacock wise. The bottom (i unmolded a while ago) looks like an "in the mold swirl" kind of. The top a little reminiscent of a peacock. Eh. Nice colors and smells fabulous! Black is gray but still pretty.

Thx for the pics and info. It was a beautiful first try!

you made a peacock swirl???

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