An Ugly Duckling Becomes a Peacock

This is the story of the ugly duckling that becomes a peacock.  It started out strong, then quickly went downhill.  It got back on track and the peacock emerged.

I have always wanted to do a peacock (or interpretation of one) but haven’t found the right opportunity.  Though I haven’t done stained glass before, I decided to give it a go here.  I looked at all of the resources that Christine generously provided and took tips and pointers from different ones.

I played around with a number of ideas for the peacock. I settled on this one because it felt the most forgiving of the ones I considered.  I cut out a body shape from parchment paper and traced around it with edible marker.  I started drawing feathers.  This is when things got out of control.  It was as if I couldn’t stop myself.  It wasn’t looking very good and for some reason I decided even more feathers would fix it! Absolute chaos.

 When I went to pipe the outline in black royal icing, it was such a mess that I could only use the body of the bird as direct guide for piping.  I had to wing it on the outlining of the feathers.  Once I had finished the outlining, it looked even more chaotic.  I almost scrapped it completely.  Once I started filling in the areas with white, however, I had renewed hope. 

I painted the patches with coloring gel diluted with grain alcohol. I used a plain frosted cookie to color test before applying it to the peacock.  Once finished, I covered it with confectioner’s glaze which gave it the shine.

I had so much fun with this even as the wheels came off the wagon.  I’ve been working on this for awhile as spurts of time became available.  There was a long stretch between the completion of the chaotic feather drawing and the filling in of the white.  The cookie was in a see-through container on a credenza and it became known as psycho peacock. I was afraid it was going to give me nightmares!😂

Wonderful colors!

Wonderful work 👏

Wow Lisa, this is awesome!!! Congratulations on your perseverance, you nailed it!! Great colours and effects!♥️

Love the design! So glad you stuck with it.

Nicely done!  I think it is quite striking when it was just black and white too.

@sylviawilson posted:

Wonderful colors!

Thank you Sylvia!😘

@Petra Florean posted:

Wonderful work 👏

Thank you so much Petra!❤️

@Heather Bruce Sosa posted:

Wow Lisa, this is awesome!!! Congratulations on your perseverance, you nailed it!! Great colours and effects!♥️

Thank you Heather.  I do like the colors but it was definitely touch and go for awhile!😂😘

@Aproned Artist posted:

Love the design! So glad you stuck with it.

Thank you.  It isn't exactly what I had pictured but given how far off track I veered, I'm pleased.  There was definitely an audible "whoosh!" when I finished.😂

@E. Sherwood posted:

Nicely done!  I think it is quite striking when it was just black and white too.

Thank you.  My husband liked the black and white version too.  Though, in his case, I think he may have just been relieved that I covered up the psycho peacock. 

How lucky for us that you saw this project through to completion. What started out as chaos now makes complete sense. It really looks like a lot of planning and design work went into this entry. I like how your colors and their levels of intensity make it look as though there is light coming through the "glass".

@Sweet Prodigy posted:

How lucky for us that you saw this project through to completion. What started out as chaos now makes complete sense. It really looks like a lot of planning and design work went into this entry. I like how your colors and their levels of intensity make it look as though there is light coming through the "glass".

Thank you Christine.  It was definitely a "challenge"! 

That is a great stained glass cookie dear Lisa!! And Thanks for the mini tutorial!! @LisaF ❤️😘

I love your peacock Lisa @LisaF! The colors are perfect and I can only imagine what you were thinking as it came together. "Chaos" in your mind became beauty my dear!!! You really challenged yourself with this project and I think that's what these challenges are all about . What key things would you say you learned from creating your peacock? I always like to think back to the process of any project to better understand the dos and don'ts for the next time .

I could use your exact phrasing for my most recent Halloween project. LOL. (Not yet posted.) However, my dear friend, I believe you are being way, way too hard on yourself!!! Your finished peacock is gogrgeous . I love it ❤️❤️❤️. Hugs...

@Icingsugarkeks posted:

That is a great stained glass cookie dear Lisa!! And Thanks for the mini tutorial!! @LisaF ❤️😘

Thanks Buddy!😘

@Cookies Fantastique posted:

I love your peacock Lisa @LisaF! The colors are perfect and I can only imagine what you were thinking as it came together. "Chaos" in your mind became beauty my dear!!! You really challenged yourself with this project and I think that's what these challenges are all about . What key things would you say you learned from creating your peacock? I always like to think back to the process of any project to better understand the dos and don'ts for the next time .

I could use your exact phrasing for my most recent Halloween project. LOL. (Not yet posted.) However, my dear friend, I believe you are being way, way too hard on yourself!!! Your finished peacock is gogrgeous . I love it ❤️❤️❤️. Hugs...

Thank you for your kindness Carol @Cookies Fantastique.  I definitely learned a LOT with this one!  First - I should have drawn up the entire project ahead of time.  Even if I just use it as reference, it would have given me a chance to edit more.  Second, the icing consistency for both outlining in black and flooding in white was critical.  And both of mine were not up to snuff.  I had to double pipe the outline in spots and the white icing kept dimpling and sinking.  (I definitely should have paid more attention to the consistency at the beginning.)  This leads to the third lesson learned, which has to do with intricacy. I just can't pipe things well that are too detailed or have to fit into small spaces.  If I had drawn the whole thing out in advance, I would have paid more attention to removing some of the nooks and points that didn't work out so well.  I won't say that I'm not going to make the exact same mistakes again but those are my take away lessons!

Beautiful colours .. intricate work well executed.

Thank you for sharing the process of making Lisa❤️

so so 😘beautiful ❤️

Looks gorgeous. So much work😁❤❤!!

@Jean Adams posted:

Beautiful colours .. intricate work well executed.

Thank you for your kind words Jean!❤️

@CHIKAKO.F posted:

Thank you for sharing the process of making Lisa❤️

so so 😘beautiful ❤️

You are so very kind!😘❤️

@Elke Hoelzle posted:

Looks gorgeous. So much work😁❤❤!!

Thank you Elke.  It felt like much more drama than work!😂😂

Awesome work! I love your design.

Lovely work. Vibrant colors.

Gorgeous ❤️❤️❤️!

Wonderful work, dear Lisa! 🦚💙💚💛🖤 @LisaF

@Kazuyo Matsui posted:

Awesome work! I love your design.

Thank you so much Kazuyo!❤️

@Zeena posted:

Lovely work. Vibrant colors.

Thank you Zeena!

@iSugarfy (aka swissophie) posted:

Gorgeous ❤️❤️❤️!

Thank you so very much!❤️😘

@Kanch J posted:

Wonderful work, dear Lisa! 🦚💙💚💛🖤 @LisaF

Thanks Kanch!❤️😘

very nice

@PUDING FARM posted:

very nice

many many thanks.😘

Creative and nice