From Duplo India With Love: Peacock

DUPLO Peacock

  I had a great time working on this peacock. It was inspired by Skylar Schirtzinger's beautiful DUPLO spiral that you can see on his MOC page. After I built my version of a snail, I wanted to see how others worked out the problem of constructing a spiral shape. I really struggled with the snail's spiral shell, and I didn't think it came out particularly well. Not only did I think that Skylar's spiral was very cool, I also really liked the technique that he used to create it. I had never thought of only partially connecting one brick to another. I always just mashed one brick completely onto the next one! Anyway, I liked the idea of lifting up the bricks

Peacock Tail Feathers

and wanted to use the technique in my next creation. I thought that it might be fun to use lifted bricks to create a feathered effect. This brought me to the peacock.
   As a child, I had only seen peacocks wandering around the New Orleans Audubon Zoo. I had never really thought about them in the wild until my husband and I watched a video about the tigers in India. There was an incredible shot of a peacock perched in a tree at sunset. The sky was bright orange, and the trees and bird were in silhouette. The bird's tail feathers dripped off the tree branch, and in one sudden and graceful movement, the bird flew to another tree in the forest. I will never forget that image and the startling realization that there are forests filled with tigers and wild peacocks. How could such a large gaudy tail not be an incredible liability in nature? Of course, I am glad that it is not. They are stunning birds.

Peacock Detail