"Essence of Anya" Accidental-Bunny-Creator Anya (April 2008)

Inspiration

I loved all the light-up stands that came with the new DST "Essence of..." line, shown here:

Each of these 3 stands inspired me to make a scene from BtVS, which I felt worked with the "Essence of..." theme.

Reference

I wanted to use the Essence of Willow stand as part of the Magic Box. Due to the height of the books, it made sense to have a tall figure in front of them. I decided to make Anya standing on a chair. In "Tabula Rasa", Anya keeps reciting the wrong spell and magically creating all kinds of chaos, including an abundance of bunnies. As Anya has bunny-phobia, she's standing on a chair in panic. I wanted to use the light-up effect to show the magic mist around her.

Giles: "Perhaps we should try another book."
Anya: "No! This book made the little fluffers, and this book's going to send them back. I've got it this time, okay. (reads) 'Himble abri, abri voyon.' "
  Another bunny appears by Giles' feet.

This absurd situation is just typical Anya, so it fits in well with the "Essence of... " idea.

Parts & Sculpt

I used an Anya figure with deluxe Buffy arms. I sculpted her hair, blouse and skirt frills. I put her in a position clutching the spell book, and sculpted over the articulation.

Thanks to MAC, DST and McFarlane for the parts.

Paint

I painted her looking down at the spell book with worry. I used paint to do the flowery shirt pattern on her blouse, and red metallic pen on the skirt.

Magic Mist & Bunnies

The original stand had candles on it. I removed them but kept the bulbs on wire. I used sculpting clay to make a swirl of around her chair. I then made a mould and cast the swirl in translucent green plastic. I tucked the lights up under the swirl, so that it glowed greeny-orange when lit.

I added 4 bunnies, each painted a different colour.