Nether-Realm-Ritual Willow & Tara (January 2007)

For those unfamiliar with customising, the pale pink stuff is the colour of the 'super sculpey' sculpting clay that I put over the plastic figures. It can be translucent, so you can often see the original colour of the figure underneath. Once I've finished sculpting, I always completely repaint the whole figure.

I made a set of Willow & Tara doing the ritual from the "Who Are You?" episode. I chose the moment where they have their eyes closed, chanting, and their hands are just starting to make the magic circle.

Sculpt

For Willow, I used a Transformation Willow figure. I sculpted the lower body from scratch, with her two-tier long dress tucked under her legs and feet. I sculpted her sheer cardigan, jewellery and short hair.

For Tara, I used a Tara figure with Transformation Willow arms. I sculpted the lower body from scratch, with her long dress tucked under her legs, hiding her feet. I sculpted her fuller figure, her sheer top, jewellery and long hair.

Base

I ordered a dolls house Turkish rug off e-bay.

I had originally planned to have them sitting exactly as in the reference photo, with room for Willow to fall backward onto cushions, but I decided against it due to the scale of the base. It is already about 5" x 8" and would have to be double the size for that, which would not be practical for display purposes.

I took some artistic license. I placed them turned around on the rug. This means there is plenty of room for them to trace the magic circle with their hands, and the rug, which is 3.7" x 6.5", will fit the base perfectly. There aren't any cushions but I'm alright with that because, what with the dress patterns, rug pattern and magic lights, the whole thing is busy enough already.

For the base, I used a see-through plastic video case and a 10 bulb string of fairy lights.

This photo was an early mock-up, where I hadn't yet taped the lights into position. Tara was fully sculpted and Willow only half done.

This photo has the lights taped in position, with 5 lights to each side tracing a curved line from each for the girls' hands. I used a piece of cardboard with the lines of magic roughly cut out. Willow was fully sculpted, at this stage, and Tara half painted.

Paint

I painted the card red. I cut out some grooves in the rug and glued it to the card, then glued the card to the video case.

I chopped some clear gel into small chunks (so that would refract the lights) and glued it into the grooves.

I was originally planning to put black tape around the edges of the clear plastic video case to block out the light, but it actually works like a lamp in the dark. I think the under-glow looks nice so I'll leave it alone, unless the buyer says that it would bug her.