Here's my niece, Laurie and her friend, Liz, posing with the Mummy.
Here's how to make your own Mummy:
The coffin:
I purchased a 6 foot coffin and built it according to the instructions but leaving the top off. You can also use a box and cut it down so that it looks lik a coffin.
The mummy's body:
Chicken wire forms the body of the mummy. Roll up some chicken wire to fit into the box. It should be wider by the shoulders and tapered off and thinner by the legs. Finish it off on the bottom with a form that looks like two feet together. (You don't need to be too exact because it will be covered up.) The chicken wire needs to be secured to the box. If you use a wooden box, you can staple it to the sides. Since mine was cardboard I punched small holes through the back of the box and secured the chicken wire in several places with tie wraps. Additional chicken wire was used to form the arms coming down from the shoulders and crossed onto the chest. (I only secured the arms with tie wraps at the shoulders and left the rest of the arms free)
Use a plastic skull or wig head with a mask and secure it to the neck area of the chicken wire body. (I used a PVC pipe and stuck it into the skull, then secured the pvc pipe with tie wraps to the box.)
The clothing for the mummy:
Cover the chicken wire body with Burlap and secured it to the sides of the coffin with hot glue. (If you use a wooden coffin, you can staple it to the sides.) Cover the arms and drape burlap over the head to make a hood.
Painting the mummy:
Take about a gallon of joint compound and mix it with black paint until it turns dark grey. Mix it well! Paint the entire mummy (burlap, face and coffin) with the joint compound mixture and let it dry. Since I used a cardboard box and it gets soggy, when wet, I held the coffin together while it dried with a few ropes. After it dries you can touch it up with black paint to make some of the features stand out.
