So you want to mummify something

I have been meaning to write this up and I am finally, finally doing it.  Consider this a sort of rough draft until I get a good image of one of my mummies for the thumbnail!  

As a collector of mummies both found and made, this is one of my largest hobbies aside from skulls and photography and art.  It's a rather basic hobby and employs just a little common sense.  So this tutorial won't be very long.

The first part will cover mummies you may have found.  The second part will cover mummies you may want to make.

I found a mummy!  Now what?

So you found a mummy and want to keep it.  Or maybe you want to make it cleaner to sell it.  Great!  (if you want to sell it, contact me and give me first dibs!  lol)

The first step I usually do is dust that thing off and out.  This requires some brushes, somethings to scrape or poke with, and a can of bottled air that you usually use for dusting keyboards.  Scrape, poke, brush, and blow all the dirt and bugs and cobweb off that critter.  Don't forget the insides- that if why you have tools for poking and blowing- if there are holes in the mummy, use those tools to clean as much of the insides as you can.  Often this means sticking the canned air tube up the butt or in the mouth or in the ear.  Watch out as sometimes the dirt and dried organ bits will come flying out right at you.  Cleaning the insides will lower any stench this mummy might still have, so this is an important step that shouldn't be ignored.

The next step I will now often do is bathe the mummy with rubbing alcohol.  You can do this one of two ways- fully submerge it in a container of alcohol for 24hours or less (any long and you risk starting the maceration process, trust me).  Or you can squirt the alcohol on and inside it several times.  This helps kill bacteria (killing odors in the process) and also helps dry it out a bit further.  After bathing it with alcohol let it fully dry before continuing.  I would do two submergings if you do that method, and at least 3 if you choose the other method.

After this, you can consider yourself done OR you can seal it.  I use paraloid, but there are a number of sealants you can use.  For this, you can refer to my bone cleaning tutorials- part 4 that deals with sealing.  Here: grygon.deviantart.com/gallery/…

I bought or found a dead animal that I want to mummify!

The largest animal I have mummified myself is a large jack rabbit.  I did this in the middle of winter where bugs and heat would not be a factor.  If you want to mummify anything larger than a rodent, then put it in the freezer and wait for winter.

The biggest things you need for a home-made mummy is air flow and dryness.  Heat is not really an issue.  Everything else is just to stop rot and to stop bugs.  To stop rot and bugs, we can use salt, borox, baking soda, laundry powder, heat lamps, heating fans/cooling fans, rubbing alcohol and many other agents.  It is not an exact science.  Choose your tools that you want to use.  Mix and match.

Through my trials of home mummies I have found that the best first step would be to bathe and inject the corpse with rubbing alcohol.  This will help deter bugs, though it may not deter them all right away.  It will also help dry the body out instead of letting it rot.  

For summer mummy projects I bury them in borox/salt/baking soda that is inside a cardboard box after they are some what stiff and not leaking very much moisture.  I have buried mummy projects that were still moist and, if the corpse was something that was rather round like a piglet, and not skin and bones like a lamb, in less than 24 hours they had become a mess already.  I do not cover this box or seal it- I let air pass over the top.  

A thing to note here is that baking soda does not dry.  Rather, it will help absorb smell.  I like adding it to my mixture as I do notice a decrease in odors when I use it and while my shop stinks, I would rather come out of my shop smelling like moth balls than rotting meat.  

Check the mummy from time to time and change the box and materials is any rot or moisture has become apparent.  Now and then take it out from the bed and bathe it in alcohol, then let it dry out and return it to this bed.

There you have it, really.  The biggest factor in home-making mummies is time and patience.  There are other chemicals you can use for home-making mummies but they are not easy to find sometimes, so I prefer to stick to the usual kitchen, laundry, and bathroom chemicals.

Another drying agent that is often overlooked is silica gel.  This is usually found in small packets from the store whenever you buy any sort of pill/vitamin.  However, I believe it is also sold in arts and food stores for preserving things.