Bringing a Sarcophagus to Life

I have a Halloween party every year and this year I decided it would be Egyptian-themed, and that having a sarcophagus, hieroglyphics and lanterns would be great things to aid in this. Considering you can't just go to the corner store and buy a sarcophagus, at least not a life-size one, I decided to build one.

I started by picking a picture of a sarcophagus; King Tut seems to be the most well recognized one, so that is what I went with. I first got a bunch of 2 inch-thick, 2x8 white Styrofoam sheets from the lumber yard as that is what was available to me. These were the cheapest option, although I imagine the pink and blue foam sheets would work also, but they were more expensive. I glued these sheets together to form an 8 inch-thick, 2x8 block of Styrofoam.

Taking Shape

The next part was carving the sarcophagus out of the Styrofoam block, which I did with an electric chain saw and a power sander. I started by lying down on the block and tracing my outline to give it a rough shape. From the rough shape, I used a straight edge and drew lines where to cut. Once I had a symmetrical shape, I started cutting; if you thought a chain saw would go through Styrofoam like a knife through butter, you would be right. One thing I will add is that Styrofoam is very messy. I had little pieces of Styrofoam everywhere, and they are statically-charged so they stick to everything.

With the general form cut out, I beveled the edges around it and started to get a general shape. From here I switched to the sander to get better curves and more detail. For the head and feet parts, I glued on some of the excess Styrofoam I had cut off to make the area thicker and cut a general outline with the chainsaw and sander. I used my hands to dig away the foam for more detail, except for the face. For the face, I had bought a basic plastic mask that I placed over the rounded area.

Cut, Color & Design

Once I was happy with my Styrofoam, I cleaned up as best I could and went to work on the next step, paper mache. I started out with newspaper and worked my way from the bottom to the top, putting on paper and slathering on paste layer-by-layer. For the last layer I decided to use craft paper for a uniform surface both in color and texture so that it would be easier to paint. The craft paper was more difficult to put on than I'd thought it would be. It likes to wrinkle, so I had to rip it into lots of smaller pieces for it to lay flat; the more curviness, the smaller the pieces had to be. Once I ripped-up and glued on all the pieces, the sarcophagus started to look really good. It looked like it had been carved out of wood, and the details showed up well. From here, the next part was to paint it.

Once the paper mache was completely dry, I painted the whole thing with gold spray paint. Since I am not very good with art, I let someone else paint the details. Once the details were painted on, I cut some holes where the hands were and put in the parts he is holding. These were made from PVC pipe that was heated and bent, and then painted.

When I started making the sarcophagus, I had no idea what it was going to look like or if it was going to work at all. I was amazed with how well it worked throughout all the stages. The pictures of the end result speak for themselves. This sarcophagus will certainly add a lot to the theme of the party.