A friend recently asked if I could make a “cat sarcophagus” for her daughter’s upcoming eighth birthday party. Along with the proposal she included a snapshot of a “cat mummy” from London. Coincidentally, a few months prior, National Geographic had a cover issue dedicated to pet mummies of ancient Egypt, which my family had loved. So plenty of fodder. I took up the task and wanted to document the process and result to share.

Step One
Create the form. Since the sarcophagus was going to be used to store candy, I knew it needed two halves. I drew and cut one out of a large cardboard box, and essentially copied it for the second half. In the center, cut out a square somewhat larger than a shoebox size, leaving enough room on the edges to retain structural integrity.

Step Two
Create relief on both halves. This was the trickiest part, since it requires ‘thinking in 3D.’ Starting from the feet and working my way up, I cut out the ridges that would essentially give the sarcophagus form once an outter layer had been wrapped across it. I used cardboard boxes, cutting and trimming to fit the various locations across the form, I used a hot glue gun to attach the cardboard pieces - and adding reinforcement as necessary. The result yielded something of a honeycomb interior with a topography corresponding to the contour of a large sarcophagus.

Step Three
Wrapping the halves. Once the three dimensional form was complete it was necessary to create a first layer coating that the plaster form would enclose. I tore large pieces of butcher block paper that had come as wrapping at some point, gluing them across the form until it was completely covered. I worked to use the minimum amount of paper necessary to cover the form, to keep weight and waste to a minimum.

Step Four
Plastering. Once the paper was on, the fun really started. Most art supply stores carry a gauze that has been treated with plaster of paris. This was ideal for my purposes, as the gauze would give the exterior a cloth-like look and the plaster would seal everything into a solid form. My daughter and I had tons of fun cutting the plaster gauze into manageable strips, wetting them, and applying them to both halves of the sarcophagus form until they were completely covered.

Step Five
Painting. After the plaster and gauze set, and we patched a few areas that needed reinforcement, I build the interior recess - a simple rectangular box deep on the bottom half with a lip that extended upward to slip into a shallower recess on the top half, which helped to hold the two halves together when joined. When complete, we wrapped the shell in string to increase the effect of “wrapping” and “tying” and painted the entire exterior surface area in a mixture of gold, brown, and red paint which resulting in a cinnamon-like color with a slight iridescence.

Step Six
Finishing touches. The inside needed a little panache. We found some pretty wrapping paper that had both gold printing and an exotic pattern. We used this to cover the large flat surfaces inside the sarcophagus. On the interior of the box recess, we used red wrapping paper to give it some contrasting “punch.”Once everything was set and dry, the coup de grace was painting a face on the cat, which my daughter did with great pride. What a fun project - I’ glad I was asked!

(On the question of whether it is suitable or not for actually burying a dearly departed kitty friend - that is entirely up to the reader!)