Mummy: Chicken or Orange?

[AuntPol]

Which would be best for logic stage? Pros and cons of either?

[KarenNC]

We did potatoes (though it was in elementary). I would rather not deal with the potential messes using meat and potatoes are a lot cheaper.;) I carved large baking potatoes into roughly human forms, then used the extra to carve into organs that we mummified separately and put into canopic jars (made from baby food jars). I did end up having to eviscerate the potatoes after a while to get them to thoroughly dry. One note if you go this route---make sure you don't use iodized salt unless you want the potatoes to blacken almost immediately. The iodine reacts with the starch in the potato to turn them a purple black. It was a bit startling the first time we changed the mixture.:)

[PhotoGal]

:bigear: I was thinking of using an apple...

[Dolphin]

We are doing a chicken this year. I am excited.

Edited July 2, 2012 by Northwest_Mama

[shanezomom]

I vote chicken. We did it a few years ago for elementary, thus mom did all the work, but for logic, I think it would be neat for a student project. It's just not the same mummifying a fruit imo. We didn't wrap it in gauze at the end because I had was sick of the thing by then, but it's a cool memory.

[Erica in OR]

We did apples. Easy and not a whole lot of mess or smell. So, something I didn't mind leaving out on the counter for an extended amount of time.

 

Erica in OR

[SilverMoon]

I think apple is the easiest/least messy.

 

Personally, I'm hungry, dinner hasn't fixed itself, and my first thought seeing the title was, "Orange chicken sounds lovely." :tongue_smilie:

[Mom in High Heels]

Okay, so how do you mummify an apple?

[KarenNC]

Okay, so how do you mummify an apple?

 

We did potatoes, but we just followed the same procedure outlined in the SOTW AG for doing a chicken. For an apple or potato, I would probably peel it first for maximum drying effect. Even with peeling our large baking potatoes, I had to eviscerate the figures I carved from them and pack the cavities with the salt mixture in order to get them to fully dry. Once they were dried, we wrapped them just like the procedure calls for, and we put the "organs" in canopic jars (made from baby food jars with heads put on them from a mummy kit---could be made with sculpey).

[RobinL in Canada]

We never actually did any "mummifying," but rather made papier mache cat mummies. First we read a book called Cat Mummies (by Kelly Trumble), then created our own based on the images in the book. Use a large pop bottle and weigh it down a bit inside with sand or rice. Make a cat head from either balled up newspaper or a foam craft ball and tape to the top of the bottle. Tape on pointy cardboard ears. The cover it all in papier mache (my favourite method is just paper towel strips painted on with white glue). After it all dries, paint the entire mummy a beige colour, then paint on (or use a marker) the cat's facial features and darker stripes to mimic bandages. Don't forget a name! (Ours include Catankamen, Catses the Great, and Catmose III). Not the same as doing the mummifying, but they make fun craft projects.

[kalanamak]

Okay, so how do you mummify an apple?

 

google it. There are plenty of instructions.

 

I did a fish, a rather large one from a UCatch place. I was NOT nasty at all. Most of the time it just smelled like the beach. Seaweedy. When it was done, it was nearly scentless. We stuffed it with fresh rosemary, oiled it, wrapped it and buried it. Came up perfectly a year later, even in our damp clime.