Mummified Pygmy Head

[Howlrunner]

Not really film related (though I suppose it could be related to the little warriors in the Mummy Returns), but I wanted to have a go at some kind of mummified head to use as a prop if I ever teach a topic on Egyptians.

Dirt cheap was the key here - it would have been much better if I had gotten a lizesize adult skull, but all I could find locally that was an OK size was a skull on a staff from the local £1 store. So this is a Pygmy skull. Or a baby (though I realise the proportions and shape are wrong for that....). Anyways, it's a scaled down head OK! :lol

Nice and simple - take one crappy looking plastic skull and coat it with PVA glue and tissue paper (wadding up tissue paper to build up some areas as you go).

Them you take your paint and slap it on! Lots of drybrushing of different shades of brown and some off-white/cream/tea for the teeth.

And that's it. Not bad for £1! :lol

 

[SgtFang]

Heh! Cool project! I might have to try that sometime. I always wanted to make a good shrunken head one of these days. :lol

-Sarge

 

[Howlrunner]

Heh! Cool project! I might have to try that sometime. I always wanted to make a good shrunken head one of these days. :lol

-Sarge

Big fan of shrunken heads (or Tsantsa) myself. Only problem is that shrunken heads (as made by the Jivaro and a few other South American tribes) are prepared AFTER the skull has been removed and thrown away, so any bone structure (cheek bones, etc) would be inaccurate. Might be interesting to try to use this approach over a doll's head or something though, rather than a skull.

The rubber shrunken head that you can find plastered ALL over eBay can look pretty good actually if you give it a repaint and cut/style (or replace) it's hair. Only pic of it I have to hand is it attached to my ewok head:

Of course, the lip stitching should also be replaced with thick string-like, cream coloured "chonta" too, but I've not got round to that yet.

 

[juno]

Awesome job! Here are some good reference photos of real shrunken heads from the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Kentucky:

 

[Funky]

Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

 

[CessnaDriver]

I approve. Excellent fate for a kidnapper!

 

[SgtFang]

I finally got around to watching "Once were Warriors" last week. (Temuera Morrison in a movie about ghetto life in New Zealand) and the Maori Gang members drove around in this beat up old clunker with a shrunken head for a hood ornament! :lol

-Sarge