On Monday 8 October 2007, the film Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs premiered in the Omniversum. To mark this event, we were commissioned to create Ramses and Nefertari. The film Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs follows researchers and scientists as they try to piece together mysterious archaeological and genetic clues from Egyptian mummies. These relics from the past create a window into the fascinating and mysterious world of the pharaohs.

The latest film at the Omniversum has been produced by Arabella Cecil. In the 19th century her great-great grandparents owned of one of the largest and most valuable collections of Egyptian antiquities. This collection inspired Howard Carter to become an archaeologist. Cecil’s great-great grandmother lent a helping hand by giving him his first job. Howard Carter later discovered one of the largest archaeological finds: the tomb of Tutankhamun. Now, in 2007, Cecil has produced a stunning film about old Egypt and modern science. The film explores three story lines: the famous pharaoh Ramses the Second, the discovery of the first grave in which royal mummies were found and DNA research on mummies. The latter is particularly topical considering that the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut has recently been discovered. Her mummy was identified with the help of DNA.

On the day that we delivered Ramses and Nefertari, Arabella Cecil was present and gave interviews to various journalists. She expressed her admiration for our figures and emphasised this by posing for a few photos with Ramses.

Omniversum gave us several photos of the actors: Boris Terral (France) plays Ramses and Elana Drago (Brazil) is Nefertari.

We wanted the figures to resemble the cast as much as possible, and used the photos as a starting point. Here is a picture of the completed assignment.

Ramses wore a stunning belt with a triangular decoration, which was a distinguishing feature. We made this belt by hand using stunning gold fabric with small lilac gemstones. Further, we gave him matching sandals, arm and wrist bands and other jewels.

For Ramses and Nefertari we made a typical Egyptian collar in gold and lilac. We further decorated the collar of Ramses with golden beads.

For Nefertari we designed a virgin white kalasyris which was embellished with a decorative trim featuring the same motif used in the decoration of Ramses. We gave her golden arm and wrist bands, decorated with a lilac gemstone. Her wrists were also draped with stunning gold jewellery.

If soft light is shone on the figures, the gold and countless stones sparkle gloriously. This gives the king and queen a powerful and wealthy appearance, although they appear to be great personalities even without the clothing and accessories.

Click here to see more photos of the figures in this project.