The Mummy (1999): A Victorian Puzzle Purse

I'm always looking for new ways to tell stories, and a few years ago I discovered Victorian Puzzles: little treasures of folded paper that, when unfolded, reveal secret stories.

In January 2026, I ran a Victorian Puzzle Purse workshop for the English department of the Official Language School (EOI) in my city. This is how this personal narrative illustration project was born, where words aren't needed to tell a good story.

In this project, I wanted to pay visual homage to one of my favorite films: The Mummy (1999). When I saw this film in the early 2000s, it sparked a special interest in the art and history of ancient Egypt. That's why the illustrations not only depict the important characters and objects in the film, but also the funerary and symbolic iconography of Ancient Egypt.

As you will discover later, the folds of this Victorian Puzzle conceal the love story between Imhotep and Ankhsunamun. Without further ado, I present to you this personal project: ‘The Mummy (1999): A Victorian Puzzle Purse’.

For this project, I used the following materials:

-HB pencil.
-Canson light-grain drawing paper.
-Acrylic paint.
-Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.
-Portable light table.
-Laptop computer.

I began by gathering visual references from the film The Mummy (1999) and archaeological finds from Ancient Egypt. This first phase allowed me to identify iconic elements, symbols, and ornamental details that served as the basis for the puzzle's design.

With the selected references, I developed an initial sketch to define the composition and distribute the illustrations, taking into account the structure and folding system of the Puzzle Purse.

For the color palette, I drew inspiration from Egyptian tomb frescoes, as well as materials and objects characteristic of Ancient Egypt, such as jewelry, mineral pigments, and polychrome decorations. The goal was to recreate an aesthetic that evoked both the archaeological heritage and the atmosphere of the film.

Once the sketches were completed, I refined them using a portable light table and an ochre colored pencil.

I wanted to emulate the color treatment seen in the mural paintings of Ancient Egypt, so I applied a layer of very diluted yellow acrylic paint over the illustrations to create a warm base.

On top of this base, I added color with Faber-Castell Polychromos, using a palette that combined references to ancient Egyptian art with the visual aesthetic of The Mummy (1999).

Once the illustrations were finished, they went through a digitization and final assembly process. This phase required great precision, since, being a double-sided printed puzzle, it was necessary to adjust all the elements so they aligned correctly with the paper's fold lines.

After printing the illustrations, all that remained was to manually fold the Victorian Puzzle Purse to complete the piece, and… Done!

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my project!