Why Art Matters: I Made a Pinata!

Finished product, the model, and the birthday girl ready to swing.

As we get older, it gets harder to impress friends with gifts. For my friend Denise's birthday, a milestone 40th, she asked Dave and I to host a party on her behalf. Cups, plates and location are all well and good, but I wanted to do something special. Dave mentioned off-hand having a piñata, and I went off on the idea from there.

The overarching theme to the party was wine, so I decided to make a wine bottle piñata. I started with two sheets of poster board and a toilet paper roll. Fancy!

I rolled one sheet into a cylinder, then cut a large circle out of the second piece. I cut that to the center and rolled it into a cone, and taped the toilet paper roll to the peak to form the top of the bottle, then taped all the pieces together.

Once I had that done, I made a 1:1 flour and water paste, adding a dash of salt, the classic kid paper mache formula. I ripped newspaper into strips of approximately 1 1/2" strips, dipped it in the mix, squeegeed the strips between two fingers, and covered my form. Because of the summer humidity, I turned the fan on in the half bath and "cured" the piñata in the little room.

Once it was dry, I had to cover the base. I covered it in criss crossed strips, and secured the strips by wrapping the pieces around the "bottle" and letting them cure.

Using regular acrylics, I painted the bottle green with a silver foil top. In Photoshop, I created a label using pictures of Denise skating in the perfect merlot skating dress.

Once it was dry, I cut a hole in the bottle and began to fill it with goodies. Still unsure of how stable the piñata would be, I alternated layers of treats based on weight. I hit up the party section at the dollar store and got plastic leis, Chinese finger cuffs, yo-yos, birthday greeting wrapped candies, stickers, Tiger pops, hard candies, horn blowers and glitter. I chose the perfect amount, the very last thing filling the piñata to the top.

It was a big hit, to say the least. Once Dee busted it open, everyone dived for the prizes.

As far as arts-n-crafts projects go, this was easy and almost therapeutic. I enjoyed the challenge of making something I haven't made since Girl Scouts and secretly hope another piñata making is in my future. Maybe even Ferris Homecoming...