| Instrucciones | |
Making a piñata is a combination of art and engineering, with a whole lot of improvisation along the way. Part of the fun of piñata-making is using your creativity to find new ways to decorate the piñata or finding creative solutions to the unexpected problems that arise. You'll find detailed, step-by-step instructions throughout this web site, but this is the general approach I take to making piñatas. 1) Decide what I want to make. I always draw a sketch or have a picture of some kind to work from. Use Google Images to find good pictures. 2) Envision it as a sculpture. All of my piñatas are made out of balloons, so I look at things like the head, body, arms, legs, and so on as separate pieces made from different balloons and then assembled into one finished sculpture. 3) Blow up the balloons to the size I need, and wrap them in newspaper. Tape the newspaper down with masking tape (but do not tape the newspaper to the balloon). Wrapping a round balloon with flat paper always ends up bumpy. I try to make the newspaper wrapping as smooth as reasonably possible by taping the bumps flat using masking tape. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it shouldn't be excessively bumpy either. 4) Mix up a batch of papier-mache paste in a bowl using a mixture of 1:1 flour and water (for example, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water). I usually cut or tear newspaper into strips about an inch wide, but sometimes use wider strips to cover bigger areas faster. I dip the strips into the paste, wipe off the excess between my index finger and middle finger, and then lay the strips on the newspaper-wrapped ballons (one layer at a time). I smooth them out and allow them plenty of time to dry. They dry much faster in the sun than in the shade. If the weather is uncooperative, I put them in my garage with a fan blowing on them, and they dry in a few hours. 5) Keep repeating step 4 until I've got 3 to 5 layers of strips covering the balloon. 6) Assemble different pieces of the piñata by using masking tape to hold them together, and then applying strips of papier-mache newspaper to cement them together. It'll take a couple more layers of strips to make the attachment complete. Make sure it doesn't wiggle! If the attached piece is at all loose, I'll add another layer of papier mache until it's firmly attached. 7) Poke a hole in the piñata. Pop the balloons and remove them. Pull out any loose newspaper from inside. (The initial layer of newspaper that I wrapped the balloons in is usually removable at this stage.) Add a hook for hanging if that wasn't done earlier in the process, and decorate the piñata with crepe paper and other craft supplies. Constructing the piñata isn't hard, but it is messy and can take a lot of time. It takes a lot of creativity and improvisation. Decorating the piñata is the funnest part! Here are a couple examples of my piñata-making process in action, listed from simplest to most complicated. Pig piñata Tropical Fish piñata |