This was Kerry’s first piñata. She made it when she was 11 years old. She wasn’t a Buffy fan yet, but this was a sure sign that one day she would be.
She called it a Vampire Smiley, but after she added horns it started looking more like a Demon Smiley. It’s made from a single round punch ball balloon.
The mouth and teeth are made of felt. She made the eyes and eyebrows using the floral technique in order to give the piñata another texture.
Kerry did the whole thing herself until she got stuck on how to make the horns. That’s when she came to me for help. It’s nice to be needed once in a while.
To make the horns, we made two cones out of white paper, stuffed them with cotton, and then crunched them into the shape she wanted. Then we applied some Elmer’s glue and wrapped them in white yarn to hide the crinkles and give the horns a different texture.
We didn’t use papier mâché to cement the horns on. We just attached them securely with masking tape and decorated right over the tape.
This was Kerry’s first piñata, and she did make one big mistake along the way. Instead of applying 2 – 3 layers of papier mâché to the balloon and allowing each layer to dry before applying the next, she put on 14 layers of papier mâché all at once. The innermost layers were unable to dry, and by the next day her piñata had begun to give off the distinctive odor of fermentation. We ended up cutting a big hole in it and using a blow dryer to help dry out those inner layers.
Once dry, her piñata was over a quarter-inch thick, so we weakened it by stabbing it all over with a large kitchen knife.
Excuse me, I believe you have my horn
Once the party started, the demon horns were the first thing to go, then the rest of the piñata broke apart nicely.
The party’s over for this Demon Smiley, but he’s still smiling!
A few years later Kerry made another punch ball piñata, but this time decorated it as a Santa Smiley.