How to make a kickass Domo Kun piñata

Last year I wanted to do something special for my brother’s birthday. So I thought what better than a traditional Mexican piñata? But all the ones I found in Paris were either ugly or expensive (esquipulas and lapinata)…So with my girlfriend we made our own, based on the Japanese character Domo Kun. here’s a little recap in photos:

You’ll need balloons, old newspapers, plaster, cissors, color paper, normal A4 white paper, two buttons (black), and some liquid glue.

Start off by choosing the right shape of balloons, which will give the piñata its ultimate shape once covered in paper maché and plaster. I needed one squarish balloon, but since i couldn’t find any I took two long balloons and taped them together. One was slightly longer than the other, which was pure accident, but in the end it was perfect to get Domo’s final pose. Once the balloons are properly covered in paper maché (not too many layers, don’t want to make it unbreakable!), let them dry, and apply plaster. One cover should be enough.

Then let it dry off for a couple of hours:

Once dry you can cover the plaster base with the colored paper of your choice, which in this case was brown:

Then let it dry again.

Then we get to the details. We cut a red mouth using a square piece of red paper. The teeth were regular white paper cut in triangles. For the hands we used two toilet paper rolls with one end stuffed with newspaper and the other one shut and glued to the plaster base.

The we glue two black buttons for the eyes, and voilà!

Now that the piñata itself is done, you’ll need to cut a hole into it (could be on the side or on the top, depending on how you’re going to hang it in the air. We used regular pointy cissors and a wire hanger to make the pulley-thingy which will allow to hang it up:

Now just stuff it full of fun stuff like chocolates, candy bars, gum, cigarettes, whistles, and that’s it, you’re done!

Take lots of pictures of your finished work, and then beat the crap out of it!