Stall at Kirkstall Abbey on the 27th of May 2012!

It's taking us a while to get up to date with this new blog because we're currently working on over 80 piñatas plus other painting and papier mache projects. Here are a few examples!

Wedding piñata

We have a couple of commissions for wedding piñatas and valentines day is coming up so our house is full of hearts and flowers!

Penguin and snowman piñata.

  Great little winter piñatas.

More Christmas piñatas

Here are some pictures from our first craft stall! It was an indoor market at a local gallery through most of December 2011.

Christmas tree bashing

Here's a few random pictures of the smashing up of a Christmas tree piñata at a friends house. if you're interested in ordering a unique Christmas piñata why not drop us a line at pinatalady@gmail.com

Modern Santa piñata

Here's a more traditional and more modern Santa made from balloons. They make fantastic decorations in the run up to Christmas and are a fantastic way of entertaining the kids and working off those seasonal frustrations!

They're mostly made from balloons and old newspaper.

Lets build a snowman!

 This snow lady is about a meter high and her nose is about 6" long - just to give you an idea of the dimensions. She's got a happy face, a happy smile and a happy point of view. I'm in the process of building her a little friend...

A mad hat and a giant pocket watch.

 These piñatas were originally made for a mad hatters tea party. They both have a cardboard base and the hat already has a whole post dedicated to it. A lot more newspaper and glue went into the clock

We've also made a giant tea pot along the same theme. These piñatas are still available for sale, although they did get a little damaged whilst on display at a local gallery so we need to fix up a few repairs before we're ready to sell them on. We're considering giving the clock piñata working hands as the original hands which moved were lost during the same gallery exhibition.

Red rose valentines day pinata

Also a very beautiful and unique addition to any wedding.

Shameless theme party piñata

Chavsworth special brew! 

Bootleg beer at its best

More frightening than white lightening!

* Warning side effects may include, hallucinations, loss of vision, pregnancy and hysteria. It may also go to show that sometimes there is no will in willy.

Very simple piñata shapes are sometimes harder to achieve than the more complex ones because there is more pressure to get them perfectly moulded. Not only was it a pain to make the basic can shape. We ran out of silver paper and had to make this with tin foil which is never ideal. Plus we had some serious printer issues. Our two year old is very upset that she's managed to loose at least one magnetic letter inside the printer. 

Thankfully we have some very helpful friends who saved the day and printed out the label for us.

October projects - Hello Halloween!

The blob monster and the pumpkin piñata are finally complete. Not many more to finish this month although there is lots of none piñata related work to focus on.

Its tempting to put eyelids on the blob monster if there is time. As the piñatas are completed more photos will be posted.

Max - giant piñata head

Max is the first piñata we've ever made for a TV programme.

This piñata is over a meter tall. Its built on a box base. We've also used stuffing to help strengthen it and as a dry layer to ensure it was finished within the original 4 day deadline.

It was designed to withstand a few direct hits from professional cricketers armed with bats. click here for the full set of pictures

A mad hat and a pocket watch

We've just been looking up Alice's adventures in wonderland for our current two giant piñatas and found this; The contents of this link are of an adult nature and are in no way related to Alice in wonderland or any of her adventures therein. 

We'll add more photos when they're finally finished. click on this text to see the full set of photos.

Giant hat piñata

This would work well for an Alice in wonderland themed party, burlesque nights, weddings, stag parties, rocky horror theme nights or any other event that would suit a top hat!


This piñata measures around 60x90cm. At the moment its free standing so that it can support more weight. It could be decorated to suit a particular event, or be used as decoration or storage.

Dragon piñata

This Dragon piñata was sold to full circle bespoke design emporium. We've already another few on the way as its quite a popular piñata!

Babushka

You might wonder why I've included a Russian doll in with the Christmas/winter piñatas. I grew up with a melting pot of cultures and I happen to have a soft spot for Babushka.

The very short version is that when the 3 wise men came knocking at her door and invited her to come with them to deliver gifts to the new king she put it off. When she realised what a mistake that was she began delivering presents to every child hoping that one of them would be the Christ child.

There are so many different versions of this story but I think its a lot more preferable than the story of some dodgy tubby geezer dressed in red that likes creeping around in kids bedrooms to deliver presents with no real explanation. Plus the coca cola Santa looks like he's got a drinking problem and I'm not sure he's fit to be driving a sleigh - especially one that can fly.

If you're wondering where my issues with Santa originated from - we had a Swedish troll that looked like Santa and still comes out to lurk on my mums mantelpiece every Christmas. I'll try to get some pics next year!

Rag rugs and pulp furniture.

We’ve been distracted from piñata making by having a go at making a rug out of old rags. We didn’t realise just how much material it took to make each patch. We used these instructions http://www.ragrugcafe.com/toothbrush-rugs-complete-video-instructions-part-1-beginners but it took longer and didn’t quite turn out how we’d intended. Hopefully when we fasten the pieces together it will come together and work out in the end. They are quite quick and easy as making your own rugs go!

 This is our new shoe rack. Its designed to eventually become a table once its been thoroughly tested by being climbed, leant on and generally abused. The pulp is a traditional rough mix used for furniture rather than delicate work such as masks as we're still adding strengthening layers. We plan on adapting a recipe we found for repairing boats http://www.ehow.com/how_12203275_fix-marine-plywood-bass-boat.html to create a waterproof final layer. Its a very slow process as each layer has to dry before the next one is begun but shelves are a good way of testing the strength and durability of the design and materials. It doesn't look that impressive yet. Watch this space.