Piñata making is very much a cottage industry.  Most piñata makers are women working out of their homes as in this story.  Many are one-woman shops either working alone or with family; a few are large enough operations to employ workers.  
 
Piñatas are mostly used for birthday and Christmas parties.  The Christmas ones have candy inside; the birthday ones  do not.  They come in many sizes and with a great variety of colors and decorations.
 
For this picture story I had asked Gabi (the maker) to use me as a model.  She got a big laugh from that.  She didn't understand that I wanted to photograph the whole story, so she made the basic shell before I got there with my camera.  So this is really just part 2.  I'll do part 1 later.
 
Since the piñata is suppose to me me, I'll let him tell you his story,
 

My naked newspaper body is hanging out in the patio.  But I have company -- a bunch of bodies ready to get dressed up for the party.  You can also see part of a dressed up guy.  My maker's laundry is hanging out with us too.  Her name is Gabriela; we all call her Gabi.  She's pretty too -- that's what the finished guys say.  I don't have eyes yet.

Look!  She brought me in the house to dress me up.  She hung me in the door between la sala and the kitchen.

She puts her tools and paper on the table next to me.  That's a bowl of plain old flour paste.

She slides her fingers across the paste and then runs them along the edge of the paper strips so they'll stick to me.

The paper comes in many colors in flat sheets and in cut strips which turn into ruffles when applied.

A white paper undercoat prepares my head for the skin-tone paper.

        Next come my hands.

Then she made my pretty purple pants.

I get a white shirt.

She cut my ears out of cardboard and covered them with the skin paper.

She cut a base for the beard then covered it with ruffles and stuck it on me,

At last! I get my eyes.  She gouged two holes in my head for the eye sockets.

Everybody was fooling with my eyes before I even got to look through them.  I mean REALLY!

Finally she stuck them in.  She is pretty just like the other guys said.

She even made me an ear ring just like the guy who's going to buy me.  (Only his is real jade and mine is just paper like the rest of me.  I sure hope nobody smokes or makes a fire near me.)

She hung me back on the patio to dry until the fat man comes for me.

I wonder what he's going to do with me.  I was told that they'll have a big party, and I'm for the kids to play with.  That sounds nice. 

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