For weeks I traveled by a little shop on N. Stone and kept noticing paper maché sculptures drying outside. Recently I ventured into the shop called the Party Factory to discover a fun new world: The world of Piñata creation.

This family operated store specializes in making over 250 different Piñatas in about every shape imaginable. The family business is third generation Piñata craftsmen. They are originally from Aqua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico and their family has been master Piñata craftsman for over 75 years. A fourth generation is learning the trade today from the father.

The Party Factory has been in business at 640 N. Stone Ave. for about seven months at this location and offers a variety of party materials as well as the hand crafted Piñatas. Mexican & American candies, Jumping Castles, tables & chairs, party supplies, complete party decorations for any occasion as well as hand crafted natural and artificial floral arrangements.

They produce about 30 Piñatas a week sizes 18” to 48” and will do custom orders to fit your imagination. Prices range from $15 to $35 depending on the size. Each piece is a handcrafted work of art utilizing recycled materials such as newspaper, cardboard, wire and put together with flour/water and special Mexican glue called Engrudo.

Each Piñata holds five pounds of candy but if more candy is desired then they must know this before creating the piece for you in order to beef up the container materials holding the candy.

The actual history of the Piñatas is quite interesting. Marco Polo discovered the Chinese fashioning figures of cows, oxen or buffaloes, covered with colored paper and adorned with harnesses and trappings. Special colors traditionally greeted the New Year. When the mandarins knocked the figure hard with sticks of various colors, seeds spilled forth. After burning the remains, people gathered the ashes for good luck throughout the year.

As this custom passed into Europe in the 14th century, it adapted to the celebrations of Lent. When the custom spread to Spain, the first Sunday in Lent became a fiesta called the ‘Dance of the Piñata.’ The most traditional style piñata looks a bit like Sputnik, with seven points representing the seven deadly sins, pecados - greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath and lust. Beautiful and bright, the piñata tempted. Candies and fruits inside represented the cantaros (temptations) of wealth and earthly pleasures.

Today, the piñata has lost its religious symbolism and most participate in the game solely for fun. Piñatas are especially popular during Las Posados, traditional processions ringing in the Christmas season and at birthday parties. During festivities, people traditionally sing songs while breaking the piñatas.

There are many creative ideas for using a piñata, such as for a birthday party, a holiday celebration, or just as a toy. Today, piñatas are not only popular for use as kids birthday party games, but they also serve as festive party decorations, centerpieces and many other uses.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under arts, Tucson Art. Tags for this post: paper mache, Piñatas, Tucsson Arts DIstrict. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.