PUCHONG, April 9 — What’s a party without a piñata? There is something incredibly magical about whacking a piñata and watching the candy spill out to the joy of your guests. With Piñata Party KL by Diyana Yang Abdul Razak, your parties just got more interesting.
The mother of two sons, aged four and nine, started off by making piñatas for her children. Her first piñata was an electric guitar for her son’s rock star themed party. Once her friends saw her Instagram pictures, they clamoured for her custom-made piñatas. With the increasing demand, she decided to start a business making these party items. People would ask for all sorts of designs that included robots, Hello Kitty and even popular movie characters like Minions or Poppy from the Trolls movie.
You have two forms of piñatas. Firstly, there is the pull string version where the piñata remains intact after the candy comes out. The second and more popular version has blindfolded children whacking the piñata with a stick to break it for the candy. At Piñata Party KL, they offer various sizes of piñatas that range from mini ones with a height of 8-inches to life-sized versions. They also make giant surprise eggs that you can break into to get the toys or candies. Choose from 2D or 3D piñatas or select a papier-mâché or cardboard version. If you prefer, you can also order life-sized piñatas that are more like papier-mâché art sculptures to decorate your home or restaurant. So far, Piñata Party KL has contributed a 5-feet llama for the Brasaria restaurant in Jaya One and a traditional 5-feet donkey piñata at Panchos restaurant in Mid Valley Megamall.
The computer science graduate is completely self-taught. “I don’t remember getting an ‘A’ in school for art. The best teacher is trial and error, and YouTube.”
Her most challenging piñatas were two animal ones; a dragon and tiger. She had made the piñatas for her first art exhibition at WOLO Hotel in Bukit Bintang. “I was very pleased that they invited me. The rest was all sold but I love the dragon so I kept it. The dragon is actually Naga Tasik Chini, a legend from Pahang. The scales are green because the water is green. As for the tiger, it is from Sang Kancil dan Harimau.” The shape of the dragon was incredibly difficult to scuplt while the tiger was a challenge to decorate with its orange and black strips.
Each piñata takes about two days to make. After sculpting the papier-mâché into the desired shape, it takes around 24 hours to dry. Next, coloured crêpe paper is cut into strips and pasted on the piñata. For certain designs, a balloon is placed inside the base of the sculpture and once it is dried, Diyana will pop the balloon to create a hollow space to place fillings such as candies and toys for party favours.
Usually, Diyana’s piñatas don’t have fillings since the candy will melt in our hot weather. She can customise the pinatas upon order, adding the fillings for an extra cost. “Usually I have tested my regular piñatas and it can hold 3 kilograms of candy without breaking. Some may fit even more, maybe four to five kilograms, depending on the shape,” said Diyana.
She believes in social entrepreneurship hence she recruits housewives from Bandar Kinrara to help her make the piñatas. “They will come here and I will teach them how to stick the crêpe paper so some of them are highly skilled already.” Diyana said she was very happy to give them an opportunity to earn from home.
One of Piñata Party KL’s biggest clients was IKEA who commissioned her to make 16 giant Dala Horses, a symbol of Sweden. Back then she had just started her business on Instagram so she was very proud that IKEA approached her for the launching of its Cheras branch. “I think people out there are waiting for somebody to make piñatas for them and then I came in,” said Diyana. After IKEA, other corporate clients like Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Berhad and GlaxoSmithKline have placed orders for events.
“I usually get orders from party planners and individuals who buy it for their own parties. I also have restaurants and boutiques buying them as decor for their stores. March is my first month doing this full time,” said Diyana who was previously working as a corporate communication and special operations manager for a GLC based in Cyberjaya. “Lately I have been getting a lot of orders but I have to reject because I can only make 60 per month which means two per day. This month, I have a Singaporean order alone that is about 200 plus piñatas,” said Diyana.
Queries come from afar, like one from San Francisco for a 2-metres long cigar to her surprise. “I’m sure behind his house someone is selling piñatas so why is he buying from Malaysia?” At the moment, she does cater to international orders only via shipping. So far she has shipped her piñatas to Europe, Taiwan and Australia. A query from Cyprus has even came to her to ask her to import her handmade creations. “I’m glad that other countries are coming to me even though they can get them from Alibaba, China or elsewhere. Once I get the production sorted out, I can make more in a shorter time.”
Based on customer interaction, Diyana found out that around 90 per cent of Malaysians do not know about piñatas. Potential buyers will often make enquiries and tell her they like it but have no idea what it is all about. “Wah, so much money ah? You want to buy it but you don’t know what it is. Okay, I’ll be glad to teach you guys,” joked Diyana. Another thing Diyana learned about her customers is they feel the the piñatas are way too pretty to whack. “I get that all the time. ‘How to whack? It’s so nice!’ I wanted to say, okay lah, next time I do ugly ugly lah,” she quipped.
The current best selling designs are unicorns, Pokemon and Minions. During the US elections, a customer ordered a Donald Trump design! “Many people said pinatas are seasonal, next time people won’t buy it but it’s been around for hundreds of years. It would only get more innovative, and with more better design,” said Diyana. She also shared some care tips when buying a piñata: “Don’t put it under direct sunlight because it’s paper and don’t let it be in contact with water.” She also recommend that customers order two weeks before their event because it takes time to make the piñatas.
Currently with the high demand for piñatas including more with affordable designs from party shops, Diyana is looking towards a larger-scale production at a factory. “So far in South-east Asia, we probably don’t have so many piñata makers? As you can see Singaporeans buy from us so definitely there are none in Singapore. We have a few piñata makers in Indonesia. Maybe we are not the first to start making piñatas but we have the most volume and we are the biggest,” she said.
Regular-sized piñatas are priced from RM130 onwards while the mini versions go for about RM20 to RM30 each. Diyana have also made number shaped piñatas from one-year-olds to 60-year-olds. “I want to let people know that piñatas are not just for kids. It’s for all ages. Anyone can use it as part of their decor or party.”
Shop for your piñatas at Piñata Party KL
Website: www.pinata.my
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