For the Love of Paper Mache

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This weekend while sitting dockside in Boothbay Harbor, Maine we experienced our first devouring of lobster for the season.  Normally when I think of lobster I think of the following: its simple deliciousness, my sister (Katie) inquiring to whether or not we have enough butter, and the effort that goes into deconstructing before consumption.

It’s hard to think of lobster and not think of the work that goes into all that cracking.  Lucky for me my love does all that hard work for me as I claim blissful ignorance in how to do it.  (Note: sometimes it’s really fun to not know how to do certain things and have others do them for you.  Let the professionals do their job and stick to what you do well.)  Until recently, I had never thought much about what goes into the creation of a lobster.

Back in January at Nick’s surprise birthday party, our newly engaged friends warmly recalled the piñata we had made for our housewarming party.  With big eyes and a huge smile the bride-to-be asked if we could make her a lobster piñata for her wedding.  We all laughed and joked about it until she maintained that she was having a wedding in Maine and clearly she needed a lobster piñata.  Upon hearing the request, Nick and I looked at one another knowingly…we would be making said lobster!  At the time the request was made, none of our friends knew the effort that went into constructing the piñata for the housewarming party.  No one knew that the evening before our housewarming party I had a mini-meltdown and at one point suggested we forgo the piñata insisting no one knew we were planning to have one so it wouldn’t be missed.  No one knew that Nick saved the day and finished the aesthetics of the piñata for the housewarming, not because he wanted it, but because he knew how hard I had worked on its construction and how much it meant to me.

I must clarify that our housewarming piñata was a simple oval shape, nothing close to as intimidating as a lobster.  Before embarking on the homemade piñata, I searched high and low online for lobster piñatas.  They do exist, but would not arrive in time.  We were two weeks out from the wedding and had to get moving.  Before starting, we discussed my mini-meltdown during the last piñata and decided we would do our best in making this gift for our friends, but if it didn’t work out we wouldn’t get too worked up about a failed attempt.  Taking this moment to clarify our goals and be open to it not working out really helped us keep a positive attitude during construction.  I will certainly adopt this approach for all future craft projects.

The Saturday before the big day, construction began with me on the porch– balloon, newspaper, flour and water mixture in tow.  Nick cut the newspaper strips I used to paper mache the balloon.  The paper mache portion is a 3 day process as each layer must dry fully before the next may be applied.  Luckily we were blessed with steamy weather.  We had agreed that Nick would continue working on the piñata while I was teaching Spin class the Wednesday before the wedding.  I came home to find my love desperately searching the internet for a lobster piñata; needless to say, he was not optimistic about our homemade creation.  It turns out when he cut the top to create the mechanism by which the piñata would hang he discovered the sides of the piñata were all touching on the inside…hence Nick’s discouragement.  I reminded Nick of our intention to not be overwhelmed by the project and we pushed forward to what became an awesome creation.

As you can see in the slideshow above, Luigi the Lobster turned out pretty grand!  Luigi was (literally) a big hit at the wedding.  The timely construction was worth every minute as our friends loved their gift.  But the now happily married couple isn’t the only couple that received a gift in Luigi… Nick and I were gifted with a reminder that we are pretty amazing and limitless in reaching our goals.  This project helped us focus on patience and the importance of encouraging one another. I tend to be a super planner (“Planner McPlannerton” to some of my friends) which leads me to be easily disappointed in myself if things don’t go as planned.  Taking the time to state our intention and be open to bumps in the road proved to create an open atmosphere for us to enjoy the project rather than only focus on the outcome.

If you are ever wondering where you are in a relationship may I suggest creating a detailed homemade piñata together? Or try taking on another task that is foreign to both people. The results may be telling.

Disclaimer: We are not currently taking any requests for custom piñatas.  If you are interested in taking a stab at it, I do encourage you to check out this website or others like it to get you started.

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