You’ll need
-
newspaper (torn or cut into strips)
-
a balloon
-
white flour
-
yarn or string
-
pipe cleaners
Making the paste
A simple no-cook paste calls for one part white flour and one and a half parts room-temperature water. Use a glass or metal container, which will be easier to clean than plastic. Whisk the mixture until it’s almost the consistency of glue. If needed, add more water or flour. For best results, store your paste in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
Making the virus shape (the messy part)
1. Inflate a balloon to the size you’d like your sphere to be and tie it closed. (If you don’t have a balloon handy, you could stuff a plastic bag with crumpled newspapers to achieve a circular shape.)
2. Take your newspaper and tear or cut it into strips. You’ll need more strips than you think. For the perfectionists, the smaller the strips, the less bumpy your papier-mâché form will be.
3. Dip each strip one at a time into the paste until it’s soaked through. Pull the strip between your thumb and forefinger to remove excess globs of paste.
4. Layer each strip onto the balloon until one side is completely covered. If you want to stuff your piñata with goodies, leave a small area of the balloon (or plastic bag) uncovered.
5. Balance your balloon inside a cup or mug to repeat step 3 on the other side.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have two or three layers of newspaper strips plastered onto the balloon. Let each layer dry completely before adding another.
Filling the piñata
Pop the balloon through the small hole you left uncovered and remove it. If you’re eager to get to the destruction part, we don’t blame you. Feel free to skip the rest of this step. But, if you have leftover Halloween candy lying around, it would come in handy. Fill the form with your choice of treats. (If your coroñata is supersized, this could mean rolls of toilet paper). Jen Percy, a Brooklyn-based journalist interviewed by Styles, made a coroñata for her boyfriend’s birthday and stuffed it with slips of paper that prescribed activities for the couple to do together. When you’re set, cover the hole with cardboard and masking tape.
Decorating
You’ve probably seen renderings of the coronavirus, most of which depict it as a gray mass covered with red rounded spokes. But here’s where you can get creative. Use paint or construction paper to add pops of color.
For the spokes, get crafty with what you have on hand. You can fasten red pipe cleaners around your virus. You can tape empty toilet paper rolls to the ball and cover with red tissue paper, paint or markers.
Don’t let these directions limit your coroñata. Make it as unique as you are.
Smashing
Poke two small holes in the top of your piñata, and thread yarn or string through them to get it ready for whacking. Be wise about where you hang it. Using fists, golf clubs, baseball bats, hockey sticks, wooden spoons, ladles or anything else that doubles as a battering ram, smash that sucker to bits.
Show us photos of your coroñatas! Tag us at @nytimes on Instagram to have your work featured. You can also email us at athome@nytimes.com.
