Sometime circa 1986, Miss Meg Keys was wandering the streets of a small lovely Illinois town where she happened upon a local grocer who sold colorful hollow creatures — far too expensive for a five year old. Like any child, she began pestering her mother daily for enough money to have a fancy piñata of her own.

Having had the luck of an amazingly crafty mother, she was immediately rushed off to the library where she checked out a book on the art of papier mâché and the beginnings of an empire emerged.

After several years of dormant piñata making, otherwise known as adolescence, Miss Keys found herself in the middle of a Chicago neighborhood that led to inspiration and she resurrected her knowledge of the party artform — creating golden moustaches for charity events and having random run-ins with hot pink donkey piñatas.

In 2008, she decided she needed a new realm of inspiration and packed her buckets, flour, and recycled newspaper while swinging eastward. She now resides in the papier mâché slush of Brooklyn, New