It’s Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans!! This is some of the art I will be creating over the next several weeks, and I invite everyone, including my non-local friends to take a look.

In 2021 when Mardi Gras got canceled (I’m sure you know why), the locals came up with ways we could still safely celebrate the holiday and support the artists who make a living producing their spectacular works of art. We decided we would decorate our homes as if they were Mardi Gras floats! Therefore, locals could tour the neighborhoods to view all of the “floats.” Then, on Fat Tuesday, many of us threw beads, trinkets and handcrafted items to those who passed our homes.

The following year, the house floats and decor were just as popular! Even though the Mardi Gras parades rolled, the community loved decorating their homes in extravagant decor so much they continued the tradition.

The Story Behind The Most Weatherproof Mardi Gras Flowers

As many artists started producing flowers from cardboard and wire, similar to those found on Mardi Gras floats, I realized the needs when displayed on house were quite different. The accents on Mardi Gras floats are made to be displayed temporarily since the base of the floats are reused each year, stripped down and decorated again. They are also stored in warehouses, protected from the sun, rain and heat. When locals started displaying these gorgeous works of art on their homes, they soon realized that paper based flowers were not well-suited for the long term. Many flowers blew away or suffered irreparable damage as we had a strong wind storm in 2022. Moisture also caused damage to the paper based art.

With all of these problems, I thought, “Why not make a durable Mardi Gras flower that could withstand wind, rain, and the sun’s UV rays?” I put my skills and years of professional artistic knowledge to work and came up with acrylic Mardi Gras flowers! I’m excited to provide these beauties to the public because I am so passionate about solving problems and being innovative while producing something unique and beautiful. The process to make these flowers is very involved, and I hope you will appreciate all that goes into them and get many years of festive enjoyment out of them!

Jennifer Freire