BULL WHIPS
Billy Anderson
Baker, East Baton Rouge Parish

Billy Anderson learned the art of whip making from his grandfather who taught him the four platt braid as a child. From then on he taught himself how to braid a variety of whips being used today. One very popular whip that he braids is called the "Cajun Bull Whip," braided from eight strands of latigo with a steel lined unique double braided handle. Billy also braids a nylon bull whip with a steel cable core in it. This whip is used for driving cattle out of the wet marshlands of Louisiana. Billy is one of four whip braiders in the country that can braid most any type of whip that you request. He has had customers from countries all over the world, including Japan, France, the Netherlands, as well as from the United States. He also braids riding quirts, reins, lunge and buggy whips. He also repairs whips of all types.

SADDLE REPAIR & LEATHERWORK
Hollis Gill, Jr.
Albany, Livingston Parish

CAJUN MARDI GRAS MASKS & COSTUMES
Georgie & Allen Manuel
Eunice, St. Landry Parish

The Manuels were born and raised in Eunice.  Both French-speaking Cajuns, they are proud tradition bearers.  Georgie runs the local Eunice history and cultural museum and, for many years, operated an arts and crafts store specializing in the brightly colored attire worn during the courirs de Mardi Gras (Cajun Mardi Gras runs).  The Eunice run dates from the late 19th century when the town was first established, and today, the town’s courir has more than 1,000 runners. The Manuels have typically focused their demonstration on making Mardi Gras masks but have recently started to make the traditional outfits and capuchons worn by the runners.

CAJUN ACCORDIONS
Clarence "Junior" Martin
Scott, Lafayette Parish

Mr. Martin is one of Louisiana's premier builders of the diatonic (or French) accordion. Born in Cankton near Lafayette in 1940, Martin has played Cajun music since he was thirteen. He has developed an international reputation amongst fellow builders and musicians because of his detailed craftsmanship and accordions’ powerful sound. A construction worker by trade, he began building accordions fifteen years ago when his wife bought him one following a hip replacement surgery. Master accordion maker Marc Savoy assisted Martin as he made his first instruments.

CAJUN FIDDLES
Marc Taylor
Sunset, St. Landry Parish

Mr. Taylor’s fascination and love of the violin was enkindled early in life while listening to family members play, and, of course, dance to the music of the fiddle and accordion. Twenty five years of carving realistic duck decoys laid the foundation for his career as a luthier building violins. Mr. Taylor’s passion as a luthier is expressed in his own words: “The greatest thrill is when the violin is finished and I draw a bow across its strings and hear its voice for the first time. I know then that everything is right with the world, and this is what I was born to do.”

TRADITIONAL ISLEÑO DUCK DECOYS
Irvan Perez Family
St. Bernard, St. Bernard Parish

Mr. Irvan Perez, a carver of intricately detailed duck decoys and the local waterfowl of Eastern Louisiana, was a perennial favorite in the Folklife Village. Through his carvings and decimas, ballads used as oral histories, he sought to educate the public on the culture and heritage of “Los Isleños”. These were the descendents of Canary Islanders who were brought to Louisiana by the Spanish in the 1770s and settled in St. Bernard Parish. After his death in 2008 his daughter, Jeanette Perez Alfonso, and grandson, Scott Nuñez, have continued on in his place in the Waterways Tent. Through them Festival goers are able to see both the fine work of Irvan, and the new pieces being created in traditional ways by Scott himself.

TRADITIONAL BOAT BUILDING
Tom Colvin
Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish

Mr. Colvin is an expert boat builder of Anglo-Scots-Irish descent who constructs traditional Louisiana boats by hand. He specializes in lake skiffs from Lake Pontchartrain and pirogues, a flat-bottomed boat popular in the bayous of southeast Louisiana. Colvin learned the former by apprenticing with a master skiff builder on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He learned the rare art of making dugout log canoes from his Northshore Choctaw neighbors in Lacombe. In 1986, he worked as the boat carpenter for the sailing lugger project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boatbuilding at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux. Colvin was recently inducted into the Louisiana Folklife Center's Hall of Master Folk Artists.

CRAWFISH TRAPS & DEEPWATER NETS
Kernis Huval
Sunset, St. Landry Parish

Mr. Huval makes traditional crawfish traps (les carlets) which he learned how to construct as a youth by watching other fisherman. While most of his peers use ponds for crawfishing, he runs his one hundred and fifty traps in the Atchafalaya Basin. Here he also leads guided tours to hunting and fishing camps. Born in 1945 in southern Louisiana, Huval is fluent in Cajun French. He has participated in the Louisiana Folk Festival and the Festival Acadians.

ISLEÑO GARDEN REMEDIES
Cecile Robin
St. Bernard, St. Bernard Parish

A resident of St. Bernard Parish since she married into the Isleño community more than fifty years ago, Ms. Robin began documenting Isleños' home remedies in 1973. She published a book of her research in 2000--Remedies and Lost Secrets of the Isleños--which features more than eighty remedies drawn from oral traditions. She also explains the tradition of "praying on" illnesses by reciting prayers that have been handed down from one generation of folk healers to the next. She is an active member of Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society, and annually demonstrates the use of home remedies at the Los Isleños Fiesta. In recent years her son, Charles Robin III, joined them, demonstrating the craft of hoop & cast nets. Charles III also displays & discusses his late father’s prize-winning miniature fishing boats. His son, Charles IV, also demonstrates net-making demonstrations. Thus three generations of the Robin family carry on their Isleño traditional crafts.

NET MAKING & MINIATURE BOAT BUILDING
Charles Robin, III
St. Bernard, St. Bernard Parish

A maker of nets and miniature boats, the techniques of which were taught to him by his father and grandfather, Mr. Robin participates in the Folklife Village each year with his mother Cecile Robin, a maker of traditional Isleño remedies. His son, Charles IV, also makes the trip to the Village, where he is now starting to demonstrate the skills handed down to him by the previous three generations of fishermen in his St. Bernard family.

MARDI GRAS FLOAT MAKING
Tana Barth
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Barth Brothers was started in 1975 by Tana and Barry’s father, Joseph Barth, Jr., a commercial sign painter, billboard painter, and set designer. Today, Barry has taken over as the company’s president and main float builder. Tana is the painter and chief color coordinator. For making their elaborate pieces, the Barths developed a new material of emulsion-treated brown paper called "Barth form" which has since been adopted by other float builders. The Barth’s work has been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and currently can be found at Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans. They are best known, however, for the two, 28-foot mermaids that they created for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.

MARDI GRAS INDIAN CRAFTS AND TRADITIONS
Big Chief Tyrone Casby, Mohawk Hunters
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Tyrone Casby is Big Chief of the Mohawk Hunters, a tribe based in Algiers. A New Orleans high school principal in daily life, Mr. Casby has been masking Indian for over 40 years. Chief Tyrone is also an organizer of “West Fest,” the West Bank’s Super Sunday Indian gathering.

MARDI GRAS MARCHING CLUB CRAFTS AND TRADITIONS
Divine Protectors of Endangered Pleasures
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Of the dazzling attire worn by the 100 members of her marching club, founder and “Divine Inspiration” Kim Marshall says “We use beads instead of paint.” Each year members create elaborate, often themed, costumes, based on bustiers that are decorated entirely with these recycled materials. Though sturdy in their appearance the bustiers are quite fragile and are only ever worn in public once. Established in 2001 with 25 members, the DIVAS tradition includes a luncheon and fashion show at Arnaud’s restaurant in the French Quarter. These private proceedings are then followed by their parade, The Promenade, during which the DIVAS are accompanied by their attendants (The Elvi) and the Riverside Ramblers Jazz marching band.

MARDI GRAS INDIAN BEADING
Ronald W. Lewis
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Mr. Lewis is the president of the Big Nine Social Aid & Pleasure Club, one of New Orleans' numerous African American organizations established to provide community service and that parade as an expression of community pride. Members wear color coordinated outfits and accessories such as umbrellas and fans. When not parading as a member of Big Nine, he is "masking Indian", meaning he wears the elaborate feathered head-dresses and beaded suits associated with New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indians. He has been involved in both traditions for more than 35 years. In 2008, Mr Lewis was king of the Krewe de Vieux Mardi Gras parade.

ST. JOSEPH'S DAY ALTAR
Linda Sampson
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

ORNAMENTAL WOODWORKING
Charles Gillam
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Charles Gillam is a self-taught artist who finds inspiration in the music of New Orleans. As a child he would often observe both the musicians and the artists of Jackson Square at work. His first creations were made using left-over paints and old brushes given to him by these artists, and cypress branches that he would cut down and then carve into what would become his now famous totem sculptures. His work became known via the Barristers Gallery in New Orleans, and it was through them that Mr. Gillam was introduced into the House of Blues, also in New Orleans. His work, most notably his totems, can now be seen at all the House of Blues

RESTORATION STREET TILES
Nicholas Hasslock
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Working from a single broken letter R, twenty-four year old Nicholas Hasslock has set about to restore the historic, and highly recognizable, street tiles of New Orleans. Starting from scratch, Mr. Hasslock reformulated the ceramic mixture for the tiles, the molding process (which is completely achieved by hand), and the signature blue, gold and white glazes used for creating each letter. After nearly 3 years of work, Mr. Hasslock has almost completed his commission for these tiles, an order of many thousands . He is the son of local ceramics artists, and represents a second generation of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival participation.

ARCHITECTURAL IRON WORK
Darryl Reeves
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Mr. Reeves learned his trade from master blacksmith William "Buddy" Leonard as well as by teaching himself. Reeves works in copper, aluminum, iron, and a variety of other metals. He has done extensive work in and around the city but is perhaps best known for his restoration of the decorative iron fencing of the Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo building on Jackson Square. In 1990, Mr. Reeves opened his blacksmith shop in New Orleans' Seventh Ward, where he was also born and raised.

CYPRESS SHINGLES & WATER CISTERNS
Ray Weimer
Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish

From Thibodaux, LA, Mr. Weimer specializes in the restoration of historic houses. He learned his trade from his father, and has practiced and perfected his techniques over 40 years. The vanishing skill of repairing and building water cisterns was handed down to Ray from an 89-year-old craftsman, 25 years ago. In recent years, he has demonstrated this craft at folk festivals around the state. In 2008 Mr. Weimer’s water cisterns received considerable attention at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival from both visitors and locals who were interested in more sustainable/green living features for their homes.

CYPRESS SHUTTER MAKING
Sean Wilkerson
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Mr. Wilkerson learned to make shutters from his father in the early 1990s. Working out of his own mill which he opened twelve years ago, he creates traditional New Orleans, plantation-style shutters out of cypress and Spanish cedar. In addition, he makes fine flooring from salvaged materials. He recently began making Caribbean-style shutters that are hinged at the top and swing outwards. He estimates that 60% of his restoration work is for French Quarter properties.