CULTURAL HAIRSTYLES
Zina Eugene
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Ms. Eugene learned how to do hair as a child and have been doing so for thirty years. It started with braiding the hair of her dolls & siblings. Before long, she was braiding hair for everyone in the neighborhood. Ms. Harris is completely self-taught, and describes her skills for braiding and styling hair “intrinsic... Everyone has a gift, and hairdressing is one of mine”. To validate her skills and become professional, she attended Moler Beauty College in Kenner, Louisiana and the Louisiana State Board of Barbers and Examiners Apprenticeship Program under the direction of Dennis Sigur of Dennis's Barber Shop on Freret Street in New Orleans. She became a licensed professional in 2000. She has worked in the Loyola University Hair Salon, Shop Talk Salon on Freret Street in New Orleans, and her very own Salon, Healthy Hair Care in New Orleans. As for the Hair Care Business, she says it's good to be in the hair industry, as everyone always wants their "hair done". Even in tough economic times, and during a recession, people find a way to accommodate beauty expenses.

GRIS GRIS BAGS, POTIONS & SPIRIT DOLLS
Priestess Ava Kay Jones
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

In the tradition of the great ancestor Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ own Priestess Ava Kay Jones educates the public in the true nature of the Voodoo religion. Voodoo is alive and well and flourishing in New Orleans, LA (known as the Voodoo Capital of the United States). Ms. Jones makes and markets her own unique line of blessed portions, gris-gris (mojo) bags and spirit dolls. All with an emphasis on positive self help.

FILÉ GRINDING & WALKING STICKS
Lionel Key, Jr.
Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish

Key is of African, French, and Spanish descent who, at the age of thirty-four, learned from his great grandfather how to grind dried sassafras leaves into filé seasoning. He has been featured on the Food Network and in Saveur magazine.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN QUILTING
Cecelia Pedescleaux
Marrero, Jefferson Parish

Ms. Pedescleaux’s hand-made quilts have been featured in the Folklife area since 2003. Ms. Pedescleaux started sewing as a child, and began quilting in the 1960s. She works out of African-American quilting traditions, as well as creating her own unique designs. Recently, she has worked with Katrina’s Kids, creating quits showcasing the children’s emotional artwork that incorporates New Orleans scenes.

COLOMBIAN TATTING
Sunilda Colmenares
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Sunilda Colmenares knows many needlecraft traditions, but for the 73 year old, making lace is her true passion. She has used tatting, a technique for handcrafting a particularly durable lace constructed of a series of knots and loops, to create bedspreads, tablecloths, doilies, handkerchiefs, and baby booties, as well as edging and insertions for clothing, draperies, and linens. Ms. Colmenares shares her love of tatting both through her demonstrations and via the classes she has taught at the Algiers Public Library since 1994.

PIÑATAS
Rosario Hedman
Kenner, Jefferson Parish

Rosario Hedman is from Honduras where she was at one time a school teacherand College professor. She took lessons from a local person there in how to make piñatas so she could make them for her children and family. She came to the United States in the 1980’s after being widowed and left to support her children on her own.  While she tried several types of work, she was still making piñatas on the side for friends and family. Her talent at being able to recreate almost any design requested led to an opportunity to begin her own business. Hedman says there is more demand for piñatas here in the United States than in Honduras. She also explains that, while many orders are the same, in New Orleans she is more likely to be asked to make a cartoon character, such as the Tazmanian Devil or Snoopy, than she was in Honduras. Though Ms. Hedman had to close her business after losing all her supplies in the floods after Katrina, she continues to come to the Folklife Village to demonstrate her skill in this traditional craft. 

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS ALTAR
Cynthia Ramirez
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Ms. Ramirez is a multi-media artist who has exhibited her work in numerous local, national and international exhibitions. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Southern University in New Orleans, and has taught for eight years in the Talented in the Visual Arts Program for the Orleans Parish Public Schools. In addition to creating a Day of the Dead Altar at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for the last 3 years, she has also installed similar Altars at the Cabildo in New Orleans in association with the Louisiana State Museum.

NICARAGUAN EMBROIDERY
Blanca Solorzano
Metairie, Jefferson Parish

Blanca Solorzano was born in Managua, Nicaragua but has lived in the New Orleans area since she was twelve. Her family maintained many of the traditions of Nicaragua, including fine needlework. As a child, she learned to do Richelieu embroidery, shadow embroidery, and other handwork from her mother. In 1994, she said, "I am very proud to have learned to embroider and do handwork. I learned mainly from my mother, Alicia Solorzano, who is an artist with her hands. She makes heirloom christening dresses, [and] First Communion dresses.“ Richelieu is a form of white-on-white work (white thread on white fabric) and cutwork (an embroidery technique in which small pieces of material are cut away to make a design.) Richelieu embroidery uses large open spaces and thread "bars" to connect the edges and strengthen the piece. (from Louisiana’s Living Traditions, Louisiana Division of the Arts)

MACAW & PHEASANT FANS AND HEADDRESSES
Don Celso "Zep" Zepeda
Texas and Mexico

MARDI GRAS FLOATS
Brian Bush
Marrero, Jefferson Parish

A Marrero based sculptor, Mr. Bush has been on the Mardi Gras float scene for just over a decade. Working in papier maché, his creations range from the huge colorful flowers that adorn the sides of floats, to masks, to free standing caricatures of musicians and fantastical creatures. In the last few years, Mr. Bush has made the transition from sculpting primarily for parades to working in the ever growing Louisiana Movie and Television industry. One of his pieces was recently featured in the aptly titled film “Mardi Gras”.

MARDI GRAS INDIAN CRAFTS AND TRADITIONS
Big Chief Victor Harris,
Wesley Phillips
Spirit of Fi Yi Yi Mandingo Warriors
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Big Chief Victor Harris, Spirit of Fi Yi Yi, and the Mandingo Warriors are noted for the style of their Chief’s Mardi Gras Indian suits - which are based on African, rather than Native American, designs. Past suits worn by Chief Victor have recently been on exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and can now be seen at the Backstreet Cultural Museum. The Chief and his Warriors are known as inspired drummers, and often engage Festival goers in impromptu - and lively - drumming sessions.

MARDI GRAS BALL GOWNS
Ilaine Hartman
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

A New Orleans native born in 1945, Hartman designs and hand-sews traditional ball gowns for Mardi Gras queens and their courts. Growing up in her grandmother’s fabric store, Ms. Hartman began sewing as a young child. In 1981, she spent one year studying with Claire Stouse, a master designer and seamstress who had created Carnival costumes for the city’s elite since the early 1900s. Upon Stouse’s retirement, Hartman took over her client list. Hartman sews a variety of Carnival clothing including Kings’ attire and krewe costumes. She is best known for her Medici collars, a distinctive element of a queen’s costume that consists of numerous hand-beaded “petals” attached to a corset. Each collar takes approximately 200 hours and thousands of dollars to craft. Ilaine designs and makes Mardi Gras costumes for 14 different organizations including Rex, Comus, Momus and Hermes.

MUSES GLITTER SHOES
New Orleans, Orleans Parish
Krewe of Muses

First parading in 2000, the Muses organization now has 1100 members and is the only all female organization that parades at night. The Krewe of Muses’ vision is to tap into and recognize the local artistic and cultural resources of the community and incorporate them into a Muses Mardi Gras tradition, making the entire community a part of the Krewe of Muses parade. The members of the krewe decorate individual shoes to be handed off the floats during their parade each year.  Each shoe becomes a work of art adorned with glitter, paint, feathers, beading, etc., and one shoe may take several days to complete.

RESTORATION CARPENTRY
Dwayne Broussard
Patterson, St. Mary Parish

Mr. Broussard is a North Shore carpenter who learned his trade through his high school shop classes. With “a passion for rebuilding what was old,” Broussard has restored a number of structures including the Trowbridge House in Franklin, Louisiana as well as a circular staircase in the Civil Engineering Building at Tulane University. Broussard was recently featured as a "Louisiana Master Craftsman" in the New Orleans Museum of Art's "Raised to the Trade" exhibit.

BLACKSMITHING
Jim Jenkins
Tickfaw, Tangipahoa Parish

Mr. Jenkins is perhaps the most recognized demonstrator at the Folklife Village. Demonstrating blacksmithing for over 25 years at Jazzfest, Jim has seen the festival evolve while returning yearly to share to craft of blacksmithing. Jim taught himself blacksmith work, which is his present occupation. He has passed many of these skills down to one of his sons. In the tradition of blacksmiths, Jim surrounds himself with the tools of his time-honored trade and those of blacksmiths before him. James is able to make most anything he desires. He uses iron, steel, and wood to create gates, fireplace tools, door hinges, latches, and s-hooks for potholders, cooking utensils, lantern holders, wagon wheels, and knives. The tools he uses to make these items are a forge, anvil, hammer, and punch tongs.

STAINED GLASS RESTORATION
Albert Lips, Jr.
St. Bernard, St. Bernard Parish

Albert Henry Lips, Jr. represents the fourth generation of glaziers in his family, who emigrated to Louisiana from Germany. He grew up in the Irish Channel, where he began apprenticing in his father's shop at the age of seven. By the time that he was ten, Albert, Jr. was working side by side with his dad on commercial projects, and this relationship continued until the latter's death in 2002. Today, Albert Lips, Jr. proudly perpetuates the family's traditional specialties, which include meticulous stained-glass work and manually beveled glass doors. His most recent restoration project was bell tower of Holy Name of Jesus Church in New Orleans

LATHE WOODTURNING
John Hartsock & Marvin Hirsch
New Orleans, Orleans Parish

Mr. Hartsock has been turning wood for the last twenty five years and runs the only woodworking shop in New Orleans specializing in this craft. His career as a turner began after he purchased an old property which he needed to "finish out." Working in a neighbor's shop, he learned the basics and then added to his knowledge by reading books and watching other professionals (such as Floyd Rodriguez--once "the best turner in town"). With a staff of three, Hartsock works with reclaimed cypress and Spanish cedar to turn columns up to 18' feet long on his 22' foot lathe. He recently turned 300 porch posts for a private home in Barbados. He has also done a number of restoration projects, such as the Houmas House. His work has been shipped both nationally and internationally.

SLATE & COPPER ROOFING
Lionel "Lonnie" Smith, Jr.
Kenner, Jefferson Parish

Historic-restoration roofer Lonnie Smith has been in business for the last 16 years, with his father Lionel Smith, who’s experience now tops four decades. The pair own and operate Guaranty Sheet Metal works, and strive to provide their customers with the authentic materials and appearance of old French Quarter roofing. Though this look is prized by preservationists, the Smiths’ use of recycled materials now also falls under the newly popular heading of “green” or sustainable building practices.