Half my family are from New Orleans, which means I have been to Mardi Gras many times. It also means I have pounds and pounds of Mardi Gras beads. Aside from bringing them out while holding a Mardi Gras party, I am not really sure what to do with them. I decided to make a wreath with some of them.
As a part of Christmas decorations, I had bought a greenery wreath. The greenery was attached to a metal ring that has prongs evenly spaced around the circumference. I opened up the prongs, so I could remove the greenery and compost them. Then I decided to repurpose the ring to serve as the base of the Mardi Gras wreath. The prongs worked perfectly to hangs the ends of the Mardi Gras beads. I then just kept the middle part of the bead necklaces between the prongs. I kept adding more and more beads to fill in the wreath.
Adding beads to metal wreath base
Once I had added plenty of beads and the wreath felt complete, I added a few necklaces that have the krewe’s medallion on them. I spaced those out so that they would hang evenly along the wreath. I also added three necklaces (gold, green, and purple because New Orleans Mardi Gras) to the top. Instead of wrapping them through the wreath, I placed them inside the top three prongs and pull the rest of the wreath, so they could be used as the wreath’s hanger. Finally I added a mask near the top. I used pliers to pull the metal prongs back together. I then used ribbon to wrap around the wreath at each prong location. I also wrapped the ribbon around the prongs as they did not close fully.
Then voilà, I have my finished Mardi Gras wreath. Laissez les bon temps rouler.
Mardi Gras wreath