The Bearded Oysters are a walking group with a name consistent with the tradition of NOLA walking groups with slightly-naughty-but-go-over-kids-heads-double-entendre names (i.e., the Pussy Footers, the Muff-a-lottas, the Camel Toe Steppers, etc.). As parade goers know, some of these walking groups (I think the term these days might be micro-krewes, but I'm not sure I'm using that correctly) prioritize performance: auditions are held, choreography is top notch and routines are clearly extensively rehearsed. The best examples I can think of in this category are the Sirens of New Orleans and the 6-10 Stompers. On the other end of the spectrum, you have parties that happen to be moving along a parade route. With their "No Meetings. No rehearsals. Just great times with fabulous ladies" tagline, this is pretty squarely the Bearded Oysters' territory. Incidentally, there is no right or wrong approach here: I love both extremes and everything in between. All are awesome, all are part of Carnival, all are fun to witness.
Billed as "the most shuckingly fabulous menagerie of slick chick tricks ever disorganized," there's a lot to love about the Bearded Oysters: their pretty pearly uniforms, their funny little merkin flashes, their wonderful use of oyster puns (for example the head of the oysters is the "Mother Shucker"), their old-school bearded lady/side-show vibe...I could go on. To top it all off, their handmade throw is a decorated oyster shell, and it's one of my FAVORITES. It's eco-friendly, New Orleanean, small enough to fit nicely in your hand, but still big enough to give you plenty of surface area to work with. There are tons of great pictures on their Instagram account (I'm getting more into Instagram, can you tell?) and there have been several articles on the decorated oyster, in particular NOLA Defender's article "Shuck Parade" and "Mardi Gras World's article "Class with Sass".
Here are some pictures from the Bearded Oyster Faccebook and/or Instagram:
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| Beautiful batch of painted and decoupaged oysters (via The Bearded Oysters Facebook Page) |
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| Lots of fabulous painted up oysters (via The Bearded Oysters Instagram) |
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| Glittery, fringed and sporting a strategically placed pearl - I love it!! (via The Bearded Oysters Instagram) |
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| Poboy Oyster! Not to be confused with an Oyster Poboy (via The Bearded Oysters Instagram) |
Where to look at more decorated oysters:
- https://instagram.com/explore/tags/beardedoysters/
- http://pelicanbomb.com/art-review/2015/the-exceptionally-extraordinary-emporium-an-interview-with-lindsey-phillips
- http://www.mardigrasworld.com/mardi-gras-class-with-sass-female-dance-troupes/
Oyster shell arts & crafts are a pretty time honored Southern tradition, so you may find yourself interested in prepping your own shells for Muses shoes, Nyx purses, or other DIY projects. I made an black, silver and pearly white oyster shoe in 2014, you can see my blog entry on it here. My process, adapted from instructions I gleaned from a former Bearded Oyster for, are as follows:
You have two primary options for getting oyster shells to craft with: (1) order oysters at a restaurant, then ask for a to-go box for the shells or (2) buy oysters and shuck 'em yourself. I've had good results with both approaches, but then I was a bride who had an oyster knife in her registry.
General tips:
If you have a big stash of oyster shells (say you bought a 100-oyster half sack and charbroiled all them bad boys up to feed 10 people) or you just aren't ready to prep them right this second (say you had got home from a romantic dinner with a doggie bag full of shells but don't want break out bleach and scrub shells tipsy), you can keep them in the freezer until you're ready.
You'll want to do as much of this outside as possible because of the bleach and generally dirtiness. I have a dedicated Tupperware for this that I obviously don't use for food-related anything any more. Use gloves and well ventilated space when handling the bleach. Safety first y'all.
First step, I like to give the shells an overnight soak in some diluted bleach just to loosen everything up, but you can play that by ear. If it's hot out, you may want to skip the soak so you don't have a plastic bin full of hot oyster shell soup getting all stinky and gross. If the shells are particularly dirty (from mud or charbroil or what have you), the soak may make your life easier. Shells from restaurants are usually pretty clean, so you can sometime skip straight to step 2.
Step 2 - Scrub your shells clean in a sink of cold soapy water. If need be, use a knife to scrape away any organic matter and bits of oyster. In particular, you may need to really scrape off anything left the of the adductor (the tough muscle that holds bivalves shut). It gets severed when the oyster is shucked, but tends to cling pretty hard to the shell so show no mercy. Any little stowaways (i.e. wee unopen oyster shells or mussels that are stuck to the shell) should be discarded so they can't rot. After the shells are scrubbed clean, I put them into undiluted bleach to soak for 2-3 days.
Step 3- Soak for 2-3 days in concentrated bleach.
Step 4 - Rinse with cold soapy water to remove the bleach. Rinse several times as needed to get the bleach off the shells.
Step 5 - Dry out thoroughly. Once the shells are mostly dry, I take a big deep whiff (this is why it's important to get them good and rinsed in step 4 - please don't go inhaling bleach fumes and then get mad at me). They should smell faintly of bleach, but their should be no fishiness. If there's any fishiness at all, I repeat steps 3-5 until they smell clean. Once they're clean, dry them really thoroughly. I spread them out on newspaper in my garage and let them sit for weeks.
Easy as pie! I currently have about 100+ beautiful, clean shells, which should last me quite some time, though I will continue to collect (no such thing as enough where craft supplies are concerned).
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| Some of my shells soaking |
If you have any extra tips, I would love to hear them!
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