Specialty stores that sell shiny beads, colorful plastic cups and other tossable trinkets for Mardi Gras float riders are busy this time of year, but they're only part of a Carnival economy that operates year-round and reaches far beyond southern Louisiana.

"There's Mardi Gras all over the world," said Dan Kelly, owner of Beads by the Dozen, which also sells Mardi Gras paraphernalia on the Internet to out-of-state Carnival organizations and souvenir-hunters.

This season built on fun and reckless abandon is hard work and big business for retailers, manufacturers, costume makers and the builders of the floats that roll each year.

D&D Creations does about 15,000 Mardi Gras costumes annually for 43 clubs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida, said owner Diane Brown, herself the head of Excalibur, a Carnival club that parades every year in suburban Jefferson Parish.

Employing 12 people year-round, Brown said the typical marching costumes for krewe members run from $40 to $125. But costumes for Mardi Gras royalty -- the clubs' queens and kings -- are another matter: the plumed collars alone can run $5,000.

The New Orleans area's two major float builders -- Kern Studios and Barth Bros. Artists -- are finishing up more than 500 of their creations for the parade season that began in earnest Friday night and runs through Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, on Feb. 20.

Blaine Kern, head of Kern Studios, said he built a float costing $750,000 a few years ago. His paycheck for his first Mardi Gras floats in 1947 was $3,000.

Building a typical Mardi Gras float takes up to six weeks, depending upon size, and calls on a number of skilled craftsmen, including carpenters and welders who construct the basic frame.

Artists stretch cloth over the frames to create various shapes and work painstakingly with papier mache to create the often cartoon-like figures that adorn the floats.

Then, there are the popular doubloons, coins -- usually made of aluminum -- that are named in tribute to the Spanish colonial coinage that was so sought after by the pirate culture that also turned out buccaneer Jean Lafitte. The first were minted for the 1960 Rex parade.

Shops around the city cater to collectors eager for the thousands of designs turned out by the krewes. Especially rare ones have fetched hundreds of dollars in eBay auctions.

Pat Finney, who oversees New Orleans Mint and its annual output of about 3 million doubloons, won't discuss her prices, citing competitive concerns.

"We have to leave something to the imagination," Finney said.

However, she does mint doubloons for the Rex organization, one of the most prestigious groups, in 14-carat gold.

Telling the uninitiated what to do and where to go during the season is the business of Arthur Hardy, publisher of the annual Mardi Gras Guide. This year, along with 15 to 20 freelance writers and photographers, he has put out 100,000 copies at $4.99 each.

Advertising in the magazine is up 28 percent over 2006, he said.

"It's a good barometer of the health of the event," Hardy said. "Advertisers are confident about the event and hope there will be some business here."

There won't be any break after the season is over. Wrapped up for the 2007 season, Brown and her staff already are starting on designs for 2008. And, for the float builders, it's impossible to tell when one Carnival ends and the next begins.

"We're already planning for the next one now," Barth said.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)