After Ike

Wow... two things come to mind today. First, I had intended to add a new post once a week. You can see how long it's been since the first post. Life has been full! Second, and this is the biggie, my title,' shreds and tatters,' ... which took me a long time to commit to, has taken on meaning never even considered before Ike. Galveston could be described as being in shreds and tatters right now. I feel disoriented driving down familiar streets. Piles of debris reduce some streets to a single lane of traffic. Many such piles are mostly tree limbs dragged from yards, twigs and even trunks of ancient monarchs. Other piles contain stained, soggy, broken furniture, rugs, toys, appliances, kitchen cabinets ... remnants of life before Ike. Then there are the piles that used to be houses. This was worse than Rita, worse than Alicia, worse than Carla.

We are blessed. Flood waters did not rise into our home, or my mother's home. Our home is livable, with all utilities and telephone restored. Air conditioner compressors, outside on the ground were submerged in the salt water storm surge and will have to be replaced. My mom's home has running water only, no electricity, no gas, no telephone; so until all those are restored, she can't move back in, so Rudy and I won't be moving back in either for a while yet. I have some photos I've taken of our homes that I want to show you, but can't get them posted from this computer ... sigh ... my sister-in-law Christy's. It's a great computer, mind you, and I'm so lucky to be able to use it, but, I think that because it is on a wireless network and the upload doesn't seem to take. So if you want to see some amazing shots of Galveston, go here: http://www.galveston.com/hurricaneikeslideshows/

I'll see if I can figure out this picture thing and show you some I've taken. Feeling very blessed ...

Blog Day 1

Well, I've been putting off this thing of setting up a blog. Today is the day. Monday, August 11, 2008, I launch myself and my dollmaking... out there.
Why did I choose 'shredsandtatters' as my blog identity? I've given the choice of a blog identity a lot of thought over the last few months, and seriously considered a couple of choices. I'll tell you about my other identity possibilities some day, but the phrase 'shredsandtatters' pretty much describes my thought processes these days ... so much to do, so little time. I hope having a web presence through this blog and having to present a modicum of coherence (is that a word?), will instill some order in an often scattered mind. I know everyone has more to do than the time to do it in, so I'm in good company there.
On another level, the phrase 'shreds and tatters' refers to my style of dollmaking in that I often use torn fabric edges in the finished costumes of dolls I create. I enjoy the visual texture added by a fabric's ragged edges and the air those edges add of the doll somehow being not quite finished with more to come.
I'm so pleased to tell you that I am one of the 7 new (2008) artist members of ODACA, Original Doll Artist Council of America. (You might like to read more about this journey on the blog of whimsymoondesigns, my good friend Angela's creation that is the inspiration and impetus for me to get blogging.) This application for artist membership in ODACA has been a 9-month journey of discovery, anticipation, jitters, with positive and negative emotions all along, periods of confidence broken often by periods of extreme lack of confidence. What a trip!
This new membership is another reason I am taking the step of setting up my blog. As a new ODACA member, I will have a page on their website (http://www.odaca.org/) and really do want viewers of my work there to have a link to another spot on the web where more of my work can be seen.
I'll stop for today, this is getting long and I sure don't want to bore you. Now it's time to figure out how to get some pictures up here. I figured it out and it was easy! Marionette Master is pictured below.
Pictures of dolls past, present, and future to come ...