By the time I recovered I lost my commercial visual merchandising business. Decorating trends changed and the back to Nature look was out ... a more modern look; chrome, glass and brass was in.
I poured myself into perfecting my dogwood hoop designs and writing about my Red River experiences. I attained a level of perfection in my designing and in my constructing made possible only by the destroying of the old. My dogwood hoop furniture was reborn into perfection. I gave it all the qualities needed to become the heirlooms of the future. I made it rock-solid strong, beautiful for the eye to behold and curved the backs and seats to fit the human form making it comfortable to sit in.
I spent the Winter of 1997 designing a special piece of Antebellum furniture known in history as the Nanny Rocker. In 1998, I won the Texas Forestry Association's, "Award of Merit for Architectural Excellence in Wood Design," for my dogwood Nanny Rocker.