What's all this talk about lipstick?

Look in your attic, or if you currently have children or young-at-hearters under your roof, just go and get it for a second:

The sock monkey doll. You have it, and

what a classic!

Somebody way back when, a doll-maker of unknown fame, conjured on one of these traditional work socks and saw it. The red lips on the heel of a stocking. Imagine.

Since the first effigies began, prehistorically, all manner of substances have been used for the amusement of children. Corn-husks, chips of stone, sticks, bits of clay…..and now and for a long time, even socks!

These dolls live. Any child knows that.

In August, we took a drive to the Kohler Art Museum in Fond du lac WI to see a textile in arts exhibit. Our daughter was home for a month between graduation from Lawrence and the beginning of grad school at UW Madison. What to our wandering eyes as we strolled through the museum should appear? This artful configuration on the sock monkey theme. (top photo)




There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all paper doll. And this creation urges, nay, demands a certain form upon which to store it.

The sock monkey theme - it’s like Scotch Tape or Kleenex or Elmer’s Glue. It sticks to you. Lipstick sticks to you, and is so politically in, til it rubs off.........


We went to the internet to explore further and came upon a woman in Hayward WI who runs her own monkey doll business. (Hayward, that’s just south of the Mesabi Range which is just south of the arctic circle, way up north.) This lady, Dee Lindner, has a website: http://www.sockmonkeylady.com You'll find lots of sock monkey products there.

We’ve enjoyed a few Dee-lightful Email exchanges with Ms. Lindner. Check her site out.