Book Review: Stupid Sock Creatures

Most people have an unmatched sock or two. Some of us even have a whole basketful, collected over the years with masking tape hash marks dutifully affixed to track how long they've been mateless. Throw them away? Out of the question! Some day the matching sock may turn up. Besides, even if there's a hole in the toe or the heel, the rest of the sock has lots of wear left. Surely something could be done with it!

Now, thanks to John Murphy, we know that these lonely socks can be transformed into whimsical soft sculptures.

In Stupid Sock Creatures, Murphy chronicles his journey from ceramic sculptor to beleaguered bill-payer with a bag of castoff socks. Initially intending to channel his creative urges into the making of that old standby, the sock monkey, Murphy found the whole process going wonderfully odd. Soon his life was filled with a whole cast of multi-limbed goggle-eyed sock mutants, each with its own strange personality.

Murphy begins with a diagram of a sock's anatomy hauntingly reminiscent of a those posters on the butcher shop wall showing cuts of meat. He continues with his Frankensteinian construction methods including step-by-step instructions for sewing and stuffing and how to personalize your creatures with appendages including tongues, tails, tentacles, and the ever-jaunty bone through the noggin.

For samples of his style, see the cover of the book and his website.

Sock creatures would make a fine project for the classroom or, filled with lavender, a clever stress-relief object. And why not use outgrown baby socks to make a special memento of your little one's childhood?

As Murphy says, "They're cheaper than taxidermy and nothing has to die." And you already have the raw materials on hand.

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