The Doll Book of the Month Club: Flocked and Socked, The Art of Annie Montgomerie

   What happened? I thought today was the 31st of June. I did that knuckle count thing yesterday.(The first knuckle is January, the second is February, etc. The knuckles are 31 day months, and the in between bits are the short months, which are all 30 days, except for February. For those of you who want to use this method, when you get to the last knuckle, which will be July, go back to the first knuckle and carry on with August. It works. I just screwed up yesterday.) So, as (almost) usual, I'm late on the book of the month. But the good news is that I spent part of yesterday working on a new review which will be up soon. So don't be too mad at me.

  But as for now, let's look at the book of the month, (or, actually last month.). It's "Flocked and Socked, The Art of Annie Montgomerie".

  Annie is an artist who lives in Dorset, England.  

I found Annie Montgomerie's dolls on the internet. 

They are amazing anthropomorphic fantasies, beautiful combinations of vintage children's animal story books, and someone's nightmares. I love them, and am also somewhat disturbed by some of them. 

  The method of her doll making interested me. While there isn't much reading to this book, (It's all about the art.), she does mention some of her methods. (She starts by sculpting a head out of clay, and then covers it with several layers of something akin to fabric mache.) 

She makes wonderful realistic animal heads.

She never uses faux fur fabric. She makes her own fur from fabrics, and applies it to the doll bit by bit, making it lay like real fur. , 

She creates her doll bodies from old play doll bodies. Annie assures us she doesn't tear the heads off antique dolls, but '70's and 80's dolls are plentiful'. (I don't think I could tear the heads off of them either, myself!) 

 That's about all the detail we're given. She is an artist and she sells her work, so we can't expect her to give away all her secrets, now can we?

  It's a beautiful book if you like Annie's art, a scary one if you don't.

  The book was originally available as a signed copy on Annie's website. (You can find that site HERE.) It sold out there, but can still be found online. My sister and I have been following Annie and her art on Facebook, and my sister bought me this book for my birthday back in March.

  That's the book for the month. See you soon for that review, and some fun flea market finds.