The Dodo Blog

Wet felting for over 10 years and teaching wet felting workshops has made me very aware of the most common mistakes, that prevent you from getting the best results. So, I wanted to list them here, to help you avoid a lot of frustration, as well as wasting precious material and countless hours of work.

1. Choose the right wool for your project

So, what’s the right wool to felt? The short answer to that question is that it depends on your project. This might sound vague, but you could write whole books just on wool. The good news is – depending on where you buy your supplies – you can normally get some information on what’s the right wool for wet felting, needle felting or for getting a more compact felt, for example.

An extremely important factor to consider is the wool’s thickness or width of the fiber. This depends on the sheep breads, the climate they live in (the warmer the climate, the thinner the wool) and it’s measured in microns. The lower...

Hi!

How about learning to felt a pair of gloves, that you can make in any size and color you want?

Plus, you can decorate them with any felted pattern, embroider them or sew lace, buttons, crochet flowers or anything else you’d like to play with, to really make them your own!

In this workshop, I’ll be showing you how to do exactly that. You’ll learn to make a pair of gloves in two different colors and apply curls on them. I’ll also show you how you can make your own pattern for any size you want.

The complete workshop is available at my Etsy shop. You’ll get 9 downloadable HD videos, and a PDF with the template, all of which you can save onto your computer, to return to any time you want.

Check out the introduction!

Hello!

I’m often asked where I buy my felting supplies, because it’s not always easy to find a good variety at local shops.

I also know that specific felting supplies is one of the topics I want to talk more about in the near future. So, I’ve created a new video series, called ‘Felting Infos‘, designed to help you with any questions regarding this topic.

In this first video I’ll go through the suppliers I buy from and why I’ve chosen them.

I hope this video is useful and I’d like to invite you to share any other information you have on good online shops, that can be helpful for feltmakers looking for new suppliers.

And if you happen to have any questions on this (like what soap to use, hot water VS cold water, …), send them to me or mention them in the comments, and I’ll answer them in one of my next videos.

See you soon!

How would you like to felt your own baby shoes? Because, not only are they completely customizable and made with your own hands, but they’re also made from the biodegradable and renewable material that is wool.

If this sounds good to you, here’s the chance to learn how to felt baby boots is three different sizes: newborn to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, and 6 to 9 months.

This is an intermediate level workshop, so you should have some experience and feel confident with the wool already.

You’ll be felting around a resist, and the project should take you about 2 hours to complete.

You’ll need the usual equipment to wet felt, plus a wool batt and a wool top in your preferred colors (around 50 grams each).

With this workshop you’ll get 7 downloadable high definition videos, and a PDF with the templates, all of which you can save onto your computer, and return back to any time you want.

Check out the introduction below, and, if you enjoy the video, please share...

Hi!

You’ve been asking what’s coming up in terms of felting workshops. There’s a lot scheduled for the first quarter of 2017, so I thought it could be helpful if I just outline it here, so that you can start thinking about what you’d like to do.

Workshops at PANDO (Graça – Lisbon):

• 28^th January, 2:30 pm to 7:00 pm – Wet Felting with a Resist: Gloves & Slippers – 50€
• 25^th February, 2:30 pm to 7:00 pm – Wet Felting with a Resist: Bags for Gadgets – 50€
• 25^th March, 2:30 pm to 7:00 pm – Mixed Technique: Jewelry – 50€

You can sign up for these workshops directly by me.

Workshops at the Museum (Alcântara – Lisbon):

• 21^st January, 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm – Wet Felting with a Resist: Gloves & Slippers – 50€
• 1^st February, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm – Wet Felting: Introduction – 40€
• 8^th February, 9:30 am to 1:30 pm – Wet Felting with a Resist: Bags for...

Hello!

A couple of weeks ago, while I was teaching a workshop about hats in Lisbon, I promised to make a short PDF on how to determine the size of a resist for a felted hat, because that kind of information is easy to forget after some time.

I ended up getting carried away and making a video on the subject. So I wanted to share it with you as well. It’s a very short video workshop, that shows you how to make a resist in the right size for a wet felted cloche – in 3 easy steps:

1. Measure the head
2. Determine the shrinkage of the wool
3. Draw the pattern and transfer it to the material for the resist.

If you’re looking for more details on how to determine the wool shrinkage, check out the video I made on it. And there’s also a lot more on the possible materials for a resist on another short online workshop.

I hope you enjoy these and share them with your creative friends!

You’ll probably be busy with all the preparations for Christmas and New Year’s...

Hi!

Today I’ve got something really special for you.

I’ve been talking about it for a while, but, for some strange reason, it’s a project that took me a long time to finish. Anyway, now it’s ready and available on etsy, and it’s a new video workshop.

But it has a particular meaning to me, because I’ve come up with a NEW TECHNIQUE that solved a problem I had, so it can solve a problem you probably have too.

I’ve combined a couple of techniques that make it possible to attach a difficult fabric onto the wool, when you can’t get it to attach with the normal nuno felting technique. If you’ve ever felted with difficult fabrics, you know what I’m talking about.

So, as you can see, it’s not ‘just another workshop’. Check out the video below and tell me what you think!

If you’re living or travelling to Lisbon in the next couple of months (I hope so, because Lisbon is a very cool city, and you’d...

Hi there!

I´ve often been asked how do you make a sample to determine the shrinkage factor in wet felting. Well, that’s exactly what I’ll be covering in today’s video.

It’s actually very easy. You should make a sample, and measure it before and after felting.

There are three fundamental factors to take into account though:

1. Use the same type (or types) of wool for your sample and project, since not all wool types have the same shrinkage.
2. Use the same number of layers and equally thick ones for your sample and project, since the thickness of the layers influences the shrinkage.
3. Felt the sample and your project to the same degree, since the more you felt, the more the piece will shrink.

Check out the video and let me know if I’ve covered all your questions!

Hello!

Now that Christmas is just a month away, I’m sure you’ll be thinking about the presents for your family and friends by now.

So, I decided to bring you a simple, but really sweet idea, that you can make for a child. And it's FREE!

Think of it as a Christmas gift for you.

Enjoy!