The Dodo Blog

Are you having issues getting your wet felted bowl to have a perfectly round shape? Or maybe you’ve felted a flat round piece, but, after fulling, it doesn’t look like a circle anymore? Your layout may be the cause of this distortion.

Wet felting doesn’t have many rules, so it allows for different ways to get to the desired results.

But it does have a few. And understanding these is fundamental to get to the shapes you want:

• The direction of the fibers determines the way felt shrinks, and so its final shape.
• The direction of the fibers determines in which directions it stretches.

If you’re laying out fiber for a circular object – like a bowl, for example – you’d probably want the shrinkage to be the same in every direction, right? You’d also want it to stretch equally in all directions.

So, laying it out in the classic way wouldn’t give your felt these qualities. Instead – because it would produce a felt that shrinks in the direction of the fibers – you’d get a square(ish)...

Are you having issues making the edges of your felted projects straight and neat? I know, that’s one of the challenges for us felt makers.

Of course, it’s always possible to cut the felt and heal the edges. But it doesn’t look as nice.

Besides, sometimes, the reason why our felt doesn’t have neat edges is because we made them too thin. In those cases, cutting them doesn’t solve the problem.

So, the only way to really be happy with the edges of our felt is to make them perfect from the start.

If that’s something that has been giving you some headaches, you’ll enjoy this video.

Here are 7 easy-to-follow tips that you can apply in your next felting project to make the edges straight and neat:

Tip 1 – Lay the wool out with the thicker ends on the template edge to have a straight line from the beginning.

Tip 2 – Lay the wool out evenly. This way the wool will also felt evenly.

Tip 3 – Rub the edges from the beginning. We tend to felt more in the center, and that ends up giving us wa...

I’m really excited about this week’s topic because I find there aren’t many wet felters exploring it. And that’s the usage of batts for wet felting.

Batts are more commonly used in needle felting, but they’re definetely worth exploring in wet felting too.

When applied right, batts can:

• save you so much time and effort, since the layout is a lot less laborious than it is for tops
• help you achieve a more even layout

Also, if you're open to wet felting with batts as well as tops, you'll have a wider choice in colors, since often suppliers have a different color palett for batts and tops. And, in my experience, they produce a felt that is a bit different from the one made with tops: less shiny but smoother.

These are 3 new lessons about 3 different ways to lay wool batts, when to use them, as well as the advantages of working with them.

So, if this is something that sparks interest for you, you can access this week’s lessons by signing up for the Free Felting Membership, The D...

Yes! That's right. I've been working on a free felting membership and it's now available for you to enjoy :)

You see, I’ve been blogging and vlogging about wet felting for over a decade. And what I’ve noticed is that in those formats, it’s easy to lose track of what I’ve already covered since the information is scattered everywhere.

I also wanted a place where you could ask me questions in a way that other felters could also benefit from the answers. So, after considering the pros and cons of the different platforms, I decided this would be the best way to have everything under the same roof.

It's called The Dodo Sandbox because it's a place for you to play, experiment and grow your felting skills :)

The membership area is divided into the “core training” and different chapters or modules, each dedicated to a different topic. When you enter the members’ area, that’s exactly what you see.

Of course, I’ll be creating new modules about other topics as I see what your needs are. And...

I often get questions about felting in the comment section of my YouTube channel. Yesterday, one came up that I thought deserved a longer answer. Since it’s a frequently asked question, it made sense to me to write a blog post on the topic.

Here’s what Kathleen McKinney wanted to know: “How do you know if you’ve felted and fulled enough? How do you know when an item is finished?”

As it’s often the case in wet felting, I have to start by saying that it depends on what you’re making.

The general answer would be “do the pinch test”. If you pinch the surface of your felt and the fibers don’t lift any more, that means your felt is ready (see video).

But there’s more to it than that, so let’s go into more details for different items:

• Felted ball – If you’re felting a ball, I recommend you do the “bounce test” to make sure it’s ready. More on that in this blog post.
• Pre-felt – If you’re making a pre-felt, you don’t want it to be completely felted, because you might want to have it
...

Today I’ve got a fun tutorial that shows you how to wet felt a ball necklace for children. It’s called Kid’s Dots, and it’s a piece I’ve sold for a long time. Now you get to see how it’s done (for FREE) 🙂

I decided to film this project because Stacy Tavassoli from Truly Majestic invited me to create a tutorial for her arm knitting community. Arm knitting is done with big amounts of wool roving, the same we use for wet felting. But it produces lots of scraps that you can’t use for knitting any more.

So here it is for you. It’s an easy tutorial, which is great for beginners. You won’t need much equipment. Actually, you probably have everything you need at home already. And it shows you 10 tips that are useful for other felting projects.

I’d love to see how your necklaces turned out, so click here to send me your photos 🙂

Have fun!

P.S.: The special Mother’s Day Pack is a 2 for 1 pack for crafty moms, that is only available until May 10. Check out this exclusive offer!

And we’ve arrived at part 7 of this video series about the basic shapes in wet felting. This last video compares making a flat felt with wool batts vs making it with wool tops.

I really hope this has been useful for you and that you refer to these short workshops every time you’re not clear about some of the basics. That’s why I spent so many hours making them for you.

This is also the first video I’ve posted with Portuguese subtitles 🙂

After some trial months, the initial concept I had of sending out a newsletter with the same content I publish here has changed a bit. I’ll go on sending out the email notifications with the blog content every two weeks. But, because I want to offer my subscribers something special, I’ll also be sending you some exclusive content with insider information, videos to download or the occasional special price. Still, because I want to deliver great value, this will not happen every week, so it’ll be somewhat irregular.

Thank you for all the email feedba...

Hey there! Welcome to part 6 of this video series. We’re in the final stretch, and today we’re going to talk about how to make a sheet or flat felt with wool tops.

This is probably the most important part of the series, because this is the type of shape we most often use in wet felting.

The 3 main new pieces of information you’ll get from today’s video are a little trick that’ll help you with future nuno felt projects, how to get straight edges (you’ll need this when making hats or bags!) and what’s the pinch test.

Meanwhile, the videos for next month are already done 🙂 I can’t wait to show you what’s coming up!!!

And remember I’m taking your questions at the moment and answering them on video, so keep sending those emails!

Hi! I’m back with another video on the basics of wet felting. Now you’ll have the chance to compare felting a ball with wool tops (the last example I showed you) to felting it with wool batts. I personally find the batts easier to work with for this form. I’d love to know what your preferences are, so make sure you share on the comments.

There’ll be two other videos in this series and I’m already getting the next things on film. I’m starting a Q&A series, where you get to send me your questions about felting and I get to answer them. I have the first ones already, but I don’t wanna spoil the surprise.

So, if you’ve been having problems with your felting projects, just drop me an email and get your answer on video.

Talk to you soon!

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” William Morris

So, what does this have anything to do with felt? Well, I believe the true secret for mastering any art or technique also lies in taking a genuine interest in all its details. I truly think you can’t expect to achieve big goals, if you’re not willing to look at the small things first.

And that’s why I’m back today with another video about the basic shapes in wet felting. This time I’m talking about how to wet felt a ball with wool tops.

Do you know

• why you should work with really thin layers?
• how to know the final size of the ball after shrinkage?
• what’s the “bounce test”?

Watch the video to find out!