The Dodo Blog

Just wanted to let you know you can enroll for the Wet Felted Hats Masterclass from May 15th to May 19th.

The course will start May 22nd and will have a duration of 8 weeks.

If you've been wanting to improve your hat felting skills, stay tuned for the details tomorrow :)

Talk soon!

Vanda

As you might know, I created a new course recently: the Wet Felted Hats Masterclass for all of you who’d like to refine your hat making skills.

There was a first edition in February/March, which I launched as a test course. I had built a base structure and invited people to join as Founding Members to help me fully develop the best class possible. So, it grew considerably, since I added new modules, videos and other resources. And now it’s ready for the second edition.

The enrollment will start in a few days, so I wanted to let you know what the Masterclass now looks like.

This next edition will include a total of 9 modules, walking you through:

• How to draw your own patterns with the right size
• How to modify the base patterns to create new hat shapes
• How to felt ANY hat WITHOUT a hat block
• How to felt a hat WITH a hat block
• How to create the perfect brim
• How to lay the wool so that you don't have to cut the brim
• How to embellish the hat surface with nuno felt
• How...

After nearly 4 weeks of the Wet Felted Hats Masterclass, the course has grown considerably.

I’ve been creating short online felting courses since 2016 but planning a masterclass with the goal to cover all the possible challenges you might have when felting a classic hat, drawing patterns with the right measures, and expanding beyond the hats in the course is an entirely different story.

In short, I had never done anything this big. So, I knew it would be a challenge for me. But I love challenges…

This is also the reason it made sense to make it a sort of a “trial” edition: the members invest considerably less than they would in the regular edition, and they get to help me finish building the course. And they know they had a big role to play in the final product.

I have to admit I felt a bit nervous at first. I’m a perfectionist, so I don’t feel comfortable delivering an “unfinished” product. But I’m so happy I decided to do...

As I have been talking about for some time, I’m working on a masterclass about hats.

Deciding what hats to teach about was a hard task. It’s a topic that really allows you to explore your creativity. There’s no end to what you can do with felted hats. But I decided to go for the classics. I bet I’ll come back to the hats subject to explore it further, but the classics are a great way to start. They give you the basics that you can build upon later.

So, that means I’ve been working on the following hat types: the beret (of course), the cloche (also fundamental), the fedora (an imperative), the bowler and the floppy wide brim hat. I’m really excited about this masterclass and I’m having trouble keeping quiet about this

So, I wanted to show you some photos of the finished pieces.

One pattern, three hats

The Fedora

The Cloche

The Bowler

I’ve already filmed the part of the...

Hi!

Here’s the third part of my answer to your question:

“What are resists and how do you use them?”

If you haven’t watched parts I and II, go and check them out. You can find the links below.

SO WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU CONSIDER WHEN DESIGNING A RESIST?

You probably already know that wool can actually shrink a lot when wet felted, right?

Like even 30 or 40%, depending on the wool type and how thick your layers are or how you lay the fibers.

So, when designing a resist, you have to plan for this shrinkage.

If you’re making a bag or any other object where the size doesn’t have to be very precise, you can make your resist and start felting.

But if you want to make a hat or a pair of shoes, then you want to get the RIGHT size, right?

In that case, start by making a sample with the wool you’ll be working with and lay it in the way and with the thickness you’re planning for your piece.

From this sample you can see how much the wool shrinks, so...

Hi!

Today I’m here with the second part of my answer to your question:

“What are resists and how do you use them?”

If you haven’t watched part I, go and check it out. You can find the link below.

SO WHAT MATERIALS CAN WE USE FOR A RESIST?

One of the most important things when using a resist is the CHOICE OF MATERIALS.

It has to be something that doesn’t felt onto wool, otherwise it’ll remain stuck between the layers, instead of doing its job, which is to SEPARATE them.

It should also be flexible enough to work with.

The 3 main materials used are cardboard, thin plastic and floor underlayment.

CARDBOARD is not something I use, because we work with water, so you can only use it once. It’s also not very malleable, so it’s a bit hard to work with.

THIN PLASTIC is something I use sometimes. It’s malleable but it’s hard to feel through a thick piece of felt. So, I only use it when I’m felting thin pieces.

FLOOR UNDERLAYMENT...

Hi!

Today I’m answering another one of your questions.

Now, I’ve done a couple of videos about resists, but I keep getting questions about them. Because this is such a big and important topic, I keep answering them.

Speaking of which, here’s the question for today:

“What are resists and how do you use them?”

Now, this question is very likely from someone who’s starting with wet felting and wanting to improve the technique. And this is in fact, one of the most important things to understand.

As I’ve mentioned before, I do have a couple of videos about resists, but I don’t think I explain what they are in any of them.

So, that’s what I’m going to do today.

SO, WHAT IS A RESIST?

By definition, a RESIST is anything you use between two pieces of wool to avoid that they felt with each other.

A resist is only used DURING the felting process and it’s removed after the process is complete. Or rather, before you start fulling.

Welcome to the first episode of my new Q&A series.

If you still have trouble finding the right way to make a resist for a 3D wet felted object, this episode is for you.

Today’s question is from Kathryn, from Walla Walla, in Washington state.

And Kathryn writes:

“I am trying to make a wet felted case for my son’s new MacBook Pro computer. I viewed your template making video for the clutch bag – thinking I could use that for my effort.

I made the template and started to lay out the wool and realized that I didn’t know why I needed the top resist.

You have a resist that has a top and bottom, when I thought I only needed the bottom to cover with wool, so that I could make the pocket.

If I don’t intend the top to have a pocket, why do I need the top part of the template?

I ended up cutting the template in half and placing the top part under the bubble wrap to serve as a guide, as I wanted the top to cover the bottom of the bag as I see...

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! I’m back today with a new episode of the How To Series. And this time I’m talking about resists.

If you’re planning to wet felt a 3D object with no seams (like a hat, a bag or slippers), you’ll have to work with a resist.

And if you want to work on a project that’s felted around a resist, you might be wondering how to get the right size, since wool shrinks up to 40% when felted. And you might be asking yourself what material you should make it with? Does this even matter? Well, it does. And I’ll show you why in this video.

Check it out and let me know what you think!