The Dodo Blog

In 20 years of felt making I haven’t (yet!) had any issues with moths. It may just have been luck or because of the way I store my wool. It’s definitely not because I don’t have tons of wool in my studio

Since I frequently get questions about how I store my wool, as well as how to prevent moth attacks, I’ve compiled what I know and what I could find from different sources to offer you information that hopefully can protect your stash from these pesky little fiber predators.

A SHORT WORD ON THE LITTLE CREATURES

There are many types of moths, and most of them are harmless for wool. So, as most felt makers know, we’re talking about the so called “clothes moths” here.

Moths go through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. But it’s only in the larvae stage that they feed on fiber.

Keratin is what they’re after. This is a protein found in animal-based materials like wool, fur, hair, feathers, mohair, and even silk. If...

Today I’m going to talk about how to felt with wool batts. And I’m looking into a couple of questions in particular:

• Is there a direction to the fiber in wool batts?
• Do wool batts shrink as much as wool tops?

I know there are different opinions about the direction of the fiber in wool batts. So, I thought it would make sense to test it and see what happens.

While I’ve been working with batts for a very long time, I’ve always mixed them with tops in my work. So, I had never really looked into this in detail.

Adding to that, I often get questions about how to work with batts. That’s why I decided to make these samples and see how the wool behaves.

I hope you find them useful for your work. I’d also love to know if you agree with me or not.

So, feel free to comment or to drop me an email on this.

Fiber paper is a material that you can create with either viscose or silk fiber (viscose paper or silk paper).

You can use it to cut out all sorts of shapes and apply them on wool to make felted pieces with a crisp design, much like what felt makers do with pre-felts.

It looks like actual paper, and because it has a nice sheen, it gives your projects a more luxurious look than wool pre-felts.

It’s pretty easy to make and you just need the fiber plus a liquid that serves as a glue to create the paper sheets.

Some felt makers use sugar or powder gelatine (3 teaspoons dissolved in 100 ml of warm water). Others use starch, and I’ve even seen people apply watered down PVA glue to their fiber.

I’ve tried both sugar water and starch. My favorite is actually sugar water. It’s also the cheapest version. But the one time I tried it, I suddenly had ants in my apartment. So, I’m back to starch now If you don't have that sort of problem where you live, that might...