The Dodo Blog

You may know that for many years I’ve had a list of suppliers for wool and wet felting equipment that I offer in my courses and as a download on my website. It’s based on my own experience buying wool online, as well as on recommendations from students and followers.

Whether new felt makers email me with the questions or they post them in online forums, I’ve often realized that for many it isn’t clear where to buy felting supplies. So, I created this free guide with two goals: 1) to help you decide among the available suppliers, and 2) to give you a list of recommended suppliers as close as possible to where you live.

But things change rapidly, and I hadn’t updated it for quite some time. When someone emailed me to tell me that a couple of businesses had closed, I thought it was about time I reviewed it and published an updated version.

I asked for the feedback of people who read my newsletter and had an incredible number of responses. As a result, the...

This week I’m answering the question: “How do I make thin felt from 2 layers of wool without getting holes in my felt?”

The way I see it, there may be a couple of different reasons you’re getting holes in your fine felt:

• Your layout is uneven,
• You’re doing your layout on bubble wrap,
• Or you’re using felting/fulling methods that are too aggressive.

When you’re getting an uneven layout, have a look at:

• The quality of your wool,
• The way you’re drafting your fiber,
• And if you happen to have gaps in your layout.

If all of these 3 factors are ok, your problem may be that you’ve done your layout on bubble wrap. Especially if the bubble wrap has very big and tough bubbles, it can create holes or, at least, marks on a thin felt. So, I recommend laying out the wool on a plastic film or piece of fabric.

And, finally, make sure you’re using gentle felting and fulling methods, like the ones I suggest in the video.

If holes in your...

Today we’re looking at what I see as the last two pieces of the pricing puzzle. If you haven’t read the first part of this series, I recommend you do so, since today’s blog post builds on the first one.

But, before we start, I’d like to address the questions I got from last week’s article. They mainly focused on how to account for certain costs. Now, I can’t go into individual cases. Firstly, because I don’t know your business. Even if you’re a felt maker, every business is different.

And it’s also a fact that different countries have different laws. So, if you feel like you can’t do this alone, I recommend you do some research, talk to other people in your area or even consult with an accountant. Getting an education on these matters is part of being in business. And so is getting a trustworthy accountant. At the beginning, they can advise you on these things, and slowly take new roles as your business grows.

But...

You probably know me as a wet felting teacher, because I haven’t sold my work for a long time. But, for years, I mainly felted and offered my pieces in markets, on Etsy and in shops specializing in handmade items.

Lately, I’ve been considering going back to creating work to sell. And this has made me look at my pricing strategy again.

How to price your art or your handmade work is something that’s widely discussed not only among felt makers, but artists in general. It stirs up emotions and can sometimes even become controversial. The internet is full of different ideas, but there doesn't seem to be much consensus.

Now, it’s not that I think I have the perfect solution for this. And I have yet to test my pricing ideas. But many years have passed, and I’ve gained a lot more experience, spoken to many people and read a lot on the subject. So, fortunately, I now see this topic in a different light.

Since I know that many of my students and people who read...

I think the importance of prefelts in wet felting is sometimes underestimated. Prefelts are extremely useful and there’s no end to how you can apply them in your wet felting projects. So, mastering how to make them exactly as you want for a particular piece can massively improve your work.

Let’s have a look at some of the many ways prefelts can be used, as well as a couple of tips to apply them successfully.

PREFELTS FOR NUNO FELTING

In most cases, nuno felted pieces decorated with crisp designs are created with prefelts. But prefelts are a bit more difficult to attach to silk than unfelted wool.

So, to make it work, you need to:

• use thin prefelts,
• felt slowly and gently,
• and work with cold water,

to give the wool fibers time to migrate into the silk.

The most effective felting technique in this case is sanding, since it creates a lot of pressure, that accelerates the fiber migration through the fabric.

If you run into issues, and some parts of your prefelts...

As you may know, I’ve been working on a blog series about prefelts. I’ve started by going into what prefelts are, as well as explaining the differences between commercial and handmade prefelts.

The next post in the series dealt with what you need to pay attention to when making prefelts to use in other projects.

And I’ll finish this collection next week by going deeper into how you can use prefelts, what type of projects you can use them for, as well as the best felting techniques for making them.

But, before that, I wanted to answer the questions that I received from you about this topic. So, today we’ll have a format that’s a bit different from what I usually do: a simple Q&A.

Q: I am very curious about prefelts - especially as a new wet felter. When is something prefelt? Or what is the prefelt stage?  I’d like to create some prefelt in order to place onto my work and felt everything together. How do I do that?

A: A prefelt is...

As we’ve seen last week, a prefelt is a partially felted piece of wool felt. That means, it’s made in the exact same way as a piece of felt. The only difference is the degree to which it’s compacted.

I usually make my prefelts by wet felting Merino tops. For some projects, I have also needle felted wool batts. This second method is a way of imitating the industrial prefelts. But I find it’s only a good option for small projects.

What do you need to pay attention to when making a prefelt to use in other projects?

1. Evenness

It’s important to create your prefelts with an even thickness. If this is difficult for you, start by training your layout skills.

Do you need help with this? You can find everything you need to train your layout skills in the blog post “Resources To Help You Perfect Your Layout”. (Click link or image to access!)

2. Thickness

The thickness of your prefelt will depend on which projects you’ll be applying it...

Years ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts about prefelts, but there are many details I didn’t mention back then. Since I still get a lot of questions about the topic, I thought it would make sense to write a new, more complete and up to date series.

This first part caters to new felt makers, who I know are often a bit confused about prefelts.

If you’re more experienced, this won't be new to you. But, as I explore the topic further, there'll be more details that may be useful for you too. So, I recommend keeping an eye on the rest of the series, if this is a topic that interests you.

We’ll start by looking at what prefelts are, and then talk about how and when to use them. So, let's dive in!

WHAT ARE PREFELTS?

As the name suggests, a prefelt is a partially felted piece of wool felt. In other words, it’s simply a stage in the wet felting process before the fibers fully compact.

That, of course, means a prefelt can be further felted. And that is precisely...

After you’ve learnt the basics of wet felting – how to make flat felt and how to make a simple shape with a resist – it’s tempting to think that all you need to learn next is which shape a resist must have or which technique to use for a particular project. I’d argue that, before you think (or even while you're thinking) about those aspects, the next thing to do is master the layout.

In fact, I can say with total certainty that the moment I understood this and started working on my layout, was the moment my felt massively improved. I know I run the risk of being annoying for insisting on this. But I would love to support you in becoming a better felt maker, so I accept that risk.

There are two ways you can work on your layout. You can either spend some time making samples or just go ahead and work on your technique while making a piece. I know most felt makers avoid sampling, but I still think it’s the best way to perfect your work, and save time...

Have you just recently discovered wet felting, and don’t know where to start? I’ve put together a list of resources for you to help you know what to learn next.

START BY MASTERING THE BASIC WET FELTING SHAPES

When people approach me about learning to wet felt, they often tell me they’d like to make scarves and garments, so they’re particularly interested in nuno felting.

But to get to nuno felting and other more demanding techniques, you need to be confident with the basics first.

So, here are the simplest instructions for the 3 basic shapes, whether you would like to work with wool batts or with wool tops.

• Felting a cord with wool tops
• Felting a cord with wool batts
• Felting a ball with wool tops
• Felting a ball with wool batts
• Felting a sheet with wool tops
• Felting a sheet with wool batts

And here are a couple of additional tips that can help you perfect your technique:

• How to correctly pull the wool
• How to know if you’ve got enough soap?
• How to...