The Dodo Blog

Last week we spoke about a couple of misconceptions and some tips to avoid making your felt too stiff. If you haven’t read that blog post, I recommend you start there, since it’s part of a video series I’m recording for you on this topic.

And if you’re stuck in your felting journey and don’t know what to do next, I’ve created a guide to help you. You can download it here.

Today we’re going to see how we can apply last week’s tips in a practical way. So, we’ll be making a piece of flat felt. In other words, a sample.

So, get some merino wool and let’s do this. All you need to do is follow the instructions in the video.

Enjoy!

P.S.: Make sure you come back next week, since we’ll go on diving deep into this topic.

Have you ever had your felt become too stiff? Have you wondered why that happens? Have you tried making it thinner, but ended up with a lot of holes? These are common issues that many felt makers face. Let’s have a look at how to solve that, so that you never have to waste all those beautiful materials again.

I find there are many misconceptions about how to avoid making your felt too stiff. So, to start, I want to have a look at some of the most common ones.

Misconception #1 – There’s a certain number of layers I have to use for a particular item

You see, the thing is that it’s not about the layers. Please don’t ask how many layers are needed for a piece! Someone else’s layers may be much thicker or thinner than yours. So, what you need to know is how much wool to use. You don’t believe me? Then, try this:

• On a 25 cm square (or 10-inch square), lay out 4g divided into 4 layers. Then felt it.
• Next, do the same, but with 12g. So, on a...

When we start wet felting, there is so much to learn about the many techniques that fit under this wider umbrella, that this alone can be enough for felt makers to focus on, without ever taking a deep dive into the attributes of the fibers from different sheep breeds.

So, often it’s people who have sheep or who live in rural areas, who – early in the process – start looking at how to use the wool of local breeds in their felting, as a way to take advantage of what’s available in their closest environment.

For those of us who live in cities, it’s impractical (or even unthinkable) to buy raw wool, clean it in the bathtub, and do all the processing in an apartment. So, we resort to buying processed wool from suppliers, and so are restricted to the available breeds.

Like me, you may very well be in this second group of felt makers. And, if you are – like me – you probably haven’t spent much time looking at the incredible number of...

I don’t use stiffeners often. But sometimes they can be useful, especially for sculptural wet felting. The problem with stiffeners is finding one that doesn’t make your work very hard, and still lets your felt look natural.

As in many other aspects of felt making, there are different opinions about this. Mine is that using a stiffener should never mean having your work look like plastic, and the stiffener itself should be as natural as possible.

I’ve researched this topic over the years, looking at information from milliners, as well as at solutions from crafters to harden textiles. But I have to say the suggestions I found never quite fit what I was looking for. There’s much online about sugar water or using starches made of corn or wheat flower, as well as several very chemical products used by milliners.

The first idea that made sense to me was a suggestion from a fellow felt maker, who recommended Arabic gum. My research quickly showed me it wasn’t...

If you were among the people who read last week’s post about the book “Schafwolle verarbeiten” and thought: “Ya, looks great, Vanda. But what will I do with a book in German?”, I’ve got you covered.

I’ve just received another book on wool I had ordered recently. This time in English. And I can assure you – if you’re keen on learning more about animal fibers – it’s a great investment as well.

“The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook” is authored by Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, and it first came out in 2011.

It’s not a felting book per se. Rather, it completely focuses on fiber and actually covers 200+ animals.

Here’s its description for more detail:

“This one-of-a-kind photographic encyclopedia features more than 200 animals and the fibers they produce. It covers almost every sheep breed in the world from the longwool breeds of the United Kingdom to the Tasmanian merino, the...

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...