The Dodo Blog

If you're following my Instagram account, you know that I've been sharing photos of my new baby items for some time :)

The idea of creating more felted pieces for kids has been on my mind for long. I just think it's the perfect medium for babies: soft wool and silk, natural non-toxic fibers, environmentally friendly materials, washable and long lasting products. Just perfect!

In the past I've created workshops on baby hats, play food and - one of my best sellers - baby booties. I wanted to expand this collection with more complex pieces that could also allow me to work with more advanced felting techniques. And that's what I've been preparing for the last couple of months: an online course on how to wet felt your baby's booties and jackets.

This is a 3-week, step-by-step video course, that walks you through all you need to know to felt your baby's booties and jackets in 3 different sizes, 3 design variations and 3 felting techniques. It includes:

• Booties' downloadable pattern in 3...

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...

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...

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...

Hi!

Today I’m here with the Q&A Sessions, something I haven’t done for quite some time.

This is where I go through all sorts of questions you have about wet felting.

So, if you have something on your mind that you haven’t been able to solve yet, drop me a line and tell me all about it.

For that, just scroll down to the end of any page on this site. Then click on “Contact” and let me know what’s troubling you. Your question might be selected for the next Q&A video!

Ok, so today I have a question from Audrey, who writes:

“I’ve a question for you and it’s about rolling and nuno felting. Is it really necessary to roll while fulling?

I really like the contact with my piece and am quite happy to spend more time massaging away, particularly when I do not have wool covering all the fabric.

I can understand rolling being preferable for a more layered piece, or larger piece to give a more even result.  

Would love to...

There are thousands of ways you can decorate a wet felted project. Some just involve wool, others can include silk or other fabrics, as you know. This is then called Nuno felting. But today I bring you a sample that contains wool, silk and something else.

I wanted to show you an example of how you can use a transparent piece of silk to hold any type of synthetic material, that wouldn’t otherwise attach to wool. In this case, I’ll be using a pre-felt and a piece of white silk chiffon with the same size as the pre-felt. Alternatively, you can lay merino wool tops or batts, and use light gauze instead of silk.

TIP # 1 – USE LIGHT GAUZE INSTEAD OF SILK TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIMENTS CHEAPER

I’m also using circles of a synthetic golden fabric (that doesn’t attach to wool), but you can choose countless other materials like small beads or sequins, for example.

If you’re making a sample, please remember to measure the size of the wool now and after shrinkage.

Last week I did a short introduction to nuno felting, on how to choose the right materials and a couple of other tips to help you start experimenting with the technique.

Today, I’d like to show you some examples of samples I made before I decided to felt a bigger piece, what materials I chose for them and what went right/wrong.

I’d like to start with the samples where the wool covered the whole fabric surface, just because I find it an easier way to start than just applying stripes, dots or any kind of other motives on the fabric, since the smaller the area that the wool covers, the more difficult it is to make it attach properly to the woven surface.

Sample 1 – This is probably the easiest of them all to get good results. I used an extra-fine green merino and a white cheese cloth for this. Since this type of cloth has a very open weave, the fine merino fibers have no problem attaching to it. I find it produces a very interesting surface, that could look great on a...

I often get questions about nuno felting, so I’d like to share a couple of tips to help you start experimenting, and to get the feeling for it, especially if it’s something entirely new for you.

Nuno felting is a very recent felting method, and it was developed when designers rediscovered felting, and started playing with new ways to use this old textile technique. It was developed by Polly Stirling in the 90s, when she combined the traditional wet felting with light fabrics, like silk for example. In her own words:

‘In 1990 I became entranced by the myriad of transformations of the rich and ancient textile called felt. I spent most of the ensuing decade seeing what new forms could evolve, as appropriate for the subtropics of Australia where I had lived for nearly 20 years. The techniques I developed for making lightweight felts soon led to experiments combining other materials, and in 1994 my assistant Sachiko Kotaka and I developed the technique we termed...

Hi!

Today I’ve got something really special for you.

I’ve been talking about it for a while, but, for some strange reason, it’s a project that took me a long time to finish. Anyway, now it’s ready and available on etsy, and it’s a new video workshop.

But it has a particular meaning to me, because I’ve come up with a NEW TECHNIQUE that solved a problem I had, so it can solve a problem you probably have too.

I’ve combined a couple of techniques that make it possible to attach a difficult fabric onto the wool, when you can’t get it to attach with the normal nuno felting technique. If you’ve ever felted with difficult fabrics, you know what I’m talking about.

So, as you can see, it’s not ‘just another workshop’. Check out the video below and tell me what you think!

If you’re living or travelling to Lisbon in the next couple of months (I hope so, because Lisbon is a very cool city, and you’d...