The Dodo Blog

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...

Are you going crazy with the ‘what is what’ in terms of the wool for felting?

I do my best to avoid insider lingo, but the truth is there’s no escaping. You’ll just have to learn a couple of new terms when it comes to this. Otherwise you risk not getting the right materials for your projects. So here is some of the terminology you’re bound to hear if you’re taking on felting:

Raw fleece is what you call the wool when it’s right off the animal and unwashed (that means dirty and greasy). This is not something you can normally get, unless you buy directly from a sheep farm.

Scoured fleece has been washed to remove lanolin and dirt, but it still has the lock structure. I use it to fill pillows or for doll’s hair, for example.

Wool batts, wool batting or carded wool is very similar to quilt batting. It’s the result of removing the debris from the wool with a machine that breaks up the lock structure, and then going...

Hi!

Hope you and your family are doing well.

We’re all being affected by COVID-19 in so many ways and feeling anxious about the situation (to say the least).

Now that so many of us are staying home and having a lot of free time on our hands, wet felting can be uplifting, fun and relaxing. If you’re starting out, I suggest you take a look around my site and check out all the available FREE resources. If you want to jump in and explore more complex projects, now is a great time to do that.

Because I’d like to offer you something special during this moment, I decided to have a 20% discount in all the items in my Etsy shop exclusively for subscribers. If you’re a subscriber, you’ll get the information via email.

The 20% discount will be applied at checkout and it’s valid until Easter Sunday, April 12^th.

There’s something else I’d like to talk to you about...

Today I bring you a new workshop. After being asked for more PDF tutorials, I am now creating some of the ones I had on video in a printable version.

This one is about play food and it’s based on a video course I launched last October. You can watch a video about the course here and check out some free videos on the included material here.

With over 140 pages and hundreds of detailed color photos, the PDF tutorial covers citrus fruits (oranges, mandarins and lemons) and berries (cherries, strawberries, blackberries and mulberries), and it includes:

0. Introduction
1. Materials and equipment
2. Making the pre-felts
3. Using leftovers to fill new felt pieces
4. Oranges, mandarins and lemons
5. Strawberries, cherries, blackberries and mulberries
• Leaf templates (1 PDF)
• Bonus: Basics of wet and needle felting (1 PDF)

This is a beginner level tutorial, so you don’t need to have any experience in wet felting. The bonus PDF gives you all the basics and has links to...

Felt your own wool slippers without having to rely on the scattered information from the Internet any more. Here’s a workshop that’ll give you the step-by-step instructions, with all the details you need to wet felt adult slippers.

Sound good?

I’ve had several requests to create a workshop on how to wet felt slippers for adults. Of course the possibilities are endless, be it in terms of how you shape the felt shoes or how you decorate them.

So, I gave it some thought, before I decided to produce a first workshop about slippers, because I wanted to give you the biggest benefit possible. I wanted to create a workshop that could give you the basics, so that you can develop your own creations from here.

And I ended up going back to the model I used to make and sell years ago. There are a couple of reasons for that:

• They are colorful (at least, I make them colorful )
• They can be worn by both men and women
• The decoration I suggest is simple, so they’re easy to...