The Dodo Blog

Hello!

Today I’ve got something really special for you!

This has been one of my best sellers for years and I finally decided to teach it, so it’s now available as an eBook.

The English Rose is a flower that has been designed primarily to be applied on brooches. But you can use it for hair accessories or anything else you might think of. It’s guaranteed to make any outfit stand out!

What’s particular about this workshop is that it teaches you how to wet felt a flower that is extremely light weight (8 to 12 grams), but resistant at the same time. And that’s all due to this mix technique and the wool type I use.

The workshop includes a tutorial PDF (43 pages and over 200 photos), plus a second one with the leaf templates.

No matter if you’re just starting out or if you’re an experienced felt maker. Whether something goes wrong with a project or you’ve made a pre-felt and didn’t use it all, there are always felt rests. Mine keep increasing! I have lots of bags with pieces in all colors and sizes. And I tell everyone who’s ever attended one of my workshops not to throw anything away. The way I see it, wool is too precious to land in the garbage bin.

But, of course, what’s the point in collecting them if you just keep having bigger bags? So, here’s an idea of a sweet and easy project you can make with something like a bag that went wrong (I have lots of those too). All you need is a piece with 10 to 12 cm, depending on the template you choose.

Here are a couple of shapes I suggest. I used to make keyholders and magnets like this. They can be sweet and original gifts!

And these are some of the pieces I have in those bags I was talking about ? ...

When it comes to buying the wool for your felting project, you can feel really overwhelmed by the enormous choice available on the market. Also, depending on where you’re buying it from, you might get a lot of different options in terms of the sheep race.

So, here’s my suggestion on how to navigate your next wool shopping in 3 easy steps.

Step 1: Is your project needle felted or wet felted?

If you’re planning to needle felt something, your best choice is wool batting. This is wool that has only been washed and carded, so the wool fibers are going in different directions, unlike wool tops, that have been combed, and therefore have all their fibers going in the same direction.

When you’re working with a needle, this type of wool is faster to felt and you get a smooth surface, instead of a surface full of visible wool fibers (where you can almost see “threads”), which is the result of needle felting with wool tops.

Also, a harder wool is easier to...

If you google words like ‘felt’ or ‘felting’, you find lots of information, ranging from industrial felt to needle felt and everything in between. So, if you’re new to felting how do you find your way through all of this? Let me help.

HANDCRAFTED WET FELT

I guess you could say that wet felt is the ‘real deal’. Though it’s apparently difficult to prove, what we now call wet felt could be the oldest textile known to mankind for the simple reason that it requires absolutely no tool to craft. All you ultimately need is your bare hands. Here’s the definition of felt by the www.newworldencyclopedia.org:

  ‘Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing, and pressing fibers together. It is the oldest form of fabric known to humankind, predating weaving and knitting. It can be of any color and made into any shape or size.’

In so many cultures around the world, felt played a central role. That was...

Hi!

I’ve just published a new video workshop to complete the series on small bags for gadgets. In this tutorial, you will learn how to felt sleeves for small gadgets, like compact cameras and smart phones. But the idea can also be applied to bags for eyeglasses, makeup, or even artist’s pencils or brushes.

It shows you how to
• felt with a resist
• get completely straight edges without using scissors to cut them
• make a reversible piece (two colors)
• make a precise piece with a box shape

The workshop includes one PDF with a template for a camera bag, one PDF with a template for a smart phone, and 9 downloadable high-definition videos with very detailed step-by-step instructions. It also shows you how to make resists for exactly the gadget you want, because they vary so much in size.

I’m also very excited to share with you the fact that I’ve just opened a new online shop. Whereas on Etsy, you can find video and PDF tutorials, in my new...

Wet felting for over 10 years and teaching wet felting workshops has made me very aware of the most common mistakes, that prevent you from getting the best results. So, I wanted to list them here, to help you avoid a lot of frustration, as well as wasting precious material and countless hours of work.

1. Choose the right wool for your project

So, what’s the right wool to felt? The short answer to that question is that it depends on your project. This might sound vague, but you could write whole books just on wool. The good news is – depending on where you buy your supplies – you can normally get some information on what’s the right wool for wet felting, needle felting or for getting a more compact felt, for example.

An extremely important factor to consider is the wool’s thickness or width of the fiber. This depends on the sheep breads, the climate they live in (the warmer the climate, the thinner the wool) and it’s measured in microns. The lower...

Hi!

How about learning to felt a pair of gloves, that you can make in any size and color you want?

Plus, you can decorate them with any felted pattern, embroider them or sew lace, buttons, crochet flowers or anything else you’d like to play with, to really make them your own!

In this workshop, I’ll be showing you how to do exactly that. You’ll learn to make a pair of gloves in two different colors and apply curls on them. I’ll also show you how you can make your own pattern for any size you want.

The complete workshop is available at my Etsy shop. You’ll get 9 downloadable HD videos, and a PDF with the template, all of which you can save onto your computer, to return to any time you want.

Check out the introduction!

Hello!

I’m often asked where I buy my felting supplies, because it’s not always easy to find a good variety at local shops.

I also know that specific felting supplies is one of the topics I want to talk more about in the near future. So, I’ve created a new video series, called ‘Felting Infos‘, designed to help you with any questions regarding this topic.

In this first video I’ll go through the suppliers I buy from and why I’ve chosen them.

I hope this video is useful and I’d like to invite you to share any other information you have on good online shops, that can be helpful for feltmakers looking for new suppliers.

And if you happen to have any questions on this (like what soap to use, hot water VS cold water, …), send them to me or mention them in the comments, and I’ll answer them in one of my next videos.

See you soon!