The Dodo Blog

Last week we had a look at how to felt thin cords the easy way. But what if you want to felt thicker ropes like the ones you use for bag handles? Are they made in the same way?

What do you do if your wool top isn’t thick enough?

How do you guarantee that no grooves form on the surface of the cord when there’s so much wool involved?

How do you make sure the ends don’t get wet and felted so that you can attach them to the bag afterwards?

And how much will the handles shrink in length?

Today we’re going to answer all those questions, so make sure you watch until the end.

And If you’ve started wet felting recently and you’re feeling a bit lost about the next step in your journey, you can download the guide I’ve prepared for you “Beginner To Intermediate Without Overwhelm”.

In this guide I give you my system that helps you know what to do next, no matter which phase you're in. You can download it here.

This video is the first one of a new series, in which we’ll be looking into the topic of making cords or ropes in wet felting.

While it’s more geared towards beginner felt makers, I know that many more experienced people also struggle with this. During my years as a felting teacher, I’ve gotten many, many questions about how to solve different issues that show up when you’re wet felting cords.

So, the goal of this series is to go through all these questions, so that you’re able to solve these problems once and for all. Today, we’ll start by looking at how to make thin cords in an easy way.

Watch the video to see how to make sure you get the right thickness for your cord, without having any creases or wrinkles on the surface. I have three tips that will make felting these thin ropes really easy:

• the base to use for felting,
• the way to do the layout,
• the amount of water to use.

If you’ve started wet felting recently and you’re feeling a bit lost about the next step in your ...

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about different ways to make a fine and flexible.

We started by using only Merino wool. In the next sample we worked with Merino wool mixed with viscose fiber. And today I’m going to make a sample that’s going to be useful to compare with the one we did last week, the one with viscose.

What I’m going to do is I’ll be using the same template, 4 g of Merino wool, plus a piece of chiffon silk.

We’ll start by felting the sample and, when it’s ready, we’ll see how it compares to the previous two.

Make sure you stay until the end to be able to see the differences between the 3 samples. And, if you haven’t yet, go and watch the previous videos:

• How to avoid stiff felt
• A detailed tutorial on how to make fine and flexible felt
• A second method to make fine and flexible felt

This was a very complete series, and we’ve covered not only how to make a fine and flexible felt, but also how to add viscose fiber to your wool and, actually, how t...

In the last video, we had a look at how we can create a fine and flexible felt using only Merino wool. And today we’re going to see what happens when we add viscose fiber to our fine Merino.

For our experiment to make sense, we’re going to use the same 30cm x 30cm template and we’re also going to use 6g of fiber.

If you can remember, in the last video we used 6g of Merino to create our sample. And what we’re going to do today is use 6g of fiber again, but we’re going to have 4g of wool and 2g of viscose. Ok?

If you’d like to do this sample with me, get your materials, and just follow the instructions in the video.

Be sure to check out the differences between the two samples: the one made with only Merino, and the one where I added the viscose.

And if you’re not very familiar with the type of layout I use in this video (chevron layout), you can download a PDF with all the details about all the main layouts used in wet felting here.

I’ll see you next week, when we go through the th...

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 25 cm square, lay out 12g divided into 4 l
...

THE STORY BEHIND THIS PROJECT

I belong to a small felt club that gets together once a month via Zoom to felt in a group setting.

In our December meeting, the suggestion was that we create seasonal pieces. We usually felt 3D/sculptural items, and that was planned for December as well. But even though we work on a certain topic each month, we do have much creative freedom in the group. So, this time I thought of doing something slightly different.

I have tons of felt leftovers from many projects along the years, and I wanted to do something seasonal by recycling what I already had, instead of producing something entirely new. These bits accumulate with time, and it bothers me to see so much material not be used.

So, I gathered the thicker white felt leftovers (some of which was Nuno felt, which made it even more interesting), as well as some fun “Christmassy” templates I also already had from past projects. And, without having a clear initial idea, I started cutting the flat felt i...

In over two decades as a felt maker, I’ve been slowly collecting books on felting, to grow my knowledge, get inspiration or just know more about the pioneers of this beautiful art form. My felting library now has over 50 books, some of which I've been sharing with you on my blog and social media channels.

Since so many people have shown interest in my recommendations and in knowing what’s available, I thought you might like to get a list of the top 21 in my wet felting library. Note that some of them are in English, others in German, and some in both languages. Most books that were originally published in German, unfortunately don’t have English translations.

I’ve selected these 21 books based on the quality of the information they provide, the innovative projects they present, as well as their aesthetics. This list is now available here for you to download.

I hope you find this a useful resource. 

Enjoy!

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 different wool types that are available throughout the w...

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 an expensive product. So, I de...