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The Dodo Blog

Create delightful Christmas ornaments (and recycle you felt leftovers)

Nov 10, 2024

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...

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21 favorite books from my wet felting library

Oct 25, 2024

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!

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Wet felting with local wool

Oct 20, 2024

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...

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How to stiffen wet felted items

Oct 13, 2024
 

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...

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Book recommendation “Kleidung Filzen”

Oct 06, 2024

As you know, garments are among the most difficult items to felt. Correctly calculating the shrinkage rate for such big pieces and guaranteeing the clothes will fit the wearer aren’t easy tasks and require precise work.

So, every felt maker realizes it takes a lot of expertise (and I’d even say some bravery ) to take on such a complex project.

Nevertheless, it’s tempting to want to try. Even if you don’t intend to felt garments professionally, I bet at some time or another you’ve thought about making a piece of clothing you could proudly wear. Am I right?

For the reasons I’ve mentioned and because I don’t have enough room at home, until now I’ve only felted some simple sweaters designed from knit ones I already owned.

But, with Winter about to arrive, I’ve been thinking about how much I’d like to make my own wet felted jacket.

So, I decided to finally order a book that’s been on my ‘to buy list’ for long....

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The Star Anise Seed Pod class is back!

Sep 28, 2024

You may have seen the images of my anise pod and have been curious about how the shape is created. If that’s the case, I have good news. The class is available again!

About one year ago I opened this course for registration for the first time.

As you may know, I initially created it as part of the lessons on book resists in the THE DODO HUB annual program. But the particular shape of the piece caused curiosity, so I decided to open it up for non-members of TDH as well.

The registration is open until Friday (October 4th).

You’ll not only be learning how to wet felt this beautiful seed pod, but you’ll also learn to design a book resist for your own project.

If it sounds interesting to you, but you have questions that aren’t covered on the course page, send me an email and let me know how I can help.

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7 tips to avoid ridges on 3D felt

Sep 20, 2024
 

Have you ever felted a vessel, a bag or another 3D item and found that you couldn’t get rid of the seams on the sides? Did you wonder why it happened? Did you think that those seams could have been prevented by filling the piece with a balloon or any other object?

If that’s the case, know that the issues started way before the final shaping and drying phase. And so, no filling the piece in the end would have made it flat.

Today I bring you 7 tips that can help!

Once you have those pesky side ridges on your 3D felt, it’s very difficult to get rid of them. Sure, rubbing the seam area can help, but the problem happens in the layout phase, as well as the initial phase of the felting process. So, rubbing won’t completely solve the problem. Let’s have a look at was does help.

 

IN THE LAYOUT PHASE

There are two things to watch for during the layout phase:

 

1. The layout on the edge

From my point of view, there are 2 ways you can do the layout on...

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Enrollment for THE DODO HUB is open!

Aug 24, 2024

If you’ve been waiting to enroll in THE DODO HUB, I’ve got good news. It’s open and you can sign up as of now!

And, if you happen to be new to the Dodo world, and you’re not sure what THE DODO HUB is, you can check all the details here.

But, before you check the details, let me tell you who THE DODO HUB is for.

 

Let’s say you’ve been a felt maker for some years now, but …

  • you feel like you’ve reached a plateau, and you don’t know how to develop your work further.
  • you want to learn new techniques, and not necessarily take a class to make a particular piece.
  • you'd love to have your own signature style, but you secretly think you’re not creative enough.
  • you admire other felt makers, but you feel like they know some secret that you don’t, so you don’t believe you could ever achieve such amazing results.
  • you don’t feel confident enough to show, gift or sell your work because you think some details ...
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Wet felt your baby booties, mittens, jackets & hats!

Jul 12, 2024

Have you noticed the BABY classes are back?

Many of you have been asking to have the baby booties class separately. You’ve also showed interest in having it available “on demand”, which is understandable, since babies grow fast

So, I’ve listened to your requests and created two separate classes: “Comfy Baby Booties & Tiny Baby Mittens” and “Sweet Baby Jacket & Daisy baby Hat”. They’re already available and can be purchased at any time.

They’re now in a DIY version, and the videos and PDFs are downloadable. Just click on the images below to be taken to the course information.

Whether you’re planning to enroll in the class or not, here’s some information that may be useful for you.

As I reopened the baby courses to enrolment, it was brought to my attention that some of the designs are not compliant with the safety standards of many countries. I was very grateful for these contacts, since this is...

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How to use prefelts

May 11, 2024

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...

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