The Dodo Blog

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 4^th).

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.

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 ...

I’m working on a new class that is meant to help felt makers go all the way (smoothly) from total beginner to intermediate. If you’ve recently started wet felting or you’ve been felting for a while, but still feel like there are many gaps in your knowledge, this may be for you.

But I’ll need some time until I can offer it, since I haven’t created it yet. I’m working on the class outline for now. And I’d like to invite you to participate in the creation of the class materials. Just click here or on the image below to access the list of topics. Please let me know which ones are important to you and what you think may still be missing.

Just a last note: I’m considering an intermediate felter, someone who knows all the fundamentals, and is able to confidently felt on a resist, knows how to add fiber, fabric and other materials for embellishment and texture. All this while achieving high quality felt.

Thank you for taking a moment to...

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...

The NEW online course "Felted Flower Jewelry & Hair Accessories" is now open for registration.

The class begins next Saturday and has a duration of 2 weeks. As usual, you have lifetime access to the course, including all updates, with no extra charge.

If it sounds interesting to you, just click the links to access the details and sign up.

Have any questions? Send me an email and tell me what's on your mind :)

Talk soon!

After finally relaxing from the experience of confinement and COVID, I returned to work at the beginning of September. My 2 weeks break took me to the Camino de Santiago - the Camino Frances - where I was surrounded by Nature and quiet.

Maybe that's what made me want to start felting flowers again :) So, I picked up some of my short video workshops and did a total makeover, converting them into a NEW flower jewelry and hair accessories course.

I had lots of fun exploring shape and color, and I created very simple, as well as more sophisticated flowers.

If you find this an interesting topic, I invite you to take a look at the class details. Registration opens tomorrow, September 25th. The course starts on October 2nd and has the duration of 2 weeks.

Feel free to respond to this email if you have any questions.

Talk soon!

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...

When I first started wet felting, there where no YouTube videos and barely any books on the subject. I bought everything I could get my hands on and started experimenting. But most things on the market were very simple. So, for the most part, I learnt through trial and error.

One of the topics that nobody was going into in detail was the correct laying of the wool fibers. And, as I see it, that’s probably the most important thing you can learn about in wet felting. Sure, you do get felt no matter how well you lay your wool. But how good is your felt then?

This becomes more important if your piece needs a fair amount of shaping or if you’re making clothes, which need to adapt to your body.

So, what is the correct way to lay wool fibers?

First of all, wool for wet felting should be laid according to the shape of the piece. Let me use the example of a circular piece, like a beret. Would you lay your wool like this?

Well, you could. As I was saying, you will get a...