The Dodo Blog

Sharing tips, ideas, and experiences from felters who write me emails telling me about their felting projects has been on my mind for a long time.

It's so rewarding to hear from you, whether it's about something you created based on one of my tutorials or just to chat about felt. And I'm always thinking "Wouldn't it be great to have a space where we could all talk to each other".

Finding a way to exchange experiences about the things we love is becoming more important every day, especially in these times we're living. So, I'm looking for the best solution for that. But, in the meantime, I'd just love to encourage you to email me things you’d like to share.

Today I'll be doing exactly that: sharing great information I got as an answer to one of my recent posts.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about how to choose your felting suppliers. And I ended the post asking you to send me any recommendations you might have, if you've had a good experience with any shop.

Well, I got an a...

I’m so happy to announce that the new website is finally ready and available for you to explore!!! Yaaayyy!!!

Click here to have a look!

Nothing will change for you. All the content that is on the this site has been transferred to the new one. It just looks different and it’s organized in a different way (better, I hope). I’m also keeping the newsletter and all the rest as is.

I suggest you have a look at the Free Resources section, where there are lots of resources, some of which you can now download. After that, take a look at the Store and the Blog (now with categories to make things easier to find) to check out how things are organized.

I’m still fine tuning some things, and when everything is ready and everyone’s gotten used to the new site, I’ll delete the old one. When that happens, I’ll transfer the new site to the old domain.

So, for now the new site is hosted under the domain https://vandafsousa.mykajabi.com/ but it will go back to http://www.vandafsousa.com/ very soon.

I’d lov...

I’m often asked who I recommend in terms of suppliers for felting materials.

My first recommendation would always be to find a good one near you, a brick and mortar store, where you can see and touch the wool before you buy.

But, not all of us have good felting suppliers around the corner. In fact, depending on where you live, it’s often difficult to find a local shop that carries the big diversity of materials you need for more sophisticated felting projects.

So, most of the times, we have to resort to online stores.

Even for online suppliers, I’d still recommend finding one as close to home as possible. That’ll mean less money spent on shipping, and it’s also better for the environment.

Next, I’d look into the variety they offer and how dependable they are when you need advice on the best wool for a particular project.

Another important factor is the shipping time. If you need materials for a project you want to finish soon, waiting a long time until the wool arrives on your do...

There are thousands of ways you can decorate a wet felted project. Some just involve wool, others can include silk or other fabrics, as you know. This is then called Nuno felting. But today I bring you a sample that contains wool, silk and something else.

I wanted to show you an example of how you can use a transparent piece of silk to hold any type of synthetic material, that wouldn’t otherwise attach to wool. In this case, I’ll be using a pre-felt and a piece of white silk chiffon with the same size as the pre-felt. Alternatively, you can lay merino wool tops or batts, and use light gauze instead of silk.

TIP # 1 – USE LIGHT GAUZE INSTEAD OF SILK TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIMENTS CHEAPER

I’m also using circles of a synthetic golden fabric (that doesn’t attach to wool), but you can choose countless other materials like small beads or sequins, for example.

If you’re making a sample, please remember to measure the size of the wool now and after shrinkage.

TIP # 2 – ALWAYS MEASURE YOUR SAM...

Today I’d like to ask for your help.

I’ve already shared with you that I’m working on a new site. This new site will include everything I already have in the current one, like the blog, the free resources and how you can work with me. But I’ve closed my Etsy shop, so there’ll also be a store. And – one of my favorite features – there’ll be a members’ area. This means you’ll be able to access the masterclasses from here.

Now, the main pages and the structure are ready. But I’m designing it for you guys, so I’d really like to have your opinion on it before I go on. I want it to be a site where you feel at home, where the navigation makes sense to you, and where the images and the messaging reflect what you think about Going The Dodo Way.  

So, I’d like to invite you to share your opinion about it. If you want to take part in this, please send me an email until June 18^th.

(Sneak peek!)

I’m going to ask you to tell me a bit about yourself, so that I can get to know you: where you’re f...

You plan the piece you want to make.

You draw and cut the resist.

You lay your wool.

Everything is going great, but when you start fulling, your felt just seems to be stuck. Somehow the wool just doesn’t seem to become compact. In fact, nothing seems to happen.

You’ve been felting for hours and you feel tired. What started out as fun is now getting on your nerves. So, you decide to stop.

But then you ask yourself:

WHAT HAPPENS TO MY PROJECT IF I STOP NOW?

IS MY PIECE RUINED?

SHOULD I JUST LEAVE IT ON THE TABLE LIKE THIS? (I ACTUALLY NEED THE TABLE!)

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG!

Do you recognize the scenario? It’s happened to me dozens of times. The difference when it happens now is that I know exactly what to do.

So – because I suspect it’s happened to you too – I wanted to bring you a couple of tips today on what to do.

Let’s start with “what went wrong”

Well, felting is a physical but also a chemical process. That means that sometimes different factors combine in a...

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 class, where I teach how to felt the hats. I’m now working on filming the decoration. Then, I’ll have...

I’m not the kind of person that buys all types of equipment when I start a hobby. Even though I’ve been felting for 15 years, there’s still so much I haven’t bought, and I probably never will. And much of the equipment I have invested in, have been purchases I’ve made in the last 3 or 4 years.

I know it’s easy to get excited about all the products for felting offered online, but you really don’t need much to wet felt. When I started, I really only had the basics. First, I didn’t want to spend money on something I wasn’t sure I’d be doing for a long time. And also, because I think the magic of felting is exactly the fact that – unlike in so many other textile techniques – you nearly only need your bare hands and wool to create an object.

But, since it was quickly clear to me that I’d go on felting for a very long time, I’ve slowly started getting equipment that makes my life easier, makes me work faster and with less physical effort, and gives my pieces more precision and quality. Of ...

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 through the carding machine. The carder brushes and blends the fibers ...

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 wanted to tell you I’m working on a new site. Why a new site? There are several different reasons.

As you might have n...