Meet the Artist
Mary Shemeta
Fiber Arts - Wearable
Doda Designs started in 1997 as an outlet of Mary Shemeta’s love of experimentation with color, craft and design. For years she hand-dyed and sewed wearable silk and Tencel clothing and sold them at Art Fairs all over the United States. After 20 years she took a break from the work but almost immediately found herself dyeing wool for spinners and felters. The world of wool fiber is vast, interesting and unfathomable. As she learned more about the different ways to felt, she started creating garments. Quickly her work transitioned from sewing to felting. Playing with fibers to create her own fabric enables her to share a wide range of work from a feather-weight shawl to a thick winter coat or even everyday dryer balls. Each item is made the slow way, one at a time.
Mary has a passion for working with colors and creating bold patterns through her experimental work that involves using wet felting techniques to create the fabric for her garments. She uses cruelty-free and sustainably dyed wool, primarily extra-fine Merino Wool, along with a diverse range of silk fibers, yarns, and notions. After stacking layers of wool, she tops them with silk and other fibers and creates the patterns via needle felting and then wet felting. The garments are then made from this fabric.