Needlefelting for the Home
- Neysa Russo

Learn to needlefelt! In this class, you will gain the skills to make a smaller well-designed project for the home; perhaps a wall hanging, table runner or chair pads. Starting with a piece of prefelt the appropriate size as your canvas, you will design your own masterpiece. We will cover the fundamentals of design composition and complimentary color combinations. Stencils and loads of design ideas will be provided or you may bring your own inspiration to class. Once you have the design concept, it will be transferred to the prefelt base and the real fun begins. You will learn all about needlefelting with many tips and strategies to keep your project exciting, and you will have access to the full line of Harrisville Designs glorious fleece colors. Come learned the basics, the possibilities are endless.

NEYSA RUSSO resides in Plainfield, Vermont, where she hand felts wool to create beautiful and functional rugs and home décor accessories.
She uses primarily Vermont wool from a variety of sheep breeds, especially Merino and Border Leicester. The fresh pallet of colors used for the needlefelted surface designs is Harrisville’s carded fleece.

She learned the art of felt making from her mother, the renowned fiber artist, Robin Russo. Most of the wet felting process is done at her shop, The Spinning Studio, in Bradford, Vermont. The colorful designs are needlefelted to the surface using barbed needles specific to this technique. Once the design is applied, which may take several weeks, the entire piece is wet felted again.

Neysa’s inspiration for designs and color schemes comes from a passion for antique tapestries, and rugs. Her years of needlepointing have taught her the elements of design composition and complimentary color combinations that are so fascinating.