Inspirations

Referred to by readers as 'the World's most beautiful embroidery magazine', Inspirations is where you find the best classic hand embroidery by leading embroiderers throughout the world. Complemented with superbly styled photography and captivating stories, each issue brings a diverse collection of timeless projects from home wares and bags to gifts and accessories. A wide variety of embroidery techniques is presented with detailed and easy to follow instructions, step-by-step tutorials and full size patterns, making each issue a valuable resource for people new to embroidery and seasoned needleworkers alike.

FROM THE EDITOR

Dream WEAVER • “I've always had very vivid dreams, even as a child. I dream about life and events happening in my life. I document these dreams with notes and sketches, and they become the source of my creative work.”

SPECTACULAR Suzanis • Suzani refers to a large embroidered textile traditional to Uzbek communities from Central Asia, comprising Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

fly me to the MOON the lunar codex project • The Lunar Codex Project is the brainchild of Dr. Samuel Peralta, a Canadian physicist working in collaboration with NASA. Dr. Peralta's vision was to launch time capsules containing a collection of curated works from tens of thousands of contemporary creative artists from across the globe to be preserved on the moon.

BETWEEN THE COVERS

Anemones

Mucha's Heart • Alphonse Mucha, a Czech artist and illustrator, worked in Paris during the Art Nouveau period and is best-known for his graceful and distinctive posters, designed for the theatre and often depicting the actress, Sarah Bernhardt.

Butterfly Blues • Deerfield embroidery, with its gentle palette of soft blues on a white ground, was inspired by 18th century crewelwork and originally stitched with wool thread onto linen fabric, although later examples utilised linen threads.

Darwin Woollybutt & Blue-banded Bee • The vivid scarlet blossom and rich mahogany gumnuts of the spectacular Darwin woollybutt (Eucalyptus miniata) form a stunning contrast with the striped abdomen of one of Australia's distinctive indigenous insects, the blue-banded bee (Amegilla cingulata).

Hardanger Stars • Lace has been a revered textile for centuries, its exquisite beauty making it highly desirable and many forms of whitework have developed in an attempt to replicate its delicate appearance.

Heloise • Opus Anglicanum, Latin for English work, developed during the late medieval period, 12th to mid-14th centuries, and is characterised by the use of two techniques, split stitch and underside couching, and its bold and expressive figures.

Cleopatra Butterfly on Ivy • Commonly known as brimstones because of their bright, sulphur-yellow colouring, Cleopatra butterflies (Gonepteryx cleopatra) are native to Northern Africa, Spain, Portugal and Sicily. Their yellow-green wings are leaf-shaped to provide camouflage and softly shaded with a small spot being the only significant marking.

A Token of FRIENDSHIP • Early Quaker samplers were worked as part of a young girls education and are easily recognised by the inclusion of octagonal medallions, carefully spaced to cover the fabric and filled with floral and bird motifs.

Inspirations

ORIGINS