{The good folks at Inspirations sent me a copy of the magazine, but that has not influenced my review – other than being able to review it in the first place, you know. ;-) }
Inspirations magazine, a quarterly magazine from Country Bumpkin in Australia, is a delightful magazine. And completely different from what I am normally drawn to. When I saw it, I was actually a little.. skeptical, because “that’s a lot of gold and it looks very very traditional”.
However, the saying about not judging a book by its cover holds true for magazines as well! Because, yes, the projects in Inspirations use traditional techniques, but that doesn’t mean the projects themselves are old-fashioned!
Everyone featured in the magazine are incredibly skilled, just look at this snowdrop flower! I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to make that. And look how perfectly stitched it is!
Again a project with a very contemporary feel. And I love how the photo is styled with the scissors!
Inspirations magazine has a lot of projects, and I think even if you made just one of them, your embroidery skills would expand ten-fold. It’s really nice to see a magazine that has a strong focus on traditional skills, but without being stuck in an old-fashioned aesthetic.
The magazine also comes with a pull out with all the patterns, which is a really great thing to have so you don’t have to fiddle with copying magazine pages etc.
If you want an introduction to traditional embroidery techniques, I think this magazine is a nice place to start. It looks pretty too and the paper feels like it’s quality paper. Which is a small thing, but it does add to the overall impression!
Inspirations magazine have just started doing stitchalongs over on Flickr and in this issue you can stitch along with this colourful project by Kelly Fletcher. Check out the Inspirations Flickr group here.
You can find the print magazine in shops now. Although, those of us who don’t live in Australia may have to look online to get hold of it. And if you’d rather get a digital copy, it’s available from Zinio as well.
Or…. you could stop by this blog tomorrow where I’ll be giving away a copy each to two lucky winners! :-)