Antique Textiles

inspiration | ɪnspɪˈreɪʃ(ə)n

the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

vocabulary.com goes onto suggest that inspiration is ‘the process of breathing life into something’ and we love that definition, as isn’t that exactly what we do with our needles – breathe life into fabric simply by using threads and clever techniques?!

But where does our inspiration come from to breathe this life? For each of us, the answer will be many and varied.

As we pondered the concept of breathing life into things, we realized how many layers of inspiration are contained within the pages of Inspirations publications and we think they’re all the richer for it.

Initially, capturing the world’s most beautiful needlework in print was the inspired idea of Inspirations’ founder. The baton of inspiration then becomes our Editor’s as they commission the designers to create something for publication. Each designer uses not only their own inspiration, but also that of countless others as they employ fabric, thread, needles and techniques all inspired by people who have gone before them and produced the tools of their trade. Once their piece arrives in the Inspirations office, our team are inspired to think about how each piece will be best captured in photography and written about in a manner that will allow you to recreate them picture-perfectly with your own needles and threads. It’s then our Stylist and Photographer who add their unique layer of inspiration as they prop, style, light and capture each piece. Finally, it’s our Graphic Designer who adds the final layer of inspiration to the photography selection and page layout and somehow, almost seemingly magically, all these layers of inspiration come together as if they were one!

The same is most likely true of your own needlework – the layers of inspiration run deep. No doubt your initial inspiration for picking up needle and thread can be attributed to someone or something, the tools of the trade you choose to employ will be inspired for a specific reason and then the inspiration for using your time and talent on a certain project, well the inspiration for that is seemingly endless! Subject, colour, size, technique, history, emotion…

We’d love to hear where your inspiration for all things needle and thread comes from, so email us what it is that inspires you to breathe life into your fabric at news@inspirationsstudios.com, we can’t wait to be inspired by your inspiration!