Clare Youngs

Clare Youngs - FreeSpirit Fabrics Designer

Clare studied Graphic Design at art collage and went on to spend a number of years in the industry, mostly in packaging design and then later in book jacket design. After taking some time off to have four children, she decided she wanted to take a different path in the creative industry. She has always had a love of making things. As a child her mother was in publishing and brought home wonderful craft books. So, with these books, bags of fabric scraps provided by her grandmother, and paper from her parents, she spent many happy hours creating. In 2009 she put together some ideas for a book on contemporary paper craft for the home and sent it off to a few publishers. The book was taken up and she has gone on to write numerous books on textile and paper crafts. 

The love of paper craft led to experimenting in collage. Clare uses paint, ink, pencils, wax resist and printing methods to create a range of sample papers that she cuts up and pieces together to make her artworks. She loves to experiment in mark making, using anything from pine needles and twigs from the garden, to cut up bits of erasers and sponges.  She also joined in with an Instagram challenge called the 100 Day Project. The idea behind this challenge is that you decide on a creative challenge for 100 days and share your results as a daily post. She decided to make collaged, articulated animals out of card. They were popular on Instagram and led to a book in 2018 with the publishers Design for Today and recently to illustrating a series of children’s books for Nosy Crow. Clare’s love of colour and pattern plays an integral part in all of her works and has now led her to the exciting world of textile design. 

Clare lives on the Kent Coast in the UK with her husband. She divides her time between creating original collaged artworks, designing, illustrating, writing craft books and running workshops.

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