Designer Desire: Clare Youngs

Clare Youngs is a British textile artist, collage maker, paper artist and workshop leader.

We can see echoes of Kenneth Townsend, David Klein and Hornsea Pottery newsprint mugs in her fabulous designs – no wonder we were drawn to her work.

When asked who and what inspires her, she responded:

Vintage Children’s books, particularly those published in the 60s and 70s. I like the work of Brian Wildsmith and Roger Duvoisin, Alice and Martin Provensen an American couple who illustrated more than 40 children’s books together. Mostly between the late 1940s and the 1960s.

Based in Broadstairs, Kent, Clare is also the author of many craft books. Buy her cards, prints, jigsaws and original collages from her online shop.

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Additional image credits © Clare Youngs

Designer Desire: Rosslyn Ruiz

A couple of weeks ago, a fellow vintage dealer posted a photo on Instagram of an artwork they owned. Straight away, I recognised the artist’s work – we also own one of her paintings. Her name is Rosslyn Ruiz… and it was the first time we learned of her full name.

Ruiz tended to sign her work merely ‘Rosslyn’ hence the reason we couldn’t find out anything about her before that fateful day. Ever since then, I’ve been on a quest to find out more about her and other examples of her work.

After quite a few Google searches, I stumbled upon a photo taken of the back of one of her paintings, on which a label was stuck with the following inscription:

Rosslyn Ruiz was born in London in 1935. She is completely self-taught and began painting professionally in 1960 working with most recognised mediums and unconventional ones as well.
Her need to ‘create without rules’ has enabled her to explore and expand her techniques in texture and form. By combining holograms and collage with more traditional materials she creates contemporary paintings and has developed a unique style that demonstrates excitement and free spirit.
Rosslyn has had many successful exhibitions in Europe, America and Spain. She became well recognised in the 60s after her work was purchased by celebrities such as John Lennon, Jaqui Dupre, Thora Hird, Haley Mills, Jack Palance and Charles Bronson.

She appears to be still practising and is currently a member of Ely Art Society.

Additional image credits:

MyPlanet72

1Wall Creative Collage

We just received this Creative Collage set from the lovely people at 1Wall.

The box contains 64, A3 sized sheets with which to create random patterns or specific words & phrases.

Possibilities are endless with a choice of typefaces, letters, numbers and symbols.

All the sheets can be applied en-mass to a feature wall or designs can be room-specific; food-related for a kitchen diner, bathing for the bathroom – or relaxation for a lounge or bedroom.

We also think that they’re great for use as Christmas decorations – and we’ve been experimenting in our own house this week.

They’re very easy to use. The sheets can be applied directly to the wall using the paste mixture supplied or mounted on movable & re-usable boards which adds a further dimension of flexibility.

Perfect for both domestic or business use – retailers in particular might find them useful. They’re ideal for a shop space or market stall – spell out company names, product ranges, messages to your customers etc.

The Creative Collage is a wonderful Christmas present – the recipients can mull over ideas with a mince pie, then get creative in the New Year.

In addition to this Typography set you also have the choice of Cityscene and Map collage designs. If you’d like to give it a go yourself, just enter the promotional code ‘nuffnang15‘ (valid until 31 Jan 2015) which will give you 15% off purchases on the 1Wall website.

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