Buy better, buy local and allow Irish producers to create jobs

Forget conspicuous consumption. These days it is all about conscious consumption – buying less, but better. It is also about buying local, which allows Irish makers and producers to provide the employment that helps create thriving communities.

There is no shortage of great options to choose from.

House rules

Good design adds pleasure to the most mundane activity, whether it’s the heft of a cut-glass tumbler or the delicate pattern on a china cup. Bad design, like the teapot that always drips, does the opposite.

Now that we can’t get out and about so much to touch and hold items, it can make sense to buy online from people whose judgment you trust.

The Irish Design Shop in Dublin’s Drury Street was set up by jewellery designers Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey 12 years ago and offers a handpicked (the word curated has finally been retired) collection of craft and design.

Four years ago they launched their Áras range of homewares, designed and created in collaboration with some of Ireland’s most skilled crafts people. Such was its success that they recently expanded it to include a range of simple yet stylish products for the home, designed to be enjoyed daily.

Check out their felt placemats and coasters, all based on the Georgian era coal covers dotted around Dublin’s Merrion Square and laser cut in Dublin by Alljoy Design.

You’ll find lovely woollen house socks from Donegal, and 100 per cent Irish linen napkins and table runners from Emblem Weavers in Wexford. There is a beautiful crystal decanter based on Cork artist Mary Callaghan’s lino prints of Dursey Island and made by Eamonn Terry of Criostal na Rinne.

Check out the limited edition screen prints and tote bags by artist Shane O’Driscoll, as well as Rosemarie Durr’s ceramic bird feeders, thrown on the potter’s wheel and available glazed or unglazed, and strung with a colourful chord.

“The word Áras refers to a house of importance. To each of us that describes our own home, big or small. Home has never mattered more and, with this in mind, we have made our range accessible, affordable and practical. Our customers are a mix of homeowners and renters, house, apartment and flat dwellers. Regardless of the size of their home or budget, we feel there is something for everyone in this collection,” says co-founder Clare Grennan.

“Customers are more aware of how and where their purchases are made, in an effort to shop more sustainably and ethically.”

Back to bed

White & Green is a mother-daughter business headed up by mother Sari and her daughters Rebecca, Danielle and Andrea. The inspiration came from Sari’s work as an interiors designer where she spotted a gap in the market for chemical-free, 100 per cent organic and Fairtrade cotton. By selecting for quality, the family cuts through the misinformation that surrounds thread counts and cottons. After all, it’s not the quantity of the threads, it’s their quality that counts.

White & Green has established a loyal and growing following by providing only top-quality bedlinen that is easily washed and ironed. They are super durable, with a sateen weave that gives them a silky softness wash after wash.

Ethically sourced and sustainably produced, they make a lovely present – “Gifts to last a lifetime,” says Rebecca, who points out that right now a good night’s sleep is worth its weight in gold. “People really value their sleep and rest, as it helps us to get up and face the next day, and people are certainly finding these days very challenging,” she says.

Scents and soaps

Coping with lockdown restrictions of 5km and even 2km have been hard. Unless you were lucky enough to live in a rural area, it left millions stranded in an urban, or suburban, landscape, dreaming of the countryside. The Burren Perfumery provided very many people with a lifeline.

Simply by sticking to its seasonal “harvest” soaps – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Harvest – enables you to bring exactly the right scents and fragrances from the outside world in, all through the year. It’s note perfect, quite the feat and a handy little life hack for anyone still pining for the great outdoors.

Picture perfect papers

Printmaker and visual artist Shane O’Driscoll worked with the Irish Design Shop on the rebranding of its Áras Range. His work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland as part of its permanent collection and his handbound notebooks, made by Duffy’s of Dublin, feature in the range.

Lovers of books and papercraft should check out Seán O’Sullivan’s Badly Made Books in Cork too. Its notebooks, journals and planners are handmade from recycled paper, using a minimum of 70 per cent post-consumer waste materials, and made using hand-operated, secondhand machines. Everything about it is low impact, except the products, which are striking.

Fancy making your own? Folded Leaf has beginner bookbinder kits available online for €40, including all the tools you’ll need, including needles and linen thread, glue brush, bone folder, beeswax and more.

Folded Leaf’s founder, Éilís Murphy, is a multidisciplinary artist who was last year awarded the prestigious RDS Craft Award for her book arts practice. The bookbinding starter kit comes bound in a handmade roll-up case secured with a rainbow ribbon, a thing of beauty in itself.