Think crafty when shopping for gifts

Christmasses come and Christmasses go but arts and crafts have a way of going on forever. Guaranteed to please, and available now in a quality and dizzying variety as never before, there are arts and craft items to suit the most minimalist of taste as well as the exuberantly vulgar.

In search of an idea or two we trawled the city and came up with (amongst other things) beads and rope for the inventive individualist, fine cherrywood tables for the discreet and a candle to light the way for just about everyone.

In the spirit of allowing that which is last to come first, the World Millennium Candle is Irish made, designed and manufactured and selling across the world in huge numbers.

Produced by the Fragrance Boutique Ltd, who are based in The Marina at Malahide, Co Dublin, the candle weights about 1kg and features 16 of the last 1000 years' most significant events.

For the parochially minded, Waterloo is there but not the Battle of Clontarf. It's non-drip, will burn for 120 hours, comes in a satin-lined presentation box with snuffer and will cost you £25.00.

The Fragrance Boutique do an Angel version of the candle, too, for £20 as well as a range of crafted gifts - soaps, solid oak candle holders, flower settings, body toiletries and natural bath accessories in reusable gift storage boxes.

Crown Jewels used be in the busy heart of Temple Bar but are now to be found at 12 Castle Market, Dublin 2. They claim to be the capital's "only shop for everything needed to make your own original jewellery" and it's definitely the place to go for metal, glass, ceramic and plastic beads, pearls, earwires, clasps, clips and eye pins from all over the world.

Right now they have crystal beads from India and the Czech Republic as well as Swa rovski crystals from Austria - the last absolutely de rigeuer with those who should know.

To get the timidly imaginative started they sell such as necklace kits and the American Bead and Button Magazine which is full of ideas. They do gift vouchers, too, from whatever amount you want to spend.

Next door in Castle Market there's the wonderful and venerable Murphy Sheehys, a one-stop, old-style fabric shop where you can buy whatever cloth your heart fancies.

To craft something as simple as new cushion covers for the season ahead you could do worse than a few metres of their upholstery-type Linen Union which is 56" wide and comes in Victorian fruit and roses deign and costs £8.50 per metre.

Combridge Fine Arts in South William Street has handcrafted bowls of all shapes and sizes. The work of Jimmy Rogan, who uses yew, wild cherry, elm and ash among other woods for his bowls, is slowly kiln-dried for several weeks and the wood chosen for its natural features.

So to that cherrywood table. It's to be found in FOKO, in South Great Georges Street, and is semi-circular, with slender curved legs and a most discreetly tasty look to it. It costs £149.00 and would be just the thing for a very special small space.