OPENING quietly at the end of last week, the new retail complex at Powerscourt House in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow is a shopaholic's delight. Barely contained within the servants quarters of the building the 170 seat restaurant runs the entire garden front of the main house - the 10,000 square feet of space holds 11 different spaces each devoted to a different theme. So, in addition to a food hall, there are rooms given over to fragrances, ceramics, gardening, stationery, clothing and even luxurious cashmere.
But a particular treat is Powerscourt's jewellery gallery, which offers work by many familiar names as well as a chance to buy pieces by newcomers to the Irish market. Among the latter is McGrath & Swan from England, a design team which uses real shells dipped in pure silver to create pendants and earrings ranging in price from £13.95 to £29.95.
Also from England is Jennie Gill, originally sponsored by the Prince of Wales Trust but now gaining a keen following for her funky silver jewellery. This often features hearts and stars stamped onto a plain background, but there are also long pendants featuring hearts with their own pair of wings. Prices for Jennie Gill's work run between £20-£90.
The dramatic and bold geometric shapes in solid silver from Tate Ossian are marginally more expensive (£30-£100) but still worth investigating. And for more modest purses, there are the very special pieces from Parisian - company Pylones. Its bracelets, rings and pendants are made of clear perspex in which paper pictures of pets or houses have been trapped. Prices here start at just £10.
While that is probably as cheap as any jewellery in Powerscourt House, the most expensive work goes no higher than £150. All the gallery's pieces are either silver or costume, some containing semi precious stones. Given that so much of the stock is new to Ireland, this looks like being the ideal place to find special presents over the next few months.
The new shop at Powerscourt House and Gardens, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow (Tel 01-2046066) is now open from 9.30a. m. to 6p.m., seven days a week.
UNLIKE most jewellers - who tend to treat their work with an almost sacred regard - Grainne Morton has no objection to her pieces being described as whimsical. "Actually, they're quite childlike," she says. When people see my work, their memories of childhood just seem to float back to them."
Born in Lurgan, Morton has a first solo show of her jewellery currently running at DESIGNyard in Dublin's Temple Bar. She lives in Edinburgh, where she studied at the city's college of art but comes back here regularly and has a keen discerning following for her designs.
The charm of Grainne Morton's pieces lies in their diminutive scale and quirky humour; the present exhibition, for example, includes enamelled earrings bearing either recipes or shopping lists written in tiny script.
Often there are little flower petals shaped like hearts and pressed between pieces of glass and she has a fondness for using objets trouve's - bits of wood and mother of pearl, shells, snippets of paper and slate. Slivers of beaten metalwork, old buttons and printed tin are also recycled.
Her inspiration comes, naturally enough, from children's books and toys, but equally from poetry, Indian art and old stamps.
Despite the eclecticism of source - both for materials and ideas - the eventual work does have a consistent and distinctive identity. This is because Morton tends to box all the jewellery in relatively thick geometrical frames.
While each enclosed item may differ, it thus shares a common form with its neighbour. The other shared characteristic, of course, is the whimsy Grainne Morton is happy to acknowledge.