Tucked away on Crow Street is a good example . . .JK Retail Studio and Showrooms. The JK stands for jewellery designer Jennifer Kinnear, and the shop is as pretty as the designs she sells.

She opened just over a year ago with an 'Oysters and Pearls' reception, and has steadily grown the business and client list since. Along with her jewellery collections, the studio also stocks rather lovely musical boxes for storing beads, rings and so on, as well as a capsule range of bags and belts.

Part of the success is undoubtedly the experience of shopping here. Outside, the cobbled street is lined with ethnic restaurants, specialist record stores and small fashion outlets, all giving a bohemian air to the place.

Inside, Jennifer's studio has that retro feel in the detail, but overall this is a defiantly modern space.

"I loved the building from the very start because it is so contemporary. The floor is concrete, the ceiling beams are exposed and the front has a very high, wide window. It was the ideal base to play around with in terms of combining both a showroom and working studio."

Regular buying trips to New York and Zurich, and also a spell several years ago spent living in Los Angeles and Mexico, have all contributed to the colour and style of not just Jennifer's jewellery designs, but also her approach to interior design. Dominating the central area of the shop itself is a chaise longue draped with fur throws and sheepskins and next to it is a coffee table stacked with international fashion glossies . . . all suggestive of a leisurely browse rather than a frantic purchase.

Pieces from her three jewellery collections . . . Kink Bijoux, Vanilla and Jenny Wren . . . are not only shown in the traditional manner of glass display cases, but also strung around a tailor's dummy and also, rather quirkily, suspended from a series of figurative line drawings on the white walls (courtesy of an artist friend Esther Berger).

That concrete floor, which may sound hard and unforgiving, is softened up with rugs and, right in the middle, a large ponyskin hide. A formal counter is replaced instead with a long table, covered in a length of soft black leather. Here and there, peeping out from shelves and trays, are miniature 'Dinky' classic cars from a relative's collection. They are there just for fun, adding to the eclectic style of the shop.

And while the philosophy is to create a place where it's welcoming and relaxing to choose jewellery, that doesn't mean that a small fortune had to be spent on the interior design, says its imaginative owner.

"The chests came from a pal who is an office furniture supplier, while the wooden display cabinets are auction finds. Buckley's auction rooms in Glasthule is great, and that's where I got the mahogany inlay table. The floor-to-ceiling mirror just behind that is one that I had specially made, but again it didn't cost a lot. You don't need to spend a fortune to get a look together, just keep your eyes open on your travels and pick up ideas and unusual pieces that make a difference."

One of the occasional tables is another inlay design, with tiny pieces of mother of pearl, which was picked up on a trip to Sorrento.

The workroom is visible through a 'wall' of filmy panels to the rear of the space, and it's a view adding to the charm of the shop . . . not least because its so 'sorted'. The terminally cluttered . . . and there are a lot of us about . . .

could learn a lot here. Jennifer's business may be all to do with a myriad of tiny semiprecious stones, beads, metals and pliers, but everything in this workroom is incredibly ordered, from the rows of beads and necklaces in neat rows along the wall, a series of cabinets with tiny drawers, and the various tools ready to hand on individual hooks. Is it always this organised . . . or is it just because the Sunday Tribune is here to take a picture?

"No, everything has to have its place because of the nature of the work, and that sense of order just makes it a pleasant place to be. I spend so much of my time here, working on ranges, as well as special oneoff designs in collaboration with customers, that is has have a good ambience."

In the background is the faint sound of jazz. Music, says Jennifer, is just as relevant as furniture and accessories when creating an interior and, if she had her way, Nina Simone would be her chanteuse of choice, setting the constant mood of the shop.

"My boyfriend Simon is a sound engineer, and at the moment our home is crammed with equipment, albums and CDs everywhere.

Luckily, I am a real music head too, but here it's all just that bit more organised."

Not just a shop then, but a haven for the magpie jewellery fan too.

A SHOWCASE OF IRISH CRAFT

NEXT time your are on that weekend trip to Rome, Madrid or destinations beyond, take a closer look at gifts such as jewellery or other crafts . . . and you might discover that that they are in fact of Irish design and manufacture.

The huge Showcase trade fair event with 500 exhibitors, taking place at the RDS Ballsbridge from today until Wednesday, will attract up to 9,000 visitors, including 2,000 buyers from over 30 countries worldwide, making it a signi"cant business opportunity on the international calendar and ensuring Irish design continues to make an impression globally.

Buyers have the opportunity to source various crafts, gifts, jewellery, fashion and tabletop ranges.

The key to its success, say organisers the Crafts Council of Ireland, is innovation and new product development . . .

particularly spotted by design-aware European buyers.

Index 50 is just one of the events, being the display platform for new products and new designers, specially selected for exhibition by an international jury of buyers.

This year too sees three decades of design being celebrated . . . Showcase is now in its 30th year.

Showcase (trade only) RDS 2225th January 2006