Coloured glass is a clear winner for brightening up these dark days, with inexpensive accessories such as carafes and vases available everywhere from Habitat to Marks & Spencer. However, for a more lasting and individual solution, glass art is an eye-catching option.

Turner Glass Design in Cork just last week opened a gallery in the English Market to cater for those who wanted to buy glass art off the shelf at prices ranging from 20 up to 1,500.

Specialising in the design and manufacture of bespoke contemporary architectural and decorative glass items such as feature wall panels, room dividers, balustrades, glass stair treads and glass flooring, Turner's service ranges from initial concept and design to the manufacture and installation of residential and commercial projects.

"We had so many people enquiring about buying readymade pieces that we couldn't accommodate, " says Anna Marie Holden, business development manager at Turner's.

County Offaly-based, Belfast-trained artist Michelle O'Donnell of Glasshammer has seen demand for glass soar over her 15 years in business, on commissions for both interior and exterior designs.

One of her recent creations was for the sunken garden at the new Ritz Carlton in Wicklow. The large glass screen features a series of cast glass circles with Celtic spirals.

"When you view them from a distance, they look like a number of bubbles."

For a Kinsale holiday home, she did an egg-shaped glass design with copper and wire, which appears to 'float' on an outdoor wall as a conversation piece for those lolling in the hot tub.

Irish people have been spending more on their gardens in recent years, sparking interest in O'Donnell's outdoor feature pieces, which are treated to cope with both cold and hot conditions, but it is for her elaborate interior designs that she is best known.

Her extensive portfolio includes a coloured glass barcode door in hues of purples, reds and pinks, for 8,000.

Designed to separate kitchen from dining area, the toughened glass also 'floats' onto the wall on a track system when not in use. Two years ago she devised a sliding wall in burnt coppers for a new build home in Foxrock, Dublin 18. The costing for a similar project would be around 30,000.

Even Velux windows can be transformed with glass art.

O'Donnell devised a purple glass cloud design to float underneath the Velux opening on a fine steel wire system in another home. Kitchen splashbacks and stripy shower doors have also got the Glasshammer treatment.

For many people, glass art is a way of personalising their pads, O'Donnell finds.

Whether it's a one-off chandelier, a curved screen for a changing area in an indoor swimming pool, or undulating layers of clear textured glass, creating a wave-like effect and screwed to a coloured wall in a dining zone, the aim is to differentiate their dwellings, she says.

"I can melt coppers and wires and laminate material such as linen between glass, playing with the material all the time and pushing out the artistic boundaries."

Those with smaller living spaces or tight budgets are not precluded from getting in on the glass act.

"My sister wanted to do something different in the kitchen of her semi-detached home so I developed old handwritten-style lettering spelling out 'Food For Thought', " says O'Donnell.

She has also got creative with other culinary designs including oversized knives and forks for restaurants. "All of this translates easily into domestic use."

Also known for her glass art is retired NCAD lecturer Roisin de Buitlear, who is just back from spending three years in the Corbieres region in the south of France. Along with Maree Hensey, she is showcasing the fruits of the foray in an exhibition at Chris Ryan Architects at 70 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4, until 14 November.

Titled 'Depar' it features three-dimensional drawings with glass and sculptural abstract pieces in glass.

Her sculptural designs depict French ironwork, the baskets used to contain produce bought at markets, and lines of vines in winter landscapes.

>> Turner Glass Design, Units J & K, Ballyvolane Business Park, Cork 0214210710; www. turnerglass. com. Also Unit 7, Market Parade, Patrick Street, Cork 021-4270988.

>> Michelle O'Donnell, Glasshammer, 046-9739290; www. glasshammer. ie