Photography by Liadh Connolly
In the studio with Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey of Irish Design Shop
Reflecting their dedication to Irish design, Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey craft jewellery inspired by our landscape in their Drury Street shop and studio.
Ireland in 2008 may not seem like the best time to set up a shop, but Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey have spent the last 18 years defying the odds and championing the bespoke within the walls of Irish Design Shop. A store stocking around 60 of Ireland’s most exciting designer-makers – including their own jewellery brand, Names – it’s a business that prides itself on bolstering independent craft, providing a route to market for small brands, and celebrating the very best of Irish design.
The duo met in NCAD while studying Metal Work, and spent their post-grad years making their own jewellery and selling at markets around Dublin. “We got a shared studio where we would spend our evenings and days off,” Laura recalls. “We were getting to know the market and meeting other makers. That’s what led to the shop – we couldn’t find anywhere to sell what we wanted to make. Dublin at the time was a very different place in terms of selling Irish design.”
And so, in 2008, the doors of their brick-and-mortar shop on Drury Street were thrust open, beginning with just ten suppliers, including their own brand. An additional floor was later added to further the breadth of talent they can showcase, and every inch of the space has been intentionally curated for the best possible shopping experience. “We consider how the customer navigates the shop when we’re deciding where to position our bestsellers or key pieces for the season,” Clare says. “It’s also a sensory experience – it’s warm, the diffuser is always on, music is playing. Customers are picturing their own homes and feeling how these pieces might sit in their own space.”
From blankets and art to decorative pieces, ceramics, soaps and candles, the scope of the treasures to be found here is far-reaching and ever-expanding. Collaboration is also key, with Clare and Laura working with skilled designers and makers across Ireland to produce exclusive pieces for the homeware range, Áras. “That includes our ceramic colander, or the chunky ceramic salt pot with a nice wooden lid, and the new glassware pieces, which are real favourites,” Laura says. “It’s all about finding the right maker for the right product.”
“Traditional heritage crafts have become kind of cooler in recent years,” the duo note. “Saint Brigid’s crosses are one of our bestsellers all year around. People are obsessed with Irish culture and mythology and the language, and we’re tapping into that and promoting that by sourcing those traditional pieces. People are looking for the mark of the handmade, the mark of the craftsperson. We’re so detached from our purchases now that to buy something handmade in our shop feels special.”
From the jump, Clare and Laura have prioritised accessibility. “We don’t want to just appeal to any one sort of customer. There’s a real mix coming into the shop. I love that teenagers shopping for gifts for their parents feel comfortable coming in to browse and spend €20, as well as tourists looking for authentic souvenirs and those looking to find statement pieces for their homes.” The same goes for their jewellery brand, which began from a similar desire: “We wanted to make jewellery that people could buy for themselves, pieces that were accessible, functional, and that they could wear every day.”
“From the beginning, we didn’t want our jewellery to be so precious that you didn’t want to use it, that you have to keep exclusively for special occasions. They’re pieces you can buy for yourself as a payday treat and wear all the time. That’s probably why we hear of so many of our customers losing their pieces to the sea!”
The Names jewellery brand is inspired by the unexpected geometry found in the Irish landscape and the rugged, raw beauty of our coastline. Each piece is designed and made by hand in their neighbouring workshop. The pieces that make up the core collection are named for the people that inspire them the most, whether they are family members, disruptors, or fellow makers and visual artists. Their new collection, Lomán, veers towards the more organic, speaking to the sea and Irish landscape that remains an endless source of energy and inspiration.
“We started with the initial idea of going to the beach and casting the rocks. We visited Portrane in north Dublin and casted the rock surfaces in silicone last April, after devoting about three months to research last year. We don’t sketch ideas, we work in 3D, always,” Clare recalls. The collection is tactile, blending the organic and rugged with our trademark linear matte finish, and each piece is named after an artist or activist who is inspired by or works directly in the Irish landscape.
“Lomán is a rock of which only the summit is exposed. A forgotten Irish word, along with other beautiful words that once differentiated the kinds of stone and rock that form our coastline,” they explain. “Our connection to the land that shaped our customs and traditions is slowly eroding. Developing this collection on the rocky coastline, observing the diversity of texture and pattern caused by wind and wave, rooted us in our landscape. This tactile jewellery collection celebrates these small, quiet observations of our everyday surroundings.”
Reflecting on the past 18 years in business, Clare says: “It took years to get to this point of balance, and it involved a lot of working on the go and adapting as we went along. We worked our asses off, and we sacrificed a lot in our twenties setting this up.” Laura chimes in: “It is such a wonderful job that we’ve created for ourselves. We get such lovely cards and emails and messages from our customers and that feedback and community feeling is so important and fulfilling.”
Photography by Liadh Connolly.
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of IMAGE Magazine.
Also Read
