Wish list: Silk Sweetie scarf

Among the items spotted this week are beautiful silk, a panelpiece and an art exhibition.

We love this silk Sweetie scarf. It’s available in Parfois, which opened recently in Mahon Point, Cork. They have some fab uber-colourful pieces for spring/summer, worth checking out, and better still it won’t break the bank. This scarf is €17.95. www.parfois.com

Look closely at Mimi & Eve’s cuckoo clock. The more you look the more little birds you see. Designed by Mimi & Eve and produced by FabAllThings, I’m loving the colour of it; it would be amazing on a strong white wall. €42 from designist.ie

Summertime babas can benefit from the properties of silk in the form of The Ethical Silk Co’s Gift For Life wraps. The wraps make a cool cover, throw or cot sheet for babies who find it difficult to deal with the hot summer weather. Available in two different sizes starting at €50. Based in Dublin, they retail 100% mulberry silk products. The company is committed to making 100% eco-friendly and ethical choices. It donates 10% of its profits to Focus Ireland and the Jeevan Jothi AIDS Centre in Theni, associated with the unit where Ethical Silk Company Products are produced. www.theethicalsilkco.com/

The Lavit gallery has a very interesting exhibition at the moment– Artists’ Choice. A selection of five artists who featured in last year’s programme have been invited back to show, while also asking them to select a younger/ less established artist to exhibit alongside them. The selecting artists are Robert Ballagh, Tom Climent, Martin Gale, James English and Arthur Maderson and their choices are the artists Rachel Ballagh, Hugh Delap, Louise Neiland, Michelle Considine and Meadhbh O’ Donoghue. Pictured is Louise Neiland’s atmospheric landscape paintings, selected by Martin Gale, and the exhibition runs until May 6.

Julian Smith has a lovely raku- fired heron panel piece for sale at the moment. Raku, he tells me, is an ancient Japanese technique whereby the work is heated rapidly to 1000 degrees and then pulled from the kiln while red hot and plunged into a metal container with combustible materials such as dried leaves and sawdust. It’s this that give the work the lovely crackle effect which is always random and is different on each piece. “I based this piece on an egret; they arrived in Cork about 15 years ago,” says Julian. “I often see them from the workshop window hunting through the long grass after rain. I pick the grasses from nearby and press them into the soft clay — this leaves an impression which the glaze then melts into during the firing.” This piece costs €375 and stockists include the Boat House gallery Kinsale, Co Cork, Lavit Gallery Father Mathew Street, Cork, and Zozimus Gallery, Dublin.