Sustainable Irish Gift Ideas to inspire you this christmas
The word “sustainable” is fast becoming part of our daily lives as we start to think more carefully about the impact of the choices we make on our environment, community, society and economy. But when it comes to doing business sustainably, what does that really mean in a practical sense?
To us, being more sustainable means making serious decisions every time we think about introducing a new product.
- What raw materials will be used?
- What impact will it have on the environment?
- When it is no longer of use, what happens to it?
- How will it be packaged?
The good news is that small changes add up to make a huge difference. With that in mind, we’ve curated a selection of gift ideas from like-minded Irish artists and crafters who are doing business intentionally, ethically and sustainably. They’re making conscious decisions towards using less, reusing or reinventing something that would otherwise end up in landfill, and coming up with innovative ways to be kinder to the planet as they go about their business.
We think the following gift ideas are innovative, exciting and thoughtfully-created, and we hope you will too.
Little Green Growers
This young husband and wife team of organic farmers are on a mission to make it easy to grow sustainable food and flowers at home. Their certified organic plants are lovingly tended from seed on their family-run eco-farm by the sea in Connemara and then delivered straight to your door. All packaging is 100% compostable, recyclable, or recycled, and all plants are grown in peat-free, organic Irish soil.
For a Christmas gift with a difference, inspire your loved one with the ‘Gift of Spring’, ‘Brighter Days Ahead’ and ‘Hope Blossoms.’ These sets of certified organic flower, veg, salad and tomato plants are grown from seed on the farm and sent out to your loved one in Spring. In the meantime, you get a lovely printable download to include with your Christmas gifts. Or you could choose the ‘Granny/Granda and Me’ pack - a set of easy to grow seeds with one pack sent to grandparents and an identical set for the grandchildren so they can make special memories by growing together, even if they’re apart for now.
Learn more about Little Green Growers
Glint Glass Studio
Glass is infinitely recyclable, but the ladies of Glint Glass Studio go one better. Róisín & Sinéad harvest waste glass from local businesses that would otherwise be destined for landfill or recycling plants and cleverly reinvent it into beautiful, sustainable ‘glasses that don’t cost the earth.’ Their simple, functional glassware is sustainable, ethical and made locally in Dublin.
Working with local businesses and the community in this way draws attention to waste being created and how it can be reused. Energy, water and packaging are also carefully used, saved and reused throughout the process.
Glint encourages local people to work with them in exchange for personal time in the studio, teaching glassmaking skills, or employment. They welcome artists, students and local people all using the studio in different ways.
By buying just one glass from Glint, you’ll have helped the environment, saved fossil fuel, provided employment and helped people learn to make glass. Sounds like a pretty good Christmas present to us.
Get in touch with them if you’d like to get involved and visit their website to see more of their gorgeous products.
WildBird Studio
Environmental respect is at the heart of WildBird Studio.
A designer, maker, and educator, contemporary glass artist Alison draws on nature, art, history and light to inspire each of her functional and beautiful designs. Alison’s work includes industrial-style geometric lamps, vintage-style pressed flower wall-hangings, wall-mounted vases, terrariums and cards.
Informed by a green ethos, she follows a reduce, reuse and recycle concept at WildBird Studio, including carbon-neutral shipping of her goods.
Alison doesn’t just draw on nature for inspiration; she depends on her for all of the elements used in her work – minerals, earth, fire, flowers.
‘That’s why our shipping is all carbon neutral. We calculate the carbon footprint of our deliveries each month and pay to plant trees to offset this’.
Learn more about Alison and her award-winning creations.
Sallyann’s Bags
When Sallyann started making bags, she wanted to make a difference with her products, one handbag or purse at a time. Rather than manufacturing using new fabrics, she set out to source readily available alternatives.
After intensively researching the clothing market, Sallyann discovered jeans were one of the most common items of clothing donated to charity shops. They’re also one of the most difficult to sell on.
‘Sacks of secondhand jeans are sold to companies that dispose of waste clothes, generating a very small amount of money for the charity, and ultimately leading to many of those jeans ending up in landfill.’
Realising she could recycle the denim, Sallyann pays the charity shops a fair price and diverts the jeans from landfill. Her creations are beautiful, practical and useful, handmade from water-repellent outer fabrics, all lined with recycled denim jeans. Each bag is vegan and vegetarian-friendly, and sustainably-made to the highest quality standards so it won’t let its owner down.
And we think you’ll agree, they look absolutely stunning, too!
Learn more about Sallyann’s Bags
KT Metal Design
Turning scrap into art!
Kenneth, the designer and creator at KTMetal, creates sustainable sculptures with the most recycled material on the planet - metal.
"My passion lies in turning steel, copper and brass into art. I love being able to envision concepts and then creating and bringing that concept to life, as can be seen in my little characters. Even as a teenager, I enjoyed sketching, drawing cartoons and painting. The inspiration for my work comes from life itself, and this is expressed in many ways through my pieces.’
Handcrafting a range of miniature sculptures from recycled mild steel, old electrical wire, bearings, old kitchen utensils and other used metal products. Kenneth’s creations depict all walks of life. Kenneth has over 30 years’ experience working with metal and is based in a purpose-built studio in his hometown of Leixlip, Co. Kildare
Learn more about KT Metal Design
Moywood Craft
Born out of a passion for working with wood, Nuala designs and handcrafts bespoke furniture and accessories for the home. Nuala set up Moywood Craft after qualifying with a degree in Furniture Design and Craftsmanship, creating genuinely unique pieces using locally sourced, sustainable Irish hardwoods.
As you can see from this handcrafted Hair Pin Leg Table from their range, Nuala tends to let the wood shape and form define what kind of bespoke piece it will materialise into.
‘Working with such a beautiful and varied material, I create both artistic and functional pieces for the home. The uniqueness of the grain pattern in the timber ensures no two pieces are ever the same, giving the client a piece to treasure’.
Combining traditional and modern techniques with the utmost care ensures each piece makes for a very special gift.
Learn more about Moywood Craft
Woolow
Galway farmer Michael Burke has developed a wool pillow that is completely organic, hypoallergenic and chemical-free. Its natural wool fibres are covered in high-quality cotton and it’s called “the Woolow.”
Michael lives on his family farm in Dunblaney, Dunmore, Co. Galway, where sheep have been raised for more than 200 years. Passionate about biodiversity, renewable resources and living chemical-free, Michael converted the farm to being completely organic, with a focus on those things that are recyclable.
The Woolow ticks all those boxes for him and for his customers. We think it could be the perfect gift for the friend or loved one in your life who’s badly in need of a good night’s sleep.
Learn more about Woolow
Thin Line
Thin Line is the combination of creator Henri’s extensive experience in the graphic industry and a lifelong passion for woodwork.
”I want to make things which bring a smile, are be fun & engaging to assemble, and versatile in their use.”
We think he’s definitely managed that with this striking Spiral Fruit Bowl design. Inspired by the record-player, the cherry wood is cut into a spiral through the same motion as the needle following the groove on a record. The spiral cut creates an organic, flexible shape where the bowl rests onto the base.
It’s designed to be flat-packed not only for ease of transport but to engage you in the process of creating it. The base parts slot into each other, followed by the spiral resting into the concave shape. The bowl’s outer rings are squeezed gently into the grooves on the top of the 4 sides of the base to ensure that the spiral will not slide up.
The product arrives in its specially designed packaging made of recycled cardboard. Henri creates his pieces from the picturesque Galway village of Kinvara and all the wood he uses is sourced in Ireland.
Learn more about Thin Line
We Make Good
We Make Good is an award-winning social enterprise design brand based in Dublin.
Behind each of their products is the story of an individual who has overcome adversity in their life through extraordinary determination.
With support, they have become craftspeople and gained employment, forging a new future for them, their families and their communities.
‘Our products are ethical to their core, Irish-designed, handcrafted with sustainable materials, and changing Ireland for the better.’
Learn more about We Make Good and check out their collections of beauty products, homewares and accessories.
Zwartbles Ireland
Suzanna Crampton is an environmental farmer, blanket-designing shepherd, and successful author.
Raising a flock of Zwartbles sheep in the Nore Valley on her County Kilkenny farm, Suzanna transforms their beautiful chocolate brown/black fleece into her signature Irish Zwartbles Yarn and Blankets.
These all-natural, no dyes, pure wool blankets are in limited supply, as only a certain number can be woven each year. Each one has four white stripes, representing the Zwartbles’ distinctive white markings, and they’re perfect for throwing over chilly toes in front of the fire or curling up with for a sneaky afternoon nap.
Learn more about Zwartbles
Andrea Mears Jewellery
Andrea makes everything by hand in her Limerick studio, in small batches and to order, so there's no mass production or waste. Her production process uses traditional techniques, with no toxic chemicals. She also recycles any waste metals.
’I subscribe to a slow fashion model of designing, so I don't follow seasonality. I design my pieces with longevity in mind; they are not throwaway fast fashion jewellery that will break or quickly tarnish. I use local and Irish suppliers for my raw materials, and I recently moved to using FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) packaging and recyclable mailers for postage.’
The necklace featured here is the Golden Karma Wheel. Inspired by the prayer wheels of Tibet, it symbolises blessings and good luck.
Learn more about Andrea
Rachel Dubber Design
And so we come to my own story. I’m an Irish artist, based in the glorious Connemara countryside, specialising in animal portraiture. I've been creating artworks and sharing the joy animals bring to people for more years than I care to remember at this stage. Our giftware range grew from a seed of an idea of wanting to share that joy with a wider audience.
'Inspiration for me comes from being immersed in nature and the environment. It feeds my heart and my soul.’
Our products are practical and functional - to be loved and used every day. Each one is designed to be kind, consciously created using sustainable materials that leave a minimal imprint on our planet.
We use non-toxic water-based inks when printing, to avoid harmful chemicals washing into the waterways. We use all-natural materials that have not undergone any dying process or been chemically-treated. We don’t use plastic for our packaging. Our products are parcelled up in tissue paper or brown paper and string or recycled cardboard and parcel tape.
Most importantly, we only produce products that we stand by and use in our own homes. While we are not ‘100% perfectly’ sustainable, we strive to do our best.
Featured here is a gift for the foodie in your life - our natural beechwood chopping board/serving platter.
The boards are made with sustainable wood from trees that have come to the end of their natural life and have been replaced with younger trees. Each one is hand-finished with a gentle sanding and a generous coat of food-safe mineral oil to protect the wood.
With one side blank for cutting, the board is decorated on the other side with M’asal Beag Dubh, our signature Connemara donkey. He’s always a talking point at the table - perfect for your Christmas cheese or charcuterie platter.
See more of the Rachel Dubber Design range.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
It’s so amazing to see how things are changing and awareness is rising when it comes to sustainable business and living. With this selection of gifts, we hope we’ve made your Christmas shopping a little bit easier this year, as well as helping you to support Irish businesses that are doing their best to ‘tread lightly’ in all that they do.
Thank you for your continued support; we wouldn’t be here without you! Wishing you and your loved ones a peaceful, bright Christmas.
Rachel x