Fish skins might not be the first thing to spring to mind when making gorgeous handbags, jewellery and cards, but a North-East designer is making her studio truly the plaice to be.

Definitely something fishy going on.... fishy and fashionable and fun. Think fish skins and what do you come up with? Probably a heap of something unmentionable on the quayside at Whitby.

Think again. Think of the softest leathers, treated to glitter and shine and razzle dazzle in bright colours for purses and bags, cushions and jewellery, yet still with intriguing and individual markings that make each item unique.

Funkifish make all sorts of items out of the skins of salmon and spotted wolf fish. Aqua leathers have long been big in Scandinavia but virtually unknown here. Marie Bernadette Young made them her project in her degree in fashion and marketing in the early 90s and has been intrigued ever since.

Now, from a trading estate in Langley Moor near Durham, she and her team design and handmake a growing range of goods that are sold all over the world.

"Here," says Marie, "feel the skin we use."

The skin is soft and supple, smells just like leather with not a sniff or whiff of fish. It's just a by-product of the fishing industry, a wonderful bit of recycling.

Funkifish has a special process that gives the leather an iridescence. Then it is dyed in a range of bold and bright colours, made into bags, purses, wallets and often decorated with embroidery. Purses and wallets cost from £30 to £50, handbags from £40 to £110.

Another range, using the spotted wolf fish, is more natural and subtle.

There's also a range of silver and gold-plated jewellery, the leather shimmering in its setting. Each piece, boxed, sells for around £15.

When Marie first started out, her leathers were used for shoes by Red Or Dead and used in designs by Paul Smith and Bruce Oldfield. Then she had a few years in PR and fashion journalism and came back to the idea.

"Fake snakeskin was big and I thought the time was ripe for us," she says.

Nearly three years ago she launched funkifish at - where else - the Fish Quay Festival at North Shields . She supplies shops at home and abroad and also sells direct via the Internet - a site that literally bubbles with outrageous fishy puns.

The leathers are hand dyed, then everything's hand made. Because of the nature of the skin, everything's unique. No endangered species are used.

"We used to use cod skins but don't any longer since cod stocks have got so low," she says.

Every bit of skin is used, right down to the leftover scraps which are used to make a range of punning

greeting cards. "Love and Best Fishes... Be my sole mate... My plaice or yours..." You get the general idea.

Even the colours have a watery theme. - "green oil on water.... fishalicious... dapper snapper. "

Because everything is done by hand, there's a limit to how far Marie can spread her net. With a new baby as well, she's changing direction slightly, hoping to patent her process of making the leather iridescent so that other manufacturers can use it.

In the meantime, there are new designs for purses and wallets in bright greens and blues and all those shops to supply - from Redcar, all over the States to the Virgin Islands and the Dubai Hilton.

To quote one of her cards - simply brill.

www.funkifish.com. Order online or from The Parfumerie, Redcar; Corbridge Art Cafe, Newcastle Fine Arts in Jesmond. Or if you're ever in the Dubai Hilton...

PS: on children's cookbooks: last year we looked at children's cook books - a depressing exercise as most of them seemed to aim at assembling junk food rather than cooking from scratch.

Now Mrs Pape of Sherburn writes to commend The Walker Book of Children's Cookery by Roz Denny and Caroline Waldegrave which she says is a good all round cook book.

Get it now - and with luck, your children might soon take over the kitchen....