Bute is the island a lot of people meet first, which is why gifts from the Isle of Bute turn up in so many houses. A train down from Glasgow, a thirty-five minute crossing from Wemyss Bay, and you are walking up the pier at Rothesay before lunch. It is an easy island to underestimate. Go round the coast road for a day and you get sandy bays, seals hauled out at Scalpsie, an old chapel in a hollow, and the Arran hills sitting along the horizon like a man asleep.
The makers here work with all of that in front of them, so their pieces tend to carry the view about them somewhere. The colour of the Firth. A shard of Victorian china off the shore. Ash turned in a workshop a mile from the water.
Here are seven pieces from seven Bute makers, all in stock as I write, starting at a fiver.
Tea Towel – Sleeping Warrior – £14
Sarah Jane Hemsley Upholstery, Isle of Bute
The drawing is the west side of Bute, fields and hedges in the foreground and Arran beyond, with the ridge islanders call the Sleeping Warrior along the top. It is a detailed ink sketch picked out in bold greens and blues. The towel is 100% organic cotton, roughly 46cm by 70cm, made in Scotland. Each one comes in a presentation card sleeve with the story behind the Bulloch Collection on the back, and UK postage is free.
Arran from Scalpsie Bay, original watercolour – £32.70
Seaholly Studio, Isle of Bute
Painted at Scalpsie Bay, which is the spot everyone stops at for the seals and stays at for the view. It is a four inch watercolour with ink line work added over the top, set in a six inch white mount and ready to frame. This is the original, not a print, so once it is gone that is that. A good present for anyone who has stood at that particular fence.
St Blane’s Chapel notelets, pack of six – £5
Ruth Slater Artist, Isle of Bute
St Blane’s Chapel sits in a hollow near the south end of the island, and it is one of those places where everyone goes quiet without being asked. Ruth Slater has drawn it for this pack of six A7 notelets, which come with white envelopes in a cellophane sleeve. There is a handwritten note from the artist in every pack. Five pounds, and worth keeping a spare set in the drawer.
Upcycled sea pottery brooch – £15
Driftwood Bute, Isle of Bute
A single shard of old patterned china, tumbled smooth by the waves and picked up off the shore. This one has kept its green and yellow Victorian pattern, with the soft edges the sea spent years giving it. Every piece is one of a kind, so no two brooches match. Fifteen pounds for a bit of history you can pin to a coat.
Scottish ash salad servers – £29
The Bute Woodspoiler, Isle of Bute
Stainless steel blades with handles turned by hand from Scottish ash. They are made in Bute, and the same servers can be had with Scottish beech or Bute yew handles if you prefer a darker wood. Wedding-present territory, this, and a good deal more interesting than another set of tongs.
Bute Fabrics broad stripe cushion – £50
Myler Decor, Isle of Bute
Made up from Bute Fabrics cloth, woven at the mill in Rothesay, in a bright primary broad stripe. The stripe runs vertically on one side and horizontally on the other, so you can turn it round when the room needs a change. Finished at 19 inches square and filled with a 20 inch hollow fibre pad, which is why it looks properly plump rather than sad. Green zip.
Honeybee bracelet – £45
AniMac Design, Isle of Bute
A sterling silver slider bracelet with a bee charm, in silver, 24k rose gold plate or 18k gold plate. It measures eight inches to get over the knuckles and pulls in to fit a smaller wrist. Entirely precious metal, and it arrives boxed, so the wrapping is half done for you.
Seven makers, and there are plenty more
Bute is fifteen miles long and there are well over a hundred pieces from island makers in the shop at any one time, so this is a sample rather than a survey. The full Isle of Bute collection is the place to go if none of these is quite the one.
If it is the sea pottery and the Scalpsie view that caught you, the gifts for someone who loves the sea guide pulls that thread across all the islands. And if you fancy a longer sail, there is a gift guide for the Isle of Mull too.
Everything above is made by hand in Bute and sent out by the maker who made it. Buy one thing and it goes straight to an island workshop, which is rather the point of the whole shop.
