Are you ready to start your Christmas shopping?
With the festive season just around the corner, food, drink and crafts makers across Orkney have been hard at work creating new products for you all to enjoy during the holidays. From fabulous jewellery collections to gin-flavoured fudge, you’ll always find something special from the islands.
We’ve picked out some of our favourite new pieces from local Creative Orkney and Orkney Food & Drink members, so have a browse and give a gift from Orkney this year.
These handcrafted wooden serving boards from Burray-based maker, Leo Kerr, would be perfect for a Christmas feast. Each board is individually shaped from slices of Scottish timber and comes with a live edge and raised rubber feet, before being finished in a high-quality wax or oil.
Collaboration is key for this delicious product, which combines the talents of two of Orkney’s most popular makers. The Orkney Bakery has joined forces with the Orkney Gin Company to make Rhubarb Old Tom Fudge – traditional Orkney Fudge flavoured with Rhubarb Old Tom gin. The spirit brings an extra twist to the fudge thanks to its orange, cinnamon, and rose petal ingredients. This would be an ideal post-Christmas dinner treat, or a stocking filler for the sweet-tooths in your family.
Like many local folk, Orkney jewellery designer Celina Rupp and her daughter spend a lot of time walking on the beach, watching the waves roll ashore. Celina has taken inspiration from these mindful moments to create her Tidelines collection of bangles, earrings, and pendants. The pieces feature many of the sights seen along the line of the tide, from the bubbles of sea foam and the shapes of shells, to the soft texture of the sand. It’s a stunning collection, influenced by something quintessentially Orcadian.
Ingrid Grieve is a much loved Orkney’s artist, and her Toumal Art Studio is a popular stop on the local Creative Trail. She is influenced by the unpredictable Orkney weather, with scenes of wild seas, stormy skies, and stunning sunsets dominating her work. Now her paintings feature alongside a collection of 40 Orkney dialect poems about the weather and seasons, with the words matched to a different print of Ingrid’s. It’s a very special book celebrating local dialect and Orkney’s people and landscapes.
Food hampers from the talented team at JP Orkney are always a festive favourite, but now they’ve gone a step further and launched the Orkney Craft Hamper, featuring handmade gifts alongside delicious delights. The boxes include the famous JP rhubarb jams and chutneys, as well as Stockans Oatcakes, Orkney Beremeal Soap, and a handcrafted Orkney Vibes A5 notebook. Remember to ask for gift wrapping if you’re sending it to a loved one.
After a summer spent documenting the final season at the Ness of Brodgar, Stromness-based artist, Jeanne Bouza Rose, has turned her attention to some of the other locations in Orkney’s World Heritage Site for her latest project. Her ‘Orkney’s Standing Stones’ calendar features a beautiful mix of oil paintings and watercolours focused on the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness. It’s an ideal gift for history buffs and anyone inspired by Orkney’s rich Neolithic heritage.
It’s the time of year when the Orkney sky can come alive, sending local folk out into the long dark nights to catch a glimpse of the Merry Dancers, or the Aurora Borealis to give it its official title. Local jewellery designer, Alison Moore, has taken inspiration from the natural phenomenon and Orkney’s vast night sky to create her beautiful Dark Skies rings. These unisex pieces are crafted in recycled solid sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold. The design is reminiscent of the graceful waves of the Northern Lights and star-filled Orcadian skies.
Jollys of Orkney has been producing the finest local fish and shellfish products for more than 70 years. From fresh scallops to salt fish, Jollys is a one-stop-shop for Orkney seafood. Now the team has launched its Orkney Smokehouse collection – a new home for its smoked fish range. You’ll find flavoured smoked salmon infused with local whiskies and gins, as well as smoked haddock, mussels, mackerel and more. All the products in the Orkney Smokehouse collection are hand-prepared and smoked to perfection at the Jollys base overlooking Kirkwall Bay.
It has been a busy year for Kevin Gauld, the Orkney Furniture Maker, with his Orkney chairs taking centre stage at exhibitions across Europe. He has still found time to craft this stunning mirror from Orkney driftwood though. Named ‘Teredo’ after the wood-boring worm that lives in driftwood whilst it's afloat in the sea, the mirror features two separate sections of timber, locked together using teak joints which are shaped into an orca tail. The teak itself was salvaged from the wreck of the ‘Tennessee’, which was lost off Orkney in 1940. For an added flourish, the tunnels left behind by the worm have been filled with beautiful blue resin.
Based in Stronsay, one of Orkney’s north isles, it’s no surprise that much of Marion Miller’s work is influenced by the sea, and her latest marine-themed collection will prove popular with anyone who spends time on the beach searching for a very special find. The cowrie shell, or the ‘groatie buckie’, as it’s known in Orkney, is a tiny shell said to bring luck to its bearer, and these new pieces from Marion make sure you can always carry it with you. Her bracelets and pendants come with a local groatie buckie enclosed – the perfect gift for the beachcomber in your family.
Browse our Shop Online pages for more products from our talented Taste of Orkney and Creative Orkney members.