Buckie-ing the trend? East Lothian-based artist creates range of gifts inspired by Buckfast Tonic Wine

Buckfast Tonic Wine has a new role as a perhaps-unlikely muse for an East Lothian artist, who has created a new range of gifts inspired by the drink.

Aberlady-based Cheryl Jones has come up with “Buckie”-inspired products such as chocolate bars, scented candles, tea towels and wrapping paper.

Her Scottish-themed items – first launched at branches of the Scottish Design Exchange, which provides a high-street presence to the work of hundreds of artists and craftspeople – are now sold at more than 50 outlets across the country and via her online store.

Cheryl Jones worked with Edinburgh-based Quirky Chocolate to create The Buckie Bar, which is made with Buckfast. Picture: contributed.

The artist, who left her job in a printing firm to pursue her current career, said: “The Buckie range has been pretty popular in a short space of time. I always try to find the fun, quirky and bizarre in life, and with this product, I found it very interesting that this wine, which is created by monks... in an abbey in Devon, has somehow become such a prominent part of Scottish street culture.”

The entrepreneur worked with Edinburgh-based Quirky Chocolate to create The Buckie Bar, which has Buckfast as one of the ingredients.

Her candles, which have a Buckfast-inspired scent, are produced by Stornoway-based Sandwick Bay Candles, while she has been inspired by other Scottish items such as Creamola Foam, Scott’s Porage Oats, Empire biscuits, Irn-Bru and Scotch pies to Edinburgh Castle and Glasgow’s statue of the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone on his head.

She said: “Growing up, I holidayed twice yearly with my Granny and Grandad in Edinburgh and I thought of Scotland as the most beautiful and exotic of places. I was fascinated by the things we couldn’t get in Wales, like Creamola Foam, Mother’s Pride bread and the Barr’s ginger bottles that you took back to the shop to get the 5p deposit.

“As an artist perhaps that gave me a particular vantage point because I saw all of these things as a bit of an outsider… I found them wonderfully new and intriguing.

“I feel that maybe it’s that sense of enthusiasm and fun that people see in my work that inspires them to buy it," added Ms Jones, who is now looking to expand her business to meet high demand.

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