EP #167 Authentic Scottish Gifts Made By Real Artisans

You’ve seen “Scottish gifts” before, but you probably haven’t seen Scotland like this. We’re joined by Louise Jolley, founder of Flykup Scottish Fancy Pieces, a Fredericksburg, VA gift shop built around one simple promise: no souvenir shortcuts, just modern Scottish craftsmanship and the stories that prove it. Louise grew up in Aberdeen and brings a tradition from home into her brand name “a fly cup and a fancy piece” meaning a quick tea or coffee with something sweet, and a moment to actually connect.

We talk about what authenticity looks like when you take it seriously: researching makers across Scotland, learning where materials come from, and keeping products designed in Scotland and produced within the UK. Louise shares the signature pieces that customers fall in love with, including picture frames made from retired Scottish whisky barrels (sometimes traceable to a distillery), intricate folded book art made without cutting or gluing, and hand-cut Scottish slate turned into practical housewares. If you’re searching for unique gifts in Fredericksburg or handmade Scottish gifts with real provenance, this conversation gets specific.

We also get into values that shape the shop, like upcycling and giving materials a second life, plus the idea that shopping should feel human again. Louise even built a complimentary Flykup bar in the back of the store, with chairs and Scotland literature, so visitors can sit down, talk travel and heritage, and slow the day down for 20 minutes. After you listen, subscribe, share this with a friend who loves meaningful gifts, and leave a review to help more people find local businesses worth visiting.

Louise Jolley

Flykup - Scottish Fancy Pieces

flykup.com

support@flykup.com

540-538-9517

810 Caroline St., Fredericksburg, VA

Transcript

Welcome To FXBG Neighbors

Speaker 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 1 0:13

Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Louise Jolley joining us. She is with Fly kup Scottish Fancy Pieces. Louise, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 0:31

Hi, Dori. Welcome. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 0:34

I am so excited to learn more about you and your business. So let's start

What Flykup Sells

Speaker 1 0:40

there. Share with us. What is Fly kup Scottish Fancy Pieces?

Speaker 2 0:44

All right, well, Fly kup Scottish Fancy Pieces is a growing brand and it's based around a modern Scotland. I have handcrafted, designed gift items that are made in Scotland. Basically, it's trying to bring that modern version, not the souvenir version of Scotland that everybody knows. The kilts, the tarrent blankets, the tarrent scarf. So I'm trying to show more craftsmanship, more originality to Fredericksburg.

Speaker 1 1:17

I love that so much. So clearly you are from Scotland. Tell us about your background. I want to learn all about your journey and then what led you to start this business.

From Aberdeen To Fredericksburg

Speaker 2 1:30

Okay, uh well, I'm from Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland. Um, born and bred there. All my family still lives there. And basically, Fly kup, the name in Scottish Fancy Pieces, comes from Aberdeen. It's um it's a tradition only in the northeast of Scotland. So basically, mid-morning or mid-afternoon, uh, any day of the week, somebody could say to you, Do you want a fly cup and a fancy piece? And that would be a quick cup of coffee or tea and something sweet. So I played on that tradition that I grew up with for the name of the business. So I came here 31 years ago. I've been living in Fredericksburg for 26 years. I raised my family here, so I know the area very well. The reason I started Flykup was kind of twofold. Homesickness. I think as you get older, you get you appreciate where you came from more than you do when you're younger because you're always trying to move away and do something different. And then, you know, my kids growing up because I was a stay-at-home mum for most of their lives. So it leaves a big gap, as most women will know, it leaves a big gap. So you've kind of got to reinvent yourself. And I've reinvented myself many times through my life, but this was this was a big one because you know the house gets quieter. So I just you know I went through many iterations of what I could do, what I couldn't do. Um, and I came up, I thought about Fly kup, and I've always thought about how Americans romanticize Scotland, and I wanted to give

Homesickness Becomes A Business

Speaker 2 3:00

them something different about Scotland. So this is where the idea of the fancy pieces came because I was thinking Fly kup, then I was thinking fancy piece, I could tie it together for a gift store, and really that's where the idea came from, and it just kind of landed really well, and I thought I can do something with this, and then I just started I started pop-ups and fairs and festivals, you know, building up my tent every weekend, pulling it down. Thank thank goodness I've got a good husband. He helped me lift all the boxes. I couldn't have done it without him. Um, and really just kind of tested the concept for about a good year and a half, and it just took off. Every fair got better and better and better, and especially here in Fredericksburg, I got a great response from the population here. So I decided to pull the trigger and just go for it, and that's where I that happened what eight months ago now. I can't believe it's eight months already, but it's been received very, very well, and I think I think what is resonating with people is the authenticity. Because when I think Fly kup, I think authenticity, because I basically know all my makers, I know where they where they come from, why they do what they do, and how they do what they do. So in most of the the products that I try and take in, I research and get to know the people that make them. It's important to me to have those stories.

Speaker 1 4:28

That's amazing. I love that so much. And how fun is it for you to go through that process of sourcing all of these items from your hometown? Is that challenging or is it just um magical?

Sourcing Authentic Makers Across Scotland

Speaker 2 4:46

Yeah, it's well, it's it's not necessarily just from I go all over Scotland for the products. I have some, I have um these books that are used books that are made into book art from a lady in my area of Scotland, Aberdeenshire. But I go all over Scotland when I try and find products. Um, I do it via the internet, it's a great way to find people and then I communicate with them and get to know them, get to know you know where the materials come from. Does everything get done in Scotland? When I say when I say I do handmade and designed, if it's designed, it means it is designed in Scotland. It may just leave Scotland to be put together, but it doesn't leave the UK at all. I don't take products in that go anywhere else in the world, it stays within the UK and then goes back to Scotland because sometimes there's just not the mills to put certain like bags together, so it has to go to another, like like um I have some chocolates that I I have that have to go to another vendor to put in an ingredient and then it comes back again. You know, it's but it's it's a lot a lot of research goes into it, a lot of research because it has to be authentic for me and has to have a story because people love the stories, they really do.

Speaker 1 6:01

Yeah. So do the products kind of rotate then throughout your store, or do you have vendors that you like keep all the time? Or talk to me a little bit about

Signature Products And New Finds

Speaker 1 6:12

that.

Speaker 2 6:12

That's a good question. Um, I stick with probably three major products. The products I actually started the pop-ups with. That's my whiskey frames that are made from retired Scottish whiskey barrels. And on the back of some of those, there's a number that will tell you the distillery in Scotland that the barrel came from. And some of these barrels have been holding whiskey for about 80 years, so there's some stories on those frames. Um, the other thing was the book art that I was talking about. Um, I really think it's such a creative way. She doesn't cut or glue any pages when she folds the pages, she just folds it with a teaspoon. It's insane. Um, and then I have slate products, Scottish slate that's hand cut and then etched with different designs, which are made into coasters, um, jacusery boards, you know, all different housewares. Um, so those are the sort of standards I keep. After that, I kind of rotate. I was in Scotland in January for the Scottish Trade Fair and found about nine new new artists that I'm really excited about. So I've taken in maybe one, about three of those products so far, and I'll just kind of slowly bring them in over the year. Um, but it is it's exciting. It's it's great to see small businesses back home being helped by me here as a small business. You know, it's really interesting. I'm getting asked to to be a distributor for some product makers, and that's another avenue for the business, maybe down the line. So, yeah, it's very interesting, it's very rewarding as well.

Speaker 1 7:41

Yeah, yeah. I love that so much. And I imagine it's um a lot of fun for you when people come into the store, maybe who don't have any experience with Scotland, and you get to share a little piece of home with everyone. So I bet that really just lights you up.

Why Storytelling Beats Amazon

Speaker 2 7:58

It does. And I mean, I opened last October and Christmas time was just amazing. I I in my family have always been known as the gift giver because I always think of weird and wonderful things for everybody. So it's nice now for me to be able to give that to other people. So people were coming in at Christmas and maybe bought a frame. And because of the story behind it, they were so excited when they left the store, and they would come back maybe a week later and say, I had to give the gift before Christmas because I was just so excited. So I think, as I say, it's the authenticity along with the storytelling that I think people are looking for nowadays because any nothing I sell you'll ever find on Amazon or any of the big platforms, and that's that's the beauty, and I think the piece that we have as small businesses that tops these big platforms, you know, they can't give what we give, and people I definitely felt my first Christmas season in the shop. I felt people were really resonating with that, they really wanted to help small businesses, shop small businesses, have that story or have that unusual gift. So it was really rewarding, it was really fun. It's a lot of fun to see people walk out so excited about a gift they had for maybe their father or their mother or whoever. It was cool.

Speaker 1 9:14

Really cool, yeah, really cool. Yes, so for all of our listeners, shop local and shop for something with meaning, and you can get it right here in Fredericksburg.

Speaker 2 9:24

I think so. I mean, you know, I think Fredericksburg's a wonderful place if you want anything. It's the shops that have come in the stores that have come into Fredericksburg are so unusual, so diverse, um, me included. I mean, it's I think people are loving. I mean, I see the customers that come into my store now and they're coming further from further afield just for a shopping day in Fredericksburg because they've heard how how vibrant it is now. They're coming from DC, they're coming from Maryland, you know, they come from North Carolina. I get that every weekend, you know, they're just down for the day for shopping. So that's great. It's great for all of us.

Speaker 1 10:00

Yes, absolutely.

The Biggest Misconception About Scottish Shops

Speaker 1 10:02

I wonder, are there any myths or misconceptions that you hear about your business?

Speaker 2 10:08

Yeah, yeah. I think people feel when they hear Scot Scotland or Scottish store, they automatically think of tartan. They think everything's going to be tartan, and even maybe a little old-fashioned because of obviously the history of Scotland. But that's not what I'm showing. I'm not a souvenir store. I'm a store that's trying to show craftsmanship, storytelling, as I've said, modern. That's the word I the phrase that I started Flycut What with was, I'm trying to show you a modern Scotland. So you're not going to get any of those traditional things in my store. You're not going to get the key ring with your tartan on it or your uh family crest. Now I do have certain items that I just took in called the kilt bags. So they resemble a kilt, but they're a handbag. Um, but the difference there is it's a modern take on an old item, you know? Um, and then it's a hundred percent made in Scotland, which is important to me. So yeah, there's the myth that I would say that people think it's just all gonna be tartan and old. It's not, it's really not.

Speaker 1 11:20

Yeah, no, you're featuring amazing artisans, and yeah, it's such a cool thing.

Speaker 2 11:26

Yeah, it blows me away. How creative humans it can be. It really does.

Speaker 1 11:30

Yeah, yeah. So much fun what you do.

Upcycling As A Store Value

Speaker 2 11:35

The other thing I wanted to say was um one of the things that's important to me is upcycling, recycling, you know, using materials in different ways. You know, the the whiskey bottle's got a new life, the books have got a new life. I even have an artist who who uses upcycled shotgun cartridges and bullets and makes key rings and cufflinks. Yeah, so I like to get that part into the store as well. Because obviously I've got two grandchildren now. I want to play my part in trying to save the planet as much as I can.

Speaker 1 12:06

Yeah. I actually love that.

The Complimentary Flykup Bar

Speaker 1 12:10

Is there anything else that you want the listeners to know about Fly kup?

Speaker 2 12:15

I would say you're welcome to Fly kup anytime because you can come in and have a Fly kup with me. I have a complimentary Fly kup bar at the back of the store with a couple of chairs, literature about Scotland, because people come in and they want to talk to me about their trips or their potential trips, their heritage. So I wanted to bring forth the Fly kup tradition I grew up with, which I still do in my own home. I still do it with my parents when they visit. My daughter loves a Fly kup, and it's just a moment in time you take out of your day to sit down and basically smell the roses. I think that's what it's about. You just share a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, a sweet, a sweet piece. Normally back home it would be home baking or a short bread, and you just sit and chat for about 20 minutes, half an hour, and then you go your separate ways and get on with your days. So I I'm well I welcome anybody in the store if they want to come and have a Fly kup.

Speaker 1 13:12

I love it. I love it.

Where To Find Flykup

Speaker 1 13:14

If the listeners want to find you, if they want to connect with you, where can they find you?

Speaker 2 13:19

I am at 810 Caroline Street. It's the shops at 810. And I have flykup.com and I'm also on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 1 13:30

Amazing, amazing. Louise, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and showing and sharing Fly kup with us.

Speaker 2 13:39

Oh, it's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Speaker 13:43

Thank you.

Nominate A Local Business

Speaker 13:44

Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG Neighbors Podcast.com.