Published 31 July 2024

Honouring the beauty and wisdom of trees

Jo Williams is a custom framer and art installer with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Otago Polytechnic School of Art and 15 years experience working in the arts. She is passionate about creativity and its power to inspire thought and action. Favouring simple framing solutions that minimally impact on the environment, Jo works with her clients to find the best solution for great looking framed art that is built to last.

Located in Newtown, JW Framing & Supply offers custom framing in recycled timber, canvas stretching and art installation services with a difference. Passionate about both creativity and its power to inspire thought and action, owner Jo Williams is a custom framer and art installer who favours framing solutions that minimally impact on the environment: 

“Climate breakdown is real, we all should be doing everything we can to turn this around asap.  I saw an opportunity to do something good and I believe in it 100%.  The more I learn about timber the more awed I am by the beauty and wisdom of trees.  There is so much we can learn by spending time with them and we shouldn't be discarding their remnants as trash.” 

Having found that the quality of commercially-available moulding was often poor, difficult to work with and imported from far away, Jo decided to make her own moulding - and reuse seemed like a logical solution considering we throw tons of superior quality stuff into landfill every day. There was just one snag - Jo found that the builders, joiners & woodworkers she spoke to, hated working with recycled timber because of the damage to the blades of their saws from hitting nails in the wood.

As a result, the idea to purchase a metal detector was born. Last year, with grant money from the WCC Waste Minimisation Fund, Jo purchased a metal detector that detects the tiniest amount of metal dust, even the iron in your blood! Keen to share her resource with the community, Jo is working on making the metal detector available to DIY woodworkers to bring small quantities of timber in and use it on Saturday mornings.

Swapping resources for labour is an option and Jo is always happy to meet woodworkers who like to share their love of timber. Businesses can also use the machine for larger quantities, keeping more timber out of landfill and making the timber we have in circulation go further.

JW Framing & Supply is located at Unit C 305A Mansfield St, Newtown and is open from 10-1pm on Saturdays during the winter.

Visit Jo's website for more information and contact details.