Christiansburg’s business community continued to diversify Thursday with the ceremonial ribbon cutting and grand opening of Off the Wall Custom Frames, which provides the town with a locally owned custom framing shop. The shop is located at 3225 N. Franklin St. #16.
The shop’s owner and operator is Tracy Williams, who began her work in a frame shop at Original Frameworks in Blacksburg while she was a student at Virginia Tech. She left the trade for a career in banking before returning to work at Original Frameworks. The opportunity came along to purchase the inventory, the supplies and the equipment for a frame shop that was going out of business, and then she had the chance to lease the space on North Franklin Street.
Williams is a Certified Picture Framer with ten years of experience. Her new business includes an art gallery showcasing art and artists from the New River Valley.
Williams’ business is state of the art. Her workshop includes a computerized mat cutter, a manual mat cutter, a glass cutter, a pneumatic underpinner that provides extra stability for the frames, and a chopper for cutting her own frames.
Her point-of-sale system is also computerized, which allows her to make on-the-spot estimates and keep track of all orders and customers.
She keeps a large inventory on hand so that the customer has a wide choice of moldings, mats, and designs. Williams then builds the frame according to the customers’ custom selections and has it ready for them within a week or ten days.
