Meet Dixie: 30+ Years of Framing, and Still Obsessed
- casey4212
- Apr 21
- 3 min read
There are people who fall into their careers, and there are people who were simply made for them. Dixie Finlayson, founder of Artmount & Framing Matters, is firmly the latter.
Dixie has been framing since the 1980s — back when picture framing was a simpler business, and the idea of conservation framing was barely on most people's radar. A lot has changed since then. The materials have evolved, the techniques have sharpened, and the industry has matured. But Dixie's obsession with getting it right? That hasn't changed at all.
From a Dairy Farm to the Framing Bench
Dixie grew up on a dairy farm — early mornings, hard work, and a parents who led by example. It's not the most obvious origin story for Auckland's most respected framer, but Dixie will be the first to tell you that her work ethic came straight from those early years. "I watched my parents work hard," she says, "and I think that's where I got it from."
After finishing school, Dixie made her way to Auckland, flatting in Ponsonby in her early twenties and falling in love with the neighbourhood she'd eventually call home for decades. Then came the OE — and with it, London.
Learning the Craft in London
London is where Dixie's framing career took a serious turn. Working in the city's framing industry, she was exposed to conservation framing in a way that simply wasn't happening back in New Zealand at the time. The importance of archival materials. The right way to handle valuable and irreplaceable works. The difference between a frame that just looks good and a frame that genuinely protects what's inside it.
"When I first started framing back in the 80s, not a lot of thought went into the protection of the art," Dixie recalls. Conservation framing changed that — and it became a cornerstone of everything Artmount & Framing Matters does to this day.
Building Something from the Ground Up
Back in Auckland, Dixie built Artmount & Framing Matters from scratch. And when we say from scratch, we mean it quite literally. When the business moved to its current home in Eden Terrace, Dixie and her husband Rod built the workshop themselves — walls, kitchen, moulding racks, workbenching, showroom. The lot.
"It was really exciting because I got to plan my dream workshop," she says. That hands-on, DIY energy runs through everything they do. It's not just framing — it's craft. And craft, done properly, requires the right environment.
Thirty Years of Unusual Jobs
Ask Dixie what the most memorable thing she's ever framed is, and she doesn't hesitate: a Porsche bonnet. She's also framed a canvas so large it squeezed out the studio doors with just two centimetres to spare (they measured first). And somewhere in between, she's framed thousands of artworks, hundreds of jerseys, diplomas, tapa cloths, vintage corkscrew collections, and enough family memories to fill a gallery.
"I've framed everything," she says — and she's not wrong.
What Drives Her Still
More than thirty years in, Dixie still walks into the studio every day with the same energy she had when she started. The industry has changed — conservation glass is now the norm, tray frames are everywhere, and clients are more informed than ever — but the fundamentals haven't. A piece of art deserves to be framed properly. Full stop.
"Framing has become simpler in design and more about the artwork than the frame itself," Dixie says. At AMFM, that philosophy shapes every single job that comes through the door. The frame should enhance the work — never overshadow it.
She's also, by her own admission, quite content. Most of the bucket list is ticked. The future involves less time at the workbench and more time between Ponsonby and the family bach in Leigh. But for now? She's still obsessed. And that's exactly why AMFM is the studio it is.