about
About Vashon Island Framery’s new owner
Brooke Gassiot brings a lifelong connection to art, craftsmanship, and creative community to Vashon Island Framery.
Her framing journey began in Austin, Texas, where she worked at Nueces Street Art Gallery. There, she learned every aspect of the custom framing process—from frame design and mat cutting to glass cutting, mounting artwork, building frames, art sales, and gallery exhibitions. That early experience sparked a lasting appreciation for the role thoughtful framing plays in preserving and presenting art.
Raised in her mother’s art studio, Brooke grew up surrounded by artists and makers. Her father is a master craftsman, and together her parents instilled a deep appreciation for skilled making and creative work. She studied art at the University of Texas, worked in Cera-Mix ceramics studio during college, and had the opportunity to further her artistic education through study in Italy. After graduation, she maintained her own studio practice while becoming deeply involved in Austin’s vibrant arts community.
Brooke was a co-founder of Icosa Gallery, an artist-run gallery collective that transformed a former auto shop into a thriving contemporary art space. The gallery, which continues to operate today, became known for its monthly exhibitions featuring local and emerging artists.
Since moving to Vashon Island in 2021, Brooke has continued her commitment to supporting the arts. She is an exhibiting artist with an active painting practice, attends weekly life drawing sessions, and has a genuine love for the art supplies and tools that help artists create the valuable contributions they bring to our community. For several years, she has assisted with the installation of rotating exhibitions at the Vashon Center for the Arts, helping bring the work of local and regional artists to the community.
At Vashon Island Framery, Brooke combines technical framing knowledge, artistic understanding, and a genuine love for helping people celebrate and preserve the artwork, photographs, memorabilia, and meaningful objects that tell their stories.
Victoria & Brooke will work together this summer to ensure a smooth transition before she moves to Scotland in September!
About Victoria:
Vashon Island Framery was founded by Victoria Hunter, CPF in 2021 to meet the framing needs of Vashon Island. A resident of the island since 2013, Victoria is excited to fill a need to the community and get to know more folks through framing.
Vashon Island Framery is a proud member of the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA) which is the professional association for the picture framing industry. We also recognize the value in continuing education, and so frequently attend video speaker series on a variety of topics by experts, as well as attending national conferences filled with workshops. This adds up to over thirty hours of additional education throughout the year in topics varying from history to design to preservation and conservation to shadowboxes and mounting to new ideas for modern frames. Victoria is also a Certified Picture Framer through the PPFA.
Outside of framing Victoria is an artist as well, and recently compled the certificate program at the Photo Center NW in Seattle. A long time photographer, she is particularly interested in historical and alternative processes such as wet plate collodion and photogravure. When not at her shop, she can frequently be found working in her darkroom testing old cameras and film, or in her sewing studio working on historical costumes for her current self portraiture series. She is also the coauthor of guidebooks with her sister. Their first book, Walking the Fife Pilgrim Way, was published in 2024 by Cicerone and covers a 64 mile walk in Scotland.