Kirstie Bennett, is the co-owner and founder of The Framer's Workshop. She and Jeff have won a number of awards, including the SF Chronicle Bay List Best Frame Shop 2008 and 2010, Constant Contact’s Best Newsletter Practices Award 2008, 2009, 2010, and the Oakland Tribune’s “Bay Area Best” for multiple years. Décor Magazine awarded her with the Best-E-Newsletter distinction in 2009 and 2010. See more accomplishments in this site's In the News section. Kirstie holds a B.A. in English and Art History from U.C.L.A. and earned a California Secondary Teaching Credential in high school English from the University of California at Berkele.  She is also an educator for the Professional Picture Framer’s Association’s National Conference. Kirstie handles marketing and corporate art and framing consultation for the business. “I am fortunate to have spent my working life doing what I love.”

Jeff Goldberg is co-owner of the The Framer’s Workshop. He joined the business shortly after it opened in 1977. He and Kirstie have built a life together centered around their family and the business. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing at The State University of New York at Albany and attended the Master’s Program in Counseling and Guidance at The University of Oklahoma. Before moving to California he worked as a framer in several fine art galleries in New York and was a shop manager at a high-end restoration gallery in Rochester. His background includes psychiatric counseling and a love of art. Jeff handles shop workflow and the financial side of the business.

Mike's earliest picture framing experience was as a part time job in high school. "Imagine cutting wood frame corners using a hand saw and mitre box! The corners were atrocious." Mike studied design at the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago before moving to the Bay Area in 1973. He has worked at The Framer's Workshop since1977. Currently his primary duties involve maintaining our web site as well as all other graphics projects. He is a fine arts painter with work in the permanant collection of the Oakland Museum and The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. You can see examples of his paintings on his web site: rawpaint.com

Sarah has worked with us since 2003. She received her BFA from Skidmore College with a concentration in Fiber Arts and a minor in Asian Studies. As well as overseeing staff and store work flow, she enjoys creative framing projects. Her specialty is hand-wrapped fabric mats and designing specialty mats with the Wizard. The Thousand Oaks with a Water Fall fabric mat and Antique Israeli Coins with a hand-painted criss-crossing V groove, are just two examples of her skills. Sarah is also a creative designer of shadow box projects. She is currently working toward a certificate in Surface Pattern Design.

Chelsea is an honors graduate of Curry College in Boston. She holds a degree in Communications and has work experience in event planning and office management. Chelsea is Kirstie and Jeff's daughter, and she plans to take an active part in the business. Chelsea will work with Kirstie on corporate services while also learning the ropes on Monday through Friday each week.

Lee is new to picture framing but not to art. He studied Art and Design at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. After school, Lee lived in Greece for several months supporting himself through farm work, construction and carpentry when not visiting and sketching the ancient sites. He has lived in the Bay Area since the mid 1980s. As a painter, Lee is interested in archetypal mythological themes populated with contemporary super heroes. He paints in oil and acrylic on canvas stretched over tree branches, giving the edges a more irregular and organic feel.

Tanya is a recent addition to our staff but has had many years of framing experience. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Fine Art painting. Outside of art and art history, Tanya is interested in alternative healing arts such as energy work and homeopathy and practices Bikram yoga.

Dana joined our staff in November, 2012. He has a B.A. in modern literature from UC Santa Cruz. His degree encompases a liberal arts education, with an emphasis on trans-national/heritage literary movements arising out of 19th Century Russia. He is currently engaged in jazz performance and composition studies. Although new to picture framing, he has an excellent eye for color, design and detail. We're happy to have him as a new Framing Associate.

Lorena started working with us in 2003 as a sales associate and became a custom framer after three years. Lorena has a BS in Health Sciences and a Masters in English from Cal State Hayward. Her specialty here is sewing various fabrics, and fine detail work including complex shadowboxes for three dimensional art. Lorena is also a published author. You can learn about her writing work her blog.

Hugo has worked with us since 2005 and had 12 years of custom framing experience prior to joining our team. Hugo handles the bulk of our custom framing work and frames all oversize projects. He is also a musician and works on event production fwith his production company, STEELOmusic.