Carving a niche in sustainable homewares - Border Co.

Beautiful wooden butter knife and spoon handmade by Border Co.

Justine Bolzon uses rubbish to stir her dinner.

A long time 'maker' and the woodworker behind Border Co, Justine salvages discarded objects, carves and sands them into new pieces both beautiful and practical.


Justine always knew she wanted a hands-on profession. Originally studying interior architecture, she since became a high school tech studies teacher - and her business bloomed from there.

"Working with wood was a side effect of my day job," Justine says.

"The making side of things began when I moved into my current home and needed a lot of bits and pieces, but I had a very tight budget and a very specific aesthetic. 

Justine began by making the utensils she needed in her own kitchen.

"Having access to the school's workshop I decided to make these pieces myself, things like a coffee table and bar stools.

"I also wanted to make the pieces for the kitchen so I started with a chopping board and from there anything I needed I just made - our cooking spoon, spatula, salad servers, muesli scoop, coffee scoop..."

It wasn't until the end of 2014 that Justine began making to sell. The ever-beautiful Council of Objects in Ebenezer Place, Adelaide, was the first stockist to give her a chance, leading to her first commission of 50 butter knives.

Pretty impressive given most of the timber comes from hard rubbish and salvage yards! Border Co wares are now stocked by the likes of ANTLER and MOSS and Koskela.

"While it is a very cost effective source of material, I just love the feeling of giving discarded timbers a new life," Justine says. 

"It just seemed such a shame to let those often beautiful timbers be thrown away or put onto the winter fire.

Hand carved scoops from Border Co.

"Sustainability has been critical in my work. Most of my pieces have been developed as a way of using off-cut material. The off-cuts from a spoon become a cocktail stirrer, and those off-cuts become a butter knife, and those off-cuts become a spice spoon. 

"I love this cycle of creativity, finding new ways to turn rubbish into something a bit special," Justine Bolzon, founder of Border Co.

Border Co cheese board and knife.

You can catch Justine at this year's WOMADelaide Festival as part of the new WoMade Boutique retail and exhibition space. Keep an eye out for more spoon carving classes too!

Oh and just in case you're curious (as I was!), the inspiration for the name Border Co comes from Justine's ever-faithful border collie companion, Luna :)

-  Ash
www.borderco.com
www.instagram.com/border.co

Justine's loyal helper, Luna the border collie.