Sign of the Times

Jo Jack is a keen woodworker who runs sign-making classes for women in rural communities. She makes rustic wooden signs of all shapes and sizes and sells most of them via her Gingham Girls Facebook page.

What started as a hobby is now a full-time business for the Balclutha woman who was a police officer for 18 years.

Jo designs, stencils, cuts and paints the signs in a converted shipping container beside her home and she employs a couple of high school students to help with the sanding.

Originally, the signs were made from wood milled on her husband's 400-hectare farm but now she has started using timber from a local sawmill because demand has outgrown supply.