MEET YOUR MERCHANT: A frame job with intent to spoil

The Wetzels are in a technical craft, managing a custom framing shop in Carson City and creating the mats behind for custom-framed items.

But to them, the owners of Marv's Custom Framing, being successful isn't just about making the best frames and displays. It's about providing the best customer service.

"That's what we do: creative customer service," Jennifer Wetzel said from their new Carson City location, an expansion from Gardnerville. "(Customers) won't want to go anywhere else because we spoil them."

Marv Wetzel, shop namesake, has 30-plus years in the business and boasts that they can do anything with matting and framing, from jerseys to words with photos laid behind them. He said his frames have been used by artists from Martha's Vineyard and in galleries in New Orleans, where he used to live.

"We did almost a hundred galleries down there, so we've seen almost everything," Marv Wetzel said. "It's got to the point where people can set anything down and we just know what to do."

Not that it's always perfect, he said - in the past four years, he's had two people say they didn't like the layout, so he happily, and without charge, changed it to what the customers wanted.

The store also takes care when mounting items for framing, the owners said. They will sew jerseys into the backing and other wise pin items like guitars and trophies in ways that won't damage the item and doesn't involve glue.

He said they expanded to Carson City to take some of the pressure off his Gardnerville store. Here, they will do the custom matting and sell the supplies to those wanting to do their own framing. The shopping center storefront isn't big enough for the framing equipment, so that's still done in Gardnerville, though orders can be placed in Carson City and delivered here.

Marv Wetzel said the passion for the craft and the art is what keeps him doing it, even after stints in casinos and elsewhere.

"I always come back to the art industry," he said. "I just love it and I'm so glad to be involved in it still."