Submitted photo Amy Pearson, Thrivent Financial; Duane Laffranzen, Hollywood Haus Frames; Lori Pickell-Stangel, United Way of the Brown County Area.

NEW ULM — The Willkommen Committee of the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed Duane Laffranzen with Hollywood Haus Frames for a new location. Duane is no new face to New Ulm, as he and his wife Toni, have been in New Ulm since 1986. Duane used to sell his frame work out of the Thimble Box store, after he and Toni purchased that in 1999. Duane has a passion for displaying and preserving memories for people, and that is what brings such joy to the work he does. Sure you can get a standard frame in a standard size from a store, but Duane’s frames are custom and made especially for the item that you want framed. He uses acid free materials so you don’t see the fading or yellow-coloring over the years. Duane currently does the framing business out of his house. He has about 200-300 frame samples on display that customers can pick from. He also does repair jobs, people can bring in their own frames and he can work his magic to fix them. Duane made about 200 frames last year. His love of framing began after taking a class in 1982. Toni found her joy in doing cross-stitch projects, which he started to frame and they would give them out as gifts. Finally he decided to make a business out of it. Duane does custom work for you, you could bring in your own frame to have that personalized too! No matter where Duane and Toni have gone, from Windom, to Lake Crystal and New Ulm, framing has always been his side gig, and he enjoys seeing the happiness on his customer’s faces when they see the finished product.