MILWAUKEE — You can call Teresa Morton a specialist when it comes to custom framing. She's been in the business for 34 years and for the past 26 of them, she's been running Frame & Fabric custom framing picture shop here on North Van Buren Street on the East Side.
"It's been a lot of fun," Morton says. "You do get to know people because framing is pretty personal and in some cases, I'm framing the third or fourth generation in their family. When people pick out what they want to frame they're very proud of what they're doing."
On this day, we found Teresa putting her personal touch on a job that needed to get out the door. She likes to work alone and she's pretty precise on making anything that she touches stand out.
"I noticed at least early on with the Safer at Home thing I was getting a lot of people who were going 'It's been hanging here 20 years and it kinda needs refreshing,' so I refreshed quite a few pieces I have to admit, and that's a good thing," she says. "You can be surprised that something that is starting to look old, how much newer it can look with new mats. And just having the glass cleaned inside-out it will look brand new again."
But this great run is coming to an end. Morton is going to sell all of her frames currently in-house, finish her custom jobs, and call it a career.
"I've decided that I want to retire, so I'm hanging up the measuring tapes, putting the mat cutter away, and I'm going to retire, hopefully by the end of October," she says. "But It may get drawn out a little further than that."