This letter is an effort to introduce myself to a new prospective customer and I hope a life long friend.

If you do not commission Simon Z to create a piece of jewelry for you now, you are always welcome to E-mail or call direct with any thoughts, questions or advice you may have. It is a good thing to have an expert craftsman and stone dealer with 30 years of experience available for consultation.

Watching Barney video with my 3 yr old daughter I was struck with how lucky I am to have grown up the way I have.

Here was Barney doing projects with kids of maybe 5-10 years of age, they were making a sail boat out of a milk carton.

I remembered how I used to carve a Schooner or a Brigantine out of the soft thick bark of the pine trees in my native Riga Latvia, not only did I make the hull to scale but it had to float straight and stable, the keel had to be functional, the three or four masts had to be in proportion and their three four or five sails each. I put little nails all around for railing, used sewing thread to connect them carved gun turrets, the more details the more I liked the project, but I grew up in a different time and place.

When my two boys were young I tried to show them how to enjoy doing things with their hands and I know they benefited from it but they also had lots of plastic toys, lots of TV shows, computer and video games and I fortunately did not.

Having a natural aptitude for proportion, balance and a passion for miniatures and small details I can not think of a better combination of experiences than I was lucky to have had growing up.

My family emigrated from Riga Latvia in 1971, I was 13. Traveling on a train through Poland looking out the window of my sleeping car I was very excited to find myself waking in Vienna Austria. For me having never been outside the borders of Soviet Union, Austria seemed magical and exciting. I soaked up the architecture, museums and shops with my parents.

My mom was big on museums, theatre, opera and ballet, not that Russia didn’t have a lot to offer to an observant, creative young man, it did. We had traveled the countries of Soviet Union extensively, and I did see a lot, but Austria somehow seemed much more alive and colorful.

About three months later we arrived at our destination, Israel, which was very exciting in its own way. I spoke Hebrew fluently in about month and loved it there, but for whatever reason my mom and dad decided to emigrate to somewhere else and all my whining about not wanting to leave did not change their minds.

So in 1973 I found myself in Rome Italy, must say, not much to complain about! We lived in a very nice apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the beach across the street in the town of Lido de Ostia about forty-five to an hour away from Roma.

Again I learned fluent Italian within a month all my friends were native and were shocked later to find out that I was from elsewhere, of course my parents got very busy soaking up as much as they could dragging me and my older sister along, but mostly me. We spent over a year and a half awaiting Visa and seeing pretty much everything possible.

Anyway this letter is turning into a novel, sorry; to sum this up we arrived in the U.S. in 1974.

After high school in Chicago area, meaning Thornridge High about 154 th south 95% African American to Rolling Meadows High 98% Anglo European American to Shurs High inner city Chicago with every kind of American. I moved to San Francisco then to Reno winding up back in Chicago and starting apprenticeship at 5 North Wabash Chicago jewelers row, after six months I started as a contractor on premises in Palatine Jewelry store, which was in 1979… I think.

Since then I have completed thousand of commissions of every kind, people in the business always knew that if they had a hard time getting the job done Simon could and would get it accomplished. My first son was born in Montreal Canada; my second son was born in Cape Coral Florida. I lived in SW Florida for almost ten years working with some of the best stores around such as Thalheimers, Naples Florida and Fort Meyers, Port Royal Naples, McCarver and Moser St Armands Circle Sarasota Florida and E. Hampton NY and many more.

Florida was great, except I did miss the change of seasons, the constant sunshine wound up being something to hide from not enjoy. After a bitter custody and divorce seven years ago I moved back to Chicago area with my children. We settled in the North Suburbs and I worked with CD Peacock out of Northbrook store as an in house designer craftsman on premises If I told someone that I’ve had vast amounts of experience they probably would not understand what I meant that is why I have written about some of my lives experiences.

Designing a piece of jewelry has to start with

 

My goal is that your first project with Simon Z is just the beginning of our relationship.

Thank you, I look forward to working with you

Very truly yours,

Simon Zelikman