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Who are we?
We are a husband and wife team that have been working together for over
20 years. We've
been very fortunate to live, for the most part, in exotic tourist destinations.
A couple of years ago we settled in Europe. After touring for 6 months to find a suitable
location, we based ourselves in Limburg, The Netherlands.....can't explain it, but there was a sense of familiarity, an
attraction. After many years in St Maarten, we felt the pull to something bigger.
We've had been living in St Maarten for over 8 years. Our location in Simpson Bay was perfectly suited to our working style of daily interaction with people and filled
with creative joy.
But let's start at an earlier point. Hans was born in Pretoria, South Africa to Dutch parents,
who still spoke Dutch at home. Hans, from and early age was started "taking things apart". It was only natural to be
interested in gemstones and jewelry, since he has a long lineage of family, who were and still are clockmakers. Hans
studied gemcutting in Idar-Oberstein and did his jewelry apprenticeship under tutelage of Mr. Shane Hartdegen.
Anne was born in Swakopmund, Namibia to German parents, speaking German at home. Her
parents then moved to Pretoria, South Africa where she completed her schooling and started working for an insurance
company in the claims department. After promotions and a few years in the industry, she knew that this was not her chosen
field and had already made the decision to resign, when she met Hans.
In our early days working together, we
naturally slotted into rolls that we were good at, at the same time unifying, yet separating tasks. An opportunity
presented itself to open our jewelry shop named Serol-wana Jewellery in an upmarket safari lodge called Mowana Safari
Lodge in Kasane, Botswana.
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Serol-wana Jewellery Shop
located in Mowana Safari Lodge, Kasane Botswana - Excuse the picture
quality....pre-digital. We developed our "signature look" here. It compliments and speaks about our jewelry style. |
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Arial view of Mowana Safari Lodge nestling
along the Chobe River, the international border between Namibia and Botswana
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Mowana Safari Lodge is situated a few
kilometers from The Chobe National Park, home to 57 000
elephants and many other wildlife species. One of the most unspoilt nature areas. |
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From our Botswana base we expanded to
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We opened Elephant Hills Jewellers in the Intercontinental Elephant Hills Hotel. |
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Elephant Hills Jewellers
located in Intercontinental Elephant Hills Hotel - We identified this
under-utilized area below the staircase, where we had the structure built for the shop. To the left was the casino
and the right was the entrance to the restaurant. |
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And Hans built his workshop in a space on
the hotel roof that was not used. His bench is the brightly coloured one, that also served as a mobile bench. The
other work stations were for the apprentices. |
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This picture on the left was taken at the
opening of our shop and on the right are the staff members of Elephant Hills Jewellers |
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Every three or four days we traveled between
the two countries, managing our businesses on both sides. Many tourist visited the Victoria Falls and the Chobe
National Park, where we were privileged to live for over 10 years. Political circumstances necessitated a review
of our operation, which then led us to St Maarten. |
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Victoria
Falls, Zimbabwe one of the seven natural wonders of the world. |
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