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Tuesday, June 15, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Jeweler brings his tales of Russia, Faberge-style eggs to United States
By Joan Patterson
Review-Journal
It is 15 minutes past a scheduled interview and Ilya Abelsky is very apologetic, very accommodating and very confused. The Russian-born jewelry designer thought this would be his day off from public appearances and interviews, but a public relations firm has set up a 9:30 a.m. appointment with a local newspaper.
Just give me time to take a shower and catch a cab over there, he says on the phone from his room at Circus Circus. Sure enough, he shows up about 40 minutes later, his damp hair flopping in the wind.
You cannot blame the man for being a bit distracted. He has been touring the United States for the past few years at a pace that could make any touring veteran -- rock star, professional baseball player, blues guitarist -- wince. Each year Abelsky spends more than 200 days on the road showing his tiny Faberge-like eggs to the American public at jewelry conventions and scheduled showings. The eggs are produced by his 5-year-old company, I. Abelsky Inc., and are based on the Faberge eggs created for the court of Imperial Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Last week he was in Las Vegas attending a jewelry convention and displaying his eggs at a local diamond store.
It is a hectic pace but it is also the chance to make up for some lost time. Abelsky has lived most of his life in Russia, born and raised in the city of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. The notion that he would someday travel around the world and represent the interests of his own, private business, was not even a glimmer in his soft, hazel eyes 15 or 20 years ago.
Today, however, he is riding the modest tide of a country experiencing a slow economic evolution, and hanging on with unrelenting determination. His company grossed more than $1 million last year.
Beyond success, part of what drives this man is a passion for his country. When asked about the colorful, often brutal history of the Imperial czars, for example, he tells the tale of someone such as Czar Alexander III, "a very large, very mean man," with the passion of a family storyteller.
"My appearances are like a hands-on experience," says Abelsky, his words tinged in a thick Russian accent. "You can meet someone who was born in Russia and has seen it through turbulent times. ... Part of what I do is an educational process, sharing, with people, my knowledge."
Talk can also turn to current Russian affairs. Those who attend his showings will often tell him about their own experiences during visits to Russia and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Abelsky returns the favor by talking about the current atmosphere in a country struggling with severe political and economic change. "I tell them things are very tough and unfortunately it's hurting people who based their life on being supported by the government at the end of life. ... So that's what's making this very sad. It's like taking away a welfare system in this country."
Abelsky says his eggs are not just jewelry but clear symbols of his country. As a child he grew up wandering the museums of St. Petersburg and peering through glass at the incredible china, paintings and furniture commissioned by the Imperial Court in the years before the 1917 Russian Revolution. Among the items were eggs created by the House of Faberge, delicate, painstakingly detailed pieces made by some of the finest craftsmen in the world. The images of the pieces stayed with him.
As a young man, he attended art school then spent three years working for the Soviet government in a jewelry factory as payment for the education. Abelsky churned out boring baubles such as rings, necklaces and key chains for tourist gift shops. The memory of producing items in such a passionless manner is still with him, like a dull ache.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the early 1980s, Abelsky was able to start his own jewelry business but it wasn't until coming to the United States in 1989 that he found true success.
The tiny eggs, about three-quarters of an inch tall, and some larger free-standing eggs he calls "conversation pieces," are based on the craftsmanship of the original Faberge eggs because each one is handcrafted. They are also symbolic of the most important holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church, Easter. Each year, Russians decorate eggs and give them to loved ones. They usually write the letters, "XB" somewhere on the eggs, which means "Christ is risen." The original 57 Faberge eggs that were made for the Imperial Court were actually given to the czars to pass along to their wives during Easter, Abelsky notes.
When Abelsky was a child, it was illegal to outwardly celebrate religious traditions under Communist rule. He and his grandmother would secretly color eggs by wrapping them in red onion skins and boiling them in water. The stained eggs were then decorated and passed along to loved ones. "I like to remind people that the eggs are not just a piece of jewelry. They are a wonderful symbol of beginning new life, rebirth, love," he says.
Abelsky has about 2,000 of the miniature eggs and they are based on 600 different designs. They are not exact replicas of the Faberge originals but do carry their inspiration from the one-of-a-kind pieces. Some of them, for example, contain surprises inside such as bouquets of flowers, rabbits and fairies.
It takes one day to make each egg, he says. They are cast in silver or gold, covered in enamel, then inlaid with stones such as garnet, onyx, turquoise and malachite. He makes the jewelry pieces, which start at $65, for "ordinary people" or those who work hard for a living and don't have a lot of extra income to spend on jewelry.
Perhaps some day his own people will take the jewelry to heart. In the meantime, Abelsky is following a dream that, not so long ago, seemed impossible.
And, in the meantime, he has an interview at a local television station in about 20 minutes. So much for a day off.
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