Indeed Alex did just that, and while perfecting his jewelry making and repairing skills, he also received his pilot license, but it became a secondary hobby as opposed to his newfound career path. He would soon find himself owning a small shop in College Park where he would do minor jobs of repair and manufacturing for other larger jewelry stores. That is when Winter Garden legend Jerry Chicone Jr. found Alex and lobbied him to come down to Winter Garden to open a proper YOU MAY BE AMONG THE WINTER GARDENERS THAT HAVE
jewelry store. Mr. Chicone took Alex to lunch in Winter Garden
SLIPPED ALEX RAMOS A PIECE OF JEWELRY AS HE WALKS
and walked him around explaining the exciting things that were
DOWNTOWN WINTER GARDEN IN THE MORNING ON THE
on the horizon. During Alex’s visit bricks were being pulled up and
WAY FROM GETTING HIS DAILY ICED TEA. To many, Alex is
re-done, train tracks were being pulled, and the construction of
known as Winter Garden’s jeweler, and those who hand him a piece
the famous Winter Garden Clock Tower was underway, a tower
of treasured jewelry to be repaired can have confidence that when
paid for by Mr. Chicone.
they stop by his shop later that day, it will be safe and ready for them.
According to Alex’s recollection of that day, Mr. Chicone stated to
Trusted in our community, Alex Ramos has been serving Winter
him, “It doesn’t look like much now, but it is going to be really nice
Garden in the downtown area for over twenty years through his
here. It is a good time to come over, and we could use a jeweler.”
business, Plantation Jewelers. The amount of faith he has earned did
In 2000 Alex opened a jewelry store in Downtown Winter
not come without hard work and merit, nor has it come without hard-
Garden, sharing space inside JR’s Attic Door. A couple of years later
ships, including the loss of his longtime location, which fell victim to
he moved to the spot across the street from the yellow caboose,
a ceiling collapse in 2019.
where he served the community for nearly twenty years until June
As a young man, Alex aspired to be a pilot and was taking pilot
2019, when the ceiling of his location caved in during a bad storm.
lessons at the Orlando Executive Airport when he received an opportunity to work in a jewelry store that was nearby on Bumby Avenue. Here he began to fall in love with the trade that would become a lifelong career. Being a jeweler was not totally foreign to him; he had two uncles living in Cuba who were jewelers. It seemed it was in the blood, and his calling was revealed in between flight school lessons.
CONTINUED >
“I wanted to learn it all.”
His uncles would move to the states in the course of time, including one uncle opening a store in Orlando. It was through his uncle’s own practices that Alex learned a very valuable lesson regarding the industry which he had entered, as Alex recalled it to me in our recent talk, “It was almost like a factory because one particular person would just do chain solders, another person just ring sizing, and another just stone setting. I
Austin and Alex
figured it out early that those people were with him for years and years, not only because he was a good person, but because they didn’t know anything else except just to polish, to solder a chain, or to set a stone. So, I wanted to learn it all.”
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