Featured designer: Marianne Hunter - Reinventing Art Nouveau

Text: Sandra Kemppainen, Marianne Hunter

Photos: George Post, Hap Sakwa, Marianne Hunter

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. 

The name “Art Nouveau” is French for “new art”. 

A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in flowers and plants but also in curved lines. Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment. 

It is also considered a philosophy of design of furniture, which was designed according to the whole building and made part of ordinary life.

Jewellery of the Art Nouveau period revitalised the jeweller’s art, with nature as the principal source of inspiration, complemented by new levels of virtuosity in enamelling and the introduction of new materials, such as opals and semi-precious stones. 

The widespread interest in Japanese art and the more specialised enthusiasm for Japanese metalworking skills fostered new themes and approaches to ornament.

Jewelry designer Marianne Hunter finds inspiration in antique and estate jewelry that she can incorporate into new designs or reclaim the gold and diamonds. “It makes me smile to be a recycler of diamonds “says the jeweler.

The shapes and colors of her stunning jewellery makes the viewer think of the elegant shapes and lines of Art Nouveau, but with a new, fresh feel. The materials Marianne uses are also present in Art Nouveau jewellery.

Marianne Hunter discovered her métier and medium at a very young age: “My high school boyfriend asked me, ‘Have you ever tried enamelling?’ and we bought a $12.50 toy kiln with six colors to work with. I was instantly fascinated.” 

She remains fascinated decades later. Discovering the art of enamel work  opened up a new realm of expression and creativity that she is still exploring today. It is the cornerstone of Marianne’s art.

Completely self-taught, experimenting, developing her own techniques, she devised methods for thinly layering enamel to achieve finer details. Her early grisaille wove images from nature, fantasy and history together, rendered in shades of black, white and grey. A friend, a fellow jeweler, advised her to learn fine metal work as well. “Setting my enamels in sterling silver let people perceive them as serious pieces, “Marianne recalls.  From that point on, she never repeated a design.

She is well-versed in the uses of enchantment. Marianne Hunter draws ideas and images from nature, fairytales, astronomy tribal arts, history and mythology, delving deep into the collective unconscious to create jewelry that is beyond beautiful: it is mystical and powerful as well.

To add another layer of meaning, Marianne Hunter composes and engraves an original poem on the reverse of each piece. “Some people share the poetry, “she says. “Others like to keep it to themselves.”

Each piece of Marianne Hunter’s jewelry is a unique assemblage of enamel, gems and precious metals, an object of surpassing beauty and the product of her life-long fascination with jewelry, stones and color.

A Marianne Hunter jewel becomes a personal emblem, and a private talisman, an ecstatic celebration of all that is feminine: life-giving and protective, emanating beauty, strength, peacefulness and the sheer joy of being human. She is not just a jewelry designer: she is an artist, working with jewelry as her medium.

“The person who wears it, “she says, “completes the sculpture.”

It is not only the layers of enamel work that are so intricate, but also the thought behind the design. 

To Marianne, nothing is arbitrary, everything is deeply thought out. In spite of their smallish size, her  kimono pendant designs have all the richness and complexity of the full costumes.

The placement of the enamel is so delicate, that even a breath of air can move a tiny bit of colour out if place. “I can’t have a fan in my studio, I can’t have someone walking by. I have to be careful saying p’s and t’s because of the plosive sounds they make. I have spent so much of my life holding my breath.”

Teaching herself the techniques of silver- and later, gold smithing was tedious at first for Marianne. It seemed so mechanical. Still, she persisted, experimenting to find her own methods, and her artistic breakthrough came. “In the beginning, enamel was all I cared about; the metal work was a chore,” she recalls. “When I learned to be playful and painterly with metals, when it became part of the creativity, I fell in love with it.”

Today, Marianne Hunter’s mastery of metal work rivals her creativity with enamel. She sets her pieces in richly textured 14 to 24 karat gold, sterling silver and platinum, fabricated, engraved or sculpted with a fluidity that transforms the precious metals into magical textiles.

Her enamel work has evolved as well. “My husband {artist William Hunter} convinced me to add color, “says Marianne. “A joyous revelation.”  Now, color dances through Marianne Hunter’s designs.

Exotic gemstones complete the effect.  

She prefers unexpected gems, inclusions and phenomenal iridescence. 

She loves the intense green complexity of demantoid garnets, the mysterious indigo of tanzanite, fancy colored diamonds and baroque pearls. 

Opal, the queen of gems is Marianne’s favorite. “Not the pale, white stones of the past, but the fabulous flashing, bold and patterned varieties such as boulder opals, koroit, yowah, fossil, crystal and black opals, “ explains Marianne. “I select each stone for the story I see in it. I could never grow bored with them. “

Each piece of Marianne Hunter’s jewelry is a unique assemblage of enamel, gems and precious metals, an object of surpassing beauty and the product of her life-long fascination with jewelry, stones and color.

Each of her unique jewellery starts from a drawing. 

From her studio in the small town on the coast of California, Portugese Bend, Marianne Hunter only creates twenty to twenty-five pieces a year, and accepts a small number of private commissions. 

“I will draw for a few weeks. I take tons of material out of the safe until I find what I want. I pick up to four designs to work on and then cut the copper panels. I will take one panel and start the enamel work. I can work all day on one panel. It takes anywhere from 40 firings up to 100 firings.”

Marianne encourages her customers to bring in their old jewellery, things they may have inherited and never worm, in order to rework the precious elements. For example, once she took “a dreadful cocktail ring and used the diamonds from it to create a piece the client could wear.”

A Marianne Hunter jewel is truly a rare objet d’art, an investment in beauty and a future heirloom. A recognised modern master of the art of enamel, Marianne’s work has been seen in numerous museum exhibitions in the US and abroad, and her jewelry is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mint Museum in Charlotte North Carolina, the Oakland Museum of Art, the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California and the American Art Museum Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.