Marianne Hunter, a self-taught jeweler from California, creates very interesting enamel jewelry. She has an incredible ability to invent jewelry that looks like bright collages of gemstones with bright enamels. Her most famous jewelry series is Kabuki Kachina. These decorations have a silhouette of a figure in national Japanese clothes. All Marianna’s works are unusual, but at the same time they are distinguished by grace and harmony, with all the originality of color combinations.

“My enamelling technique starts with 3-5 background coats of black enamel over copper or silver. The images are then applied in several layers of very thin enamels to dry by sifting or stacking with a tiny knife. My grisaille process uses very fine meshed white enamel over black to achieve a full range of shades from black to gray to white. When I use color, I most often use finely cut silver foil. As needed, it is carefully stacked and fired over previously fired and cooled layers. A thin layer of transparent and/or opalescent enamel is then applied and fired. Additional layers of foil and enamel are applied until the full gamut and depth of color is achieved. From 12 to more than 100 firings are required to obtain a finished product.