Musi Hunt ~ Jeweler

I was born in New York City from Peruvian parents. At age one I moved with my mother to Lima, Peru. At 10, I spent a year in Santiago, Chile where I went to a French school. At 15, I moved to Paris with my mother where I started going to the L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière for drawing. I  spent 4 years submerged in an intense cultural life: Le Louvre, the Musée d’Art Moderne and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs were my favorites.

My love for jewelry started very early with my grandmother’s collection of very beautiful Victorian and Art Deco jewelry. I often asked her to show it to me for my pleasure.

France was my strongest influence followed by Peru, Argentina, Brazil and finally the US. At 20, I returned to Lima where I went to Escuella de Bellas Artes and had Ricardo Grau for a teacher. After Lima I moved to Buenas Aires for 2 years. After a period of traveling I returned to Paris in 1968 for a year where I started  making jewelry but got discouraged and quit.

I moved to New York city where I gave birth to my first daughter and became a  self-taught leather craftwoman. I then traveled to Europe, Moracco and Tunisa. After returning to New York, we spent an adventurous year in a mini van going back to Peru.

From Peru, I went to Guatemala where I met Bernarr Hunt. We joined forces and started making simple jewelry which we sold for 3 years in the plaza in Cusco and at the Pisaq market. We had 3 kids during this time, then traveled to Brazil by bus, truck and train. For a year, we traveled around Brazil in our minivan with our kids and sold our jewelry in fairs and stores.

Then it was back to New Mexico in the US where I was making kids clothes and dolls in addition to jewelry. Then, back to Cusco for several more years before coming back to California where I have lived for the last 33 years in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Ten years ago I started building a house in Brazil in an alternative community where I spend 2-4 months each year working on my next season designs. I work in the mornings and wander around the magnificent environment of forest, mountains and rivers in the afternoon listening to the thunder storms.