Fortunato Condori Zúñiga - Jeweler of Ben Chelero

Fortunato has spent all his life in San Blas near Cuzco. In 1989, when he was 15, he entered for the first time the studio of his teacher Carlos, who spent three years teaching him the art of working with clay. When his master died, Fortunato met the teacher Alvaro Gerardo, who noticed his exquisite skills in working with clay and immediately invited him to his silver craftsmanship studio. The year was 1992 and Fortunato was still in high school so he spent his days studying and worked in the afternoons. He has now devoted his entire time from these early years until the present day to the art of working with silver.

In 1995 he began studying gold craftsmanship. In 2006 his talent was acknowledged for the first time, he received recognition for his works and invitations for exhibitions, where he won first prize for Best jeweler. But with all this, Fortunato was more interested in the philosophical aspects of his work. He wanted to be not simply a craftsman, but rather a creator of his works.

Fortunato makes all his works on the machines the Inca used more than 600 years ago. Therefore his work is an attempt to preserve the art of the Incas.

In the year 2006, Fortunato met Ben Chelero and was immersed in the idea of making power objects, therefore these works formed a new trend in his work. In 2011 Fortunato became the jeweler of Ben Chelero and started realizing different ideas through his work with silver and gold from the position of power objects.