Bomb Metal & Fry Jewelry

Bomb Metal & Fry Jewelry (BMFJ) was launched in 2005 in Taipei's Datong district by Peggy Hung and Ting-Ting Tsao, both honors graduates of the Taiwan National University of the Arts' jewelry and metalsmithing program. Their early work was shaped by an enameling workshop taught by American artist Sarah Perkins, and pieces by both designers were selected for the Talente competition in Munich in 2004 and 2005, an international showcase for young craftspeople that brought them early media attention in Taiwan. That exposure helped the pair open their own storefront the following year. The shop's name plays on the two core elements of their practice, metal and jewelry, rendered as the more playful "bomb" and "fry" -- a description the founders use for the physical process of shaping and joining precious metal into their sculptural, sometimes gravity-defying earrings, necklaces and pendants. Tucked into a narrow alleyway in Datong, the space functions simultaneously as gallery, retail shop and working studio, and Hung and Tsao have used it to exhibit and introduce a wider circle of Taiwanese jewelry artists to their audience, mounting shows built around unconventional materials and techniques rather than treating the space purely as a sales floor.