Jewelry 10 the Work of Cynthia Chuang and Tsai Erh-ping

Always a treat for the eyes our new pins by Cynthia Chuang and her husband Tsai Erh-ping have just arrived.

These two artists create pins depicting fish, lizards, birds, hippos, ladybugs, chameleons and butterflies. They bring them to life with bulging, expressive eyes of clay slip, voluptuous body sections, tendrils that wobble, slinky bead tails and thin metal legs that jiggle!

The two artists grew up in Taiwan, Tsai attended the National Taiwan Academy of Art in the late 1970s, where he met his wife and creative partner, Cynthia Chuang.


Since they found little creative opportunity in their native land they immigrated to the US and pursued Master's degrees at Parsons School of Design.

After completing their degrees, Tsai and Chuang traveled across the US, visiting museums and national parks. In their road trips, they took inspiration from the subtle hues of rock formations, the colors of fiery fall foliage, the texture of different soils and the strata exposed on hillsides.

The couple began experimenting with jewelry making techniques in 1984 while living in a small New York apartment. As space was limited, their first kiln was very small and located in the bathroom, hidden from the landlord who complained about the mysteriously high electricity bills.

Porcelain and clay inlay formed the body of the first broaches, and Tsai made these using Koji ceramic techniques. The method is found in Taiwanese temple decoration. It is a type of soft porcelain fired at low temperatures.


Our current collection contains dogs, fish, birds and other animals. See a few on our website by clicking here .