i recently had the pleasure of stopping by tina frey designs in san francisco’s dogpatch — a thriving and very artistic neighborhood on the edge of the city near the old shipyards. once very industrial, it now houses a lot of design and artists’ studios and it’s where tina frey has found a home for her homewares and accessories studio and showroom. tina’s work is stunning and rather unusual — instead of more traditional ceramic dishware, tina creates her pieces from multi-colored resin. the inspiration for tina’s designs come from many things: The shapes are inspired by organic forms in nature and objects found in travels around the world. The colors are inspired by delicious translucent popsicles, candies, and jelly beans. walking into tina’s studio is a bit like entering a rainbow-colored kaleidoscope. much like her work, it’s so cheerful!

the day i stopped in, tina very graciously gave me a small preview of how each piece is created: she first hand sculpted in clay — Sculpting starts with an idea that is cohesive with the rest of the collection. When the clay design is completed, hand-made molds are created for each object. These molds are then used to cast each item individually by hand in small batches by color. Slight color variations between batches just add to the beauty and uniqueness of each piece. After the pieces are cast and removed from the mold, they are hand sanded. They are truly made with love and care. And while they look quite delicate and translucent, the pieces are quite resilient.

tina uses a cute pastry mat to pound out her clay, and it made me smile that she’s is also inspired by miniature toy animals, and i just loved her sweet collection. tina has branched out from dishware and vessels to jewelry, swings, champagne buckets and planters — all of them completely unique and colorful. you can shop online, or drop by her dogpatch studio and showroom. do stop in if you’re looking to put a smile on your face and meet tina. she’s as friendly and joyful as the art she makes.

• photography by sfgirlbybay.