In one way or another, each of us builds a series of small rituals throughout life. Some of them change from time to time. But many others, maybe learned during our childhood, become so deeply ingrained in the subconscious that it is difficult to see that they are acquired habits.
If we think about it, our routine is built around hundreds of them. The morning shower, the way we like the coffee and even our clothing, make up a series of ceremonies that are chained to infinity. There are private and common rituals. Sharing a meal is one of those socially associated with enjoyment and celebration as a society. We do not conceive of a wedding, birthday, or any other kind of celebration without some food and drink around the table.
It is in this type of encounter where the seed from which Tina Frey Designs (TFD) was born, is found. Attracted by the functional and aesthetic characteristics of the bowl, Tina began by designing her own to incorporate it into the extensive collection she already had at home: “There is something about the universalness of having a bowl that bridges so many aspects of our daily lives. From gathering the fruit to sharing the food, there is a joint aspect of togetherness and cooking. At the same time, a bowl is an art object. Why is it that a bowl is so special to me? I guess it is because it is so versatile and multifunctional”
Tina Frey’s body of work, use of materials and places where she finds inspiration, draw out her as an anthropologist, as a student of human behavior, of the rituals that all humanity shares, in whose nuances there are small-big abysses that define the different cultures. After sixteen years of activity, Tina has not lost an iota of enthusiasm: “Creating beauty like this is something that is in your soul and you know it from childhood. If I wasn’t doing this company, I would probably still be creating something. It just so happens, this company is the way I can express it.”
In her eternal search between ritual and manual creation, Tina presents a playful object with a deep atavistic charge: a chess where each of the pieces is shaped by the artist’s hands. “So basically it is a chess game with really cool, really simplified pieces. Each piece is very sculptural. I think they would still look cool, even if you didn’t have it on the chess.”
This year, the brand also presents several plates with a small receptacle that, once again, have the functionality present in each of the objects with the TFD signature: “Either for an egg more than olive oil or it can be for your jewelry, there is a multipurpose aspect.”
This subtle movement of the helm in Tina’s designs relies on not working by the same terms as before.“I want to branch out. I’m focused more on art, collectable type objects. From a creative expression, sometimes if it is geared only towards existing customers, there is an expectation. You feel a bit more constrained in what you can and cannot do creatively. I feel like I need to break-out and do something different”. This path includes expanding to different materials but with that same aesthetic. “There is a bronze foundry that is not too far from us in the East, in the San Francisco Bay area, and I am working on my new designs because I would like to get the casts in bronze”.
Despite in this case it is not a game board, for Tina, the design of these pieces is linked to a deeply playful exercise, her own ritual, in which she recreates herself and to which she is inevitably connected. The modus operandi of hers continues to be the same but with the experience accumulated over time guided by one mantra: Not to lose the human touch that makes each piece a truly unique object.
