SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES - September 11, 2026 - Tina Frey Designs, the San Francisco studio behind resin homeware designed by Tina Frey, took up residency in Cape Town to work on new work in bronze, through a program run by Southern Guild. Tina Frey set out the reasons for it, and what she intends to make there, in an account published on the studio's site in May. The work continues the Orbit Collection, which the studio first produced in bronze after finding the same foundry, and it takes the designer away from the day to day of running a studio.
The route to it was incidental rather than planned. "My introduction to Southern Guild came in 2024 during Design Miami at Art Basel," Tina Frey writes in that account, published on May 1, 2026. "At the time, I was exhibiting my Meditation Orbs and beginning to think more seriously about the next evolution of the Orbit Collection. I had been exploring the idea of working in bronze, but finding the right foundry felt like a challenge."
That introduction connected her with a foundry in Cape Town, and the bronze Orbit Collection followed the year after. During a later visit she learned that Southern Guild runs a residency program, which offered a way back to the same foundry and the same team.
One reason is the material.. "There is something about bronze that invites that kind of exploration," she writes. "It carries weight, permanence, and history, while still allowing for fluidity and expression." The studio's homeware is cast in resin, and hand-finished, making bronze a change of material rather than simply another finish.
The second reason is time. The studio's founder describes the ordinary condition of running one plainly. "Working in my San Francisco studio often means holding many roles at once. There is the creative work, but also the rhythm of production, emails, and the day to day responsibilities of running a business." The residency removes those roles for its duration.
What she made there stays inside the language the Orbit Collection already uses, which is movement, balance and planetary motion. "I explored forms that feel connected to both natural elements and cosmic forces. Curves, ripples, trajectories. Shapes that echo patterns we see in nature and in planetary motion." The Cape Town landscape is part of that exploration, from the geometry of fynbos and the structure of proteas, to the line where the mountains meet the coastline.
The work was exploratory by design and the studio is explicit that not all of it is intended to become a collection. "In my practice, I often separate more experimental work under what I call The Laboratory," she writes, describing a space for ideas without the immediate constraints of production. In her account, the material there may be explored in ways that might later inform future work, or remain as standalone expressions.
The studio's resin production continues unchanged in the meantime. Each piece is designed by Tina Frey, and each design begins as an original clay sculpture, from which every piece is cast in resin and carefully hand-finished. Because the finishing is done by hand, no two pieces are absolutely identical, a quality the studio treats as the point rather than a tolerance and described as perfectly imperfect.
Her account of the residency, published May 1, 2026, is on the studio's site at https://tf.design/blogs/frontpage/a-new-chapter-in-bronze-entering-the-southern-guild-residency-in-cape-town, and the studio's process is set out at https://tf.design/pages/about.
About Tina Frey Designs
Tina Frey Designs is a San Francisco studio producing useful, beautiful pieces designed by Tina Frey. Each design begins as an original clay sculpture before being hand-cast in resin in small batches and carefully hand-sanded. The collections span tableware, serving pieces, trays, vases and objects, barware, bath accessories, and desk pieces, all created with the intention of bringing joyful serenity to people and spaces through timeless, useful objects.
Media Contact Tina Frey Designs Tina Frey info@tinafreydesigns.com 415-223-4710 Website https://tf.design About the studio https://tf.design/pages/about
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Phone: 415-223-4710
City: San Francisco
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Website: https://tf.design/
