A friend of ours recently moved his ceramic studio from San Francisco over to Berkeley. He has a tiny little space that he's gussied up to fit his needs and done a bang-up job of organizing the goodies he uses to make his art. This being the month of small and cool, we thought you might enjoy peeking inside Derik's lively and small-sized work space.

Situated in a space the size of a small garage, Derik has a full working studio (kiln and all!) snuggled up with a "gallery" wall so that he can display his work while he creates.

The pieces are lovingly dubbed "potato heads" for their iconic shape and their mismatched faces. Derik collects the knick-knacks he uses to decorate his heads from antique shops and flea markets and keeps them grouped by color or likeness in clear boxes for easy access.

On our recent visit, we couldn't contain ourselves and grabbed all of the boxes from the shelf to explore the contents.

Like kids in a candy shop, we couldn't get enough....we love the personalities created by the mismatched objects that make up the clay faces.

Click here for more pictures.

Thanks, Derik!

For more information about Derik's art, contact derikvb[at]gmail.com