The cherry pie looks scrumptious. The lattice pastry top is glistening with buttery goodness and the red cherries burbling between the flaky crust strips beckon with their wanton hue and promise of juicy goodness. When is it too soon to break a New Year’s resolution?

Luckily, this delicious dish is guilt-free; in fact, it’s food-free. Instead, it’s a creation of local artist Amy Neiwirth. Taking all that we love to eat and turning it into teeny-tiny sculptures that burst with color and charm, Neiwirth’s odes to yummy are permanent reflections on the culinary experience.

“I think that food is something a lot of people can relate to; sweets especially carry memories with them, memories of childhood,” she said. “Creating these little sweets in real life to eat is an art in itself.”

The sugary pieces also speak to the love/hate relationship many have with the world of sweets. “They’re so pretty, so delicious, so tempting and then they are so bad for you!” she laughed. “It’s like finding this balance between eating the universe and moderation. I think that’s something a lot of people struggle with ... the sweets are aesthetically pleasing to look at and there can be this other layer of meaning – there it is and it looks so yummy and pretty and colorful, but with my pieces, you physically can’t eat it ... you can try.”

The artist hasn’t always been experimenting with clay, or trying to find just the right blush to represent pink lemonade frosting. At the Ohio State University, the Bexley High grad focused on painting, but never found a way for her body of work to “make sense.” The combination of being between jobs and living in a small apartment inspired the artist to start working with polymer clay, “I was selling these little food beads on eBay and a friend said to me, ‘Your jewelry is so cool, why don’t you make art like your jewelry?”

In addition to her own Sweet Stella Designs (which she created in 2006), Neiwirth is an art educator at a local private school and annually curates the Yummy art show. “There were a lot of themed shows happening at Junctionview [Studios] at the time and I was thinking, I make art about food and I bet there are a whole bunch of people who have at least one work about food,” she said, describing the impetus behind the popular event. “We can have the show be for a good cause. For the first opening, people were asked to bring non-perishable items for the food bank and we also had donations set up. We raised several hundred dollars for the food bank and we’ve done that for the last three years. So it’s something fun, something meaningful. It’s interesting just to see all of the different perspectives each artist has when it comes to food.”

When it comes to inspiration, Neiwirth just thinks about the foods she would like to eat. She also has to consider what translates well to her medium. “There’s just some foods that won’t work,” she explained. “Recently, I made some little Christmas cookies and I thought, ‘Since I’m Jewish, I should make a plate of latkes.’ But they didn’t look like latkes and they didn’t look delicious. I tried to put sour cream on them and it was like, what is this brown thing with the white blob on it?”

Neiwirth’s new pad in Olde Towne East is filled with local art and the books are arranged by color. “I know, I’m a geek,” she giggled after pointing out the rainbow book tower. Her gray cat Stella sleeps soundly and the studio attic looks out over the streets that today echo with the voices of kids on holiday break.

“Having my studio at home is awesome,” she said, taking in the cluttered view of Utrecht shopping bags, boxes of her creations and one large cat tree. “Junctionview was a great community, but there was something frustrating about the open ceilings and having dust and dirt all over my work if I left it out. Having everything consolidated – I can make the stuff, I can go downstairs and bake it ... it’s all streamlined and then when we have a snow day, I can make some hot cocoa and come up here and work, I don’t have to worry about getting in my car and going somewhere.”

Sweet Stella Designs are featured around town in places like Wholly Craft, and also in small indie shops in Massachusetts and Illinois. The big coup lately was getting her work into the Columbus Museum of Art gift shop. “That was a huge goal of mine as long as I’ve been making jewelry. I have my mom to thank for that because she is so cute and just strikes up conversations with people and hands out my business cards,” said Neiwirth. “She did that at the CMA gift shop and they wound up contacting me.”

Surrounded by Tinkerbell-sized cakes, pizza slices and the odd falafel charm, Neiwirth’s inedible art has gone from occasional tinkering to full-blown endeavor. “I didn’t even imagine I would be known for anything art related,” she mused. “Now that I’m trying to work in a more recognizable style where people can look at it and say, ‘Oh wow, that’s Amy’s.’”

To get a taste of Neiwirth’s work, visit www.sweetstelladesigns.com.