titiMadaming in London town!

Haha another rope of months (can I actually say that?) has passed… I think most of you have forgotten that my blog even exists but I decided to carry on writing again... This is very good therapy. Facebook has stolen all my spare time I have online BUT that will change now.


(This is Fred)
To begin with I need to talk about titiMadam. The trade show we did in June went amazingly well. We got loads of interest and the 9 deals we signed there have now grown into 48 different retailers all around Europe, I really want to hit 50 before Christmas…





We did another trade show last September that went really well as but I think the biggest news is that we decided to buy our own laser cutter. It is called Fred as it is massive, red and has bad temper and it lives in Mentmore Studios close to London Fields where Adam and me are taking care of it. Or more like Adam is taking care of it, I just try deal with the customers and PR side of the business. The business is running very smoothly and that is what I’m mainly doing now. The new collection is coming out in January, website business is doing quite nicely and over all we are making a living from our animals, which is quite amazing feeling!



Summer in Finland... aaaaah!

After the nice long holiday in Helsinki I moved to Hackney where I share a house with Inka & Signe (plus few mice that I haven’t met yet, but heard that they are quite annoying creatures). Inka is Emma’s old friend from Finland and Signe is from Copenhagen. Things are great in the house, I love living here and London has pretty much stolen my heart.


For those who remember that I got a place to do my MA in Eindhoven, I still haven’t decided to go or not… I put it on hold for this year and I need to decide before January will I go there or not. But the thing is that the ‘design burnout’ I had after handing in the major project is still there and I don’t think I want to study furniture or product design anymore. HELP!
I actually feel like doing/studying something else. I definitely want to do MA but I’m more interested of interiors or something else ‘furniture related'. I’ve done some research about MAs in London and there are where to choose from but I’m a bit afraid if I decide to skip Eindhoven I will regret it in some point. Oh well, will see.

The project I did in uni got amazing response already at New Designers. The desk has been published in many magazines around the world (the best being Wallpaper, January issue), I exhibited in few places during London Design Week in September and in January I should pack the desk and go to Birmingham for a design show. I'm shortlisted for the Young Designer of the Year Award and the winner will be announced there. In February I’m going to Germany for another design award ceremony… So lot of things are happening with my products even though I’m not so into designing more at the moment.

Now Christmas is here again… It is amazing how fast time goes… It feels like ages ago when I lived in Rochester and so many things has happened. Now lets just wait for the next chapter to begin! I have started wearing high heels, I’m into cooking (thanks to Jamie Oliver) and I’m really keen to learn how to knit. My 30’s here I come!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Ps.I went to Paris again few weeks back with Inka. I saw all my French fries there and the city was as brilliant as always. But visiting and meeting so many people from Budapest made me think how much things has changed after the great months we shared there. I met amazing people and learnt so much… I miss those times. Puszi to my Budapest!

Tiina is a bachelor

Last Friday was our major project’s hand-in day. We’ve been celebrating for few days now but today has been the first day I’ve had time to think that my life here in Kent is basically over. Which is sad! It is time to move on and once again an important chapter in my life is close to the end. I’m going to stay here until the end of July then I go to Finland for three weeks or so. I really need a holiday and to think something else than design, actually think something else than anything to do with design.

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Anyways, I’m so proud about all of us. People made some amazing work and projects here and nobody went crazy or flipped because of the stress, and if someone did it only lasted a minute or few.


It is a bit depressing to think I’ll never sit in Kbar again and drink that awful Carlsberg they have in the taps, I’ll never again get a hummus sandwich from subtop OR I’ll never sit in the studio until eight o’clock with Adam. I’m wondering how will the second year students cope without us there..?

These years have been amazingamazingamazing and I have to say that all the people made it as great as it has been. So big kiss to all of you. Actually the whole spring has been great. We had the best vappu ever here. We celebrated for three days just chilling, barbecuing and enjoying the weather. Summer came here really early, but now it is gone again..



I actually feel a bit like when I left Budapest, but in a bigger scale. I just read some of my old posts from my blog, one year ago I was watching ice hockey games in Hungary and cheered for Finland during Eurovisions (and again we did not win gold or the song contest… thank god we bet Sweden though, hihi). These past few months have been brilliant. I haven’t had this much fun in a while. Maybe it is the spring, or the excitement of graduating…

Ok, really depressing text. Lets move on.

My major project turned out to be the best thing that has ever came from my head. 15 weeks project is really long and in some point I was so sick of it thought it was absolutely bollocks, but after Iiro took some amazing images of my table I totally changed my mind. It is just a big difference to see your work in pictures.




The idea is that you can move the green and white steel parts around the desktop so that you can create your own workspace and add things on it as much as you like. I had some problems during the making process, but everything clicked in the end. The desk is still on a prototype level, but I’ll fix it for New Designers.

titiMadam website is finally working. It still need a bit of fixing but you can buy stuff online now. We got a deal from a shop called LUX in Helsinki (Uudenmaankatu 24) and another deal from Paris. Some people contacted us after they saw our designs online and asked could the start selling our jewellery in their shop. That is cool.

Also we are doing a show called Pulse in Earl Court in the beginning of June. We made a really fast decision with it but thought that doing a trade show would be the best thing for us. Hopefully we get loads of contacts and sales and this titiMadam thing would really start to kick off! So thumbs up people.

Ok, I carry on cleaning now. I’ve been going through my stuff and throwing so much things away. I definitely have the same problem than my grandmother had… I keep and collect everything!

No more excuses

I just had a look at my blog for the first time in months. Obviously lot of things has happened after last December, my personal and ‘professional’ life needs lot of updating. Also I’ve had angry feedback from Hungary, Chile, Finland and England because I haven’t been writing that much… So lets start!

After visiting Helsinki in December I went to Budapest in January. The city was as amazing as ever. It was absolutely freezing there but Szimpla and spas kept us warm. We spent crazy 10 days celebrating memories and having fun with Andrea, Attila and few other people I met during last spring. I truly had missed that place. Charles, a second year student from UCCA is there at the moment going through all the fun I did. I’ve understood that he is enjoying it as much as I did.

In the end I managed to finish my minor projects. Corian should have done the sink by now (so much for the deadline in January). I will know more about that tomorrow. I changed the decorative pattern in the end. Now it should be more functional and I think it makes more sense as well. The design divides people in two parts. One half says, like my darling sister, that the grooves are a devil to clean and the other half seems to think that the pattern is beautiful and functional. Well, it was never meant to be a sink for housewives or cleaning enthusiasts.

I participated in Royal Society of Arts Design Directions competition with the sink and got shortlisted in Ceramic Futures division. I did not won but earned honourable mention and my design will be in on their online exhibition. I’ll send the link as soon as I get it. Also my Stor chair got shortlisted in a competition by Dwell UK. They were looking for new ideas for their range. They have not announced the winners yet so keep your thumbs up!



My Darlings project (second minor) turned out to be more like a research project about stereotypes in furniture and other every day objects. I carried on the first idea of Darlings bench and started working from old and salvaged items. I ended up with 5 different wine glass designs that I’m not so happy about but I really like the chair I made. I got excellent feedback from both of my projects and I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to get everything ready on time.



I don’t think I ever mention about my urgent need and wish to do my masters straight after I graduate from UCCA. Well, I applied to three different places, to Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu in Helsinki (I don’t know why.. I’m not ready to move back to Finland yet), to Royal College of Arts and to Design Academy of Eindhoven. I got as far as the interview in RCA. By far the scariest experience in my life. I was sitting in same table with Ron Arad and Jurgen Bay among with other big names talking about my work. Or it was more like a quiz about my creations. It felt like being in Xfactor or Dragon’s Den. Seriously. I can’t remember that much about the 10 minutes I spent there.
In the end I did not get in there but the great news is that I got accepted to Design Academy in Eindhoven. I never ever thought I could get in there. I went to visit the place few weeks ago with Adam. We jumped on a plane and spent one day there wondering around my future hometown. The university is great! The building is an old Philip’s factory with most amazing faculties. I got really good feeling about the uni, one of those heureka! moments when you just realize that this is what I should and want to do. During the interview there I got this feeling that the people were truly interested and fascinated about my work, a feeling that I did not have after the interview in RCA. They interviewed 4 people from 40 that day and I was one of the few who got in. I heard there were 240 applicants in total so I did well. So that is the big news. The program starts in September. Now I should figure out what to do during the summer.

titiMadam is doing really well. Our website should be up and running anytime soon and we have expanded to Finland and to France with our animals and rings. We really want to get everything working with Adam before I go to Eindhoven. Check www.titimadam.com after few weeks and tell me what you think.

Otherwise life in Rochester is same. I know already that I will miss that place a lot. I will graduate in few months, which is totally unrealistic feeling. Time has gone so fast. I just keep thinking back what I have done during these years… Lot of things to be proud of, I think.

Well, that is it for now. I should be in bed already.
I promise to update more often. Now when I have ‘time’… yeah right.

Short update before I go home for Christmas

My life has been pretty much sitting in front of my computer for the past month, one of the third year pleasures: DISSERTATION. Pffff… We handed in our first draft today (JEEEEE!), so now I can breath for a while. I still have few thousand words to go but most of it is done.



Otherwise uni work is going quite well. I finished my sink model, now I’m waiting for Corian DuPont to manufacture it. I’m quite happy with the final result. The drain groove pattern will be a bit different in the actual produced object. I’ll post pictures as soon as it’s ready.
My second minor is about ‘stereotypes of everyday objects’, why chair is like it is or why wineglass looks like it does… It is not that interesting when I write about it but my models are quite funky, you’ll see in January.



I visited Paris again last month. I was finally brave enough to take the train between England and France. I didn't see any fishes under the channel though. :(

I’m so happy to go home. I miss Helsinki loads and even though Nora is sunbathing in Thailand I’m thrilled to go back home for 10 days and see Suvi, Anne and the kids plus the Helsinki night life is calling my name.

Hmmmm, maybe I’m getting old, feeling homesick is not really like me at all.

It is really weird to think that this is my last time that I leave Kent for Christmas. This place, our beloved Chatham, is very special after all. I don’t know do I love it or hate it, will I think about it as a great place or just as a chav centre?

titiMadam is taking a quite a lice of my time. We’ve had four sales so far and the stuff is literally disappearing from our hands. We have loads of new colors ans designs. Now we are looking for a retailer from London, Paris and Helsinki.
It is a shame we cant spend more time on it, because we are actually making some money with Adam.




On 27th of December I will take over BUDAPEST with Yann. I cant wait.

Happy Christmas everybody.

140 Roro St, Martino, Darlings & titiMadam

Woah, now I’m really sorry that it has been this long. BUT I have my excuses as usually. Now it’s because university started and my whole life rhythm changed. It’s hard to think where to start…. Lot of things has happened and I spent most of my time in uni.

Well, Naroa, Vanessa and mine plans to move in together crashed because it is absolutely impossible for three international students to rent a reasonable house in Medway. You cant imagine how much trouble we went through.
Everything ended well though, Aingeru got a job in New York with Phil Poynter so I moved in to 140 Rochester Street to his old room with my favourite boys in England: Anton, Erno-Eric and Toby. Vanessa and Naroa found another house with two girls from Cyprus. I even got Toby’s room (the biggest in the house) BUT I paid a BIG PRIZE for that. I promised to make all Toby’s dished until Christmas. And boy, you don’t know how much that boy likes to cook…So I wash lot of dishes and eat excellent food every other day. Living in this house has been absolutely amazing. There is a lot of energy and my boys are good company.

Martino Gamper’s exhibition 100 chairs in 100 days was held in the beginning of October. Everything looked great and it was quite amazing feeling to see furniture I have done with him in a real exhibition. I was very proud of myself and all the sanding sweat was worth it in the end. The exhibition was published in manymanymany design magazines and it got lot of attention.



I don’t know do you remember the competition I entered in the summer? Here is the link for those who hasn’t seen it yet: http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=18&item_pk=14410&p=1
I didn’t win it but my Darlings bench was exhibited in Milan last month and will be shown in Design Miami later this month (if I’m not totally lying.. I cant remember was it this or next month). They also published book about all the shortlisted designs. So that ended well in the end!





My wonderful mother turned respectful 60 years last month. She looks like 45, I’m telling the truth!! I hope that runs in the family..
Anyway, we went to celebrate her with Yann (who fell in love with Finland and my family fell in love with him). I tried to show everything worth seeing in Helsinki during the few days we had in my hometown. It was absolutely freezing weather so we couldn’t really spend that much time out. We ate, partied and slept a lot!
My French frie came to Roro for the very first time two weeks ago. He took it quite well. No shock because of chavs, or the lack of French wines in the local shops. Yann even ate English cheese, well he eats anything really so that is not that big surprise…

Being back in Roro doesn’t feel that bad. Actually it has been great to be back in uni. We have two minor project before the major project, which starts in January. I’m working on with this kitchen sink ‘thingie’. I think it will be quite nice if everything goes as planned. I just found out few days ago that Corian will sponsor me to manufacture the sink properly. That’s great news for me! Johnny will shoot pics this Wednesday so I’ll post some as soon as I can (I promise it will happen before January 2008).
Time is just going so fast that I don’t know how to manage everything.

Now I have to promote little bit. Me and Adam got crazy idea few months ago, which includes me, him and beautiful and simple design work.
Now things are really starting to happen.
titiMadam (you spell it like that) was established last month. Titi comes from my nickname I got from primary school and Adam was teased as Madam around the same age. So together it makes titiMadam. We make simple and beautiful objects for everyone who loves purity, traditional mixed with a hint of kitsch and simplicity.



Our first project is acrylic jewellery that we design and manufacture to raise money for New Designers show next year. Here are some images about our wonderful rings. If you possible want to buy some with ridiculous prise (from to 2 to 3 pounds) you can email to titimadam@gmail.com.
We will have webpage, etc later on.


Our uni is really excited about our project so there will be some stuff on UCCA’s homepages as well.
We sold our jewellery for the first time last Saturday and they were absolutely loved!!
So everybody who has heart and will to support students go to www.myspace.com/titimadam.



I think that’s it for now. I promise to update my blog more often now.

PUSZI!!

Oh-lalaa, September came!

Coucou, I’m sitting on my bed in Holland Park. I just finished packing because I have to be ready for Roro ( = Rochester by Yann) tomorrow afternoon. Blaaaah, that hole in Kent doesn’t really tempt me that much but I cant wait to get back to uni and do my things. This year will be a bit different than the first two because we have lost three important links from our group to the big cities of the world. Annuska and Mikko escaped to London and Aingeru took off to New York City for good. *tear
I faced ‘freedom’ almost three weeks ago. I stopped working at Mexicali and at Martino’s. I also said goodbyes to Da, my fab co-worker and lost my camera to Atlantic (it was attacked by sea salt). *tear vol. 2
Be sorry for our losts.

I came back from my tour de France last night... Spending two weeks just chilling, cider-ing and thinking about nothing school or work related made my mind believe that that will go on forever. Well, of course it didn’t and coming back to reality wasn’t that nice. I was so happy in France even though I got a horrible flu on Saturday and been fighting with it ever since (with some crazy French medicine that makes me so tired that I could sleep while standing).
BUT my trip was absolutely amazing. We spent one week in Paris and the second week we travelled around Bretagne and Atlantic Ocean.
Paris was as great as ever… I’m not going to bore you with my happy moments there. I’m sure you all will hear enough about them face to face.
I saw only Fishte (Galate) from our Budapest crew this time. Elfie is in Cyprus, Francoise in China and Bozan in Istanbul… so not so much my french fries left.
We did one think I’ll surely remember forever. We rent bicycles with Yann and drove through Paris by night. BEAUTIFUL. Paris is quite petite after all.

On Sunday I tasted little bit of the ‘hate’ that two French cities have against each other. Yann took me too see football game, the biggest of the year, Paris against Marseille! Now you all think: ‘Tiina has gone crazy…’
Jajaja, gals it wasn’t that boring. Actually football is quite amusing… especially the audience. I never seen so many French fries jumping up and down on their chairs at the same time. It was like watching the biggest cheerleader group of the world.
The game ended 1-1 (Yannou don’t get angry if I got that wrong), so satisfying result for both teams, I think. And I saw French chavs!! Can you believe that!? There they were with their football caps on the stadium looking like they had escaped from Chatham.


On Monday we took off to Penerf. We made a stop in La Boule where Yann’s younger brother works. The longest beach in Europe is there and on our second day we actually had a change to enjoy some sun. From that day I didn’t see that much clouds on the sky. The weather was more than I was hoping for… I didn’t believe in Yann’s strong expectations about September being the best month of the summer but we got lucky.
From La Boule we continued to Penerf. I’m deeply in love with that village. We ate, cycled, ate, drank, ate and cycled all week and got ready for the ocean.


On Saturday morning me and portion of fries packed our selves on a sailboat. I was told that the reason I was actually ‘accepted’ on this masculine adventure was that the guys didn’t want other people to think they were gay (really they wanted a cleaner/cooker/someone with high voive in case of emerengy). Ok, like you know I'm kidding. The boys made an exellent team together.

It was great to be on the sea. I missed that a lot. Like you know I haven’t had a change to really enjoy this summer so the boat trip was a perfect ending for my tour. We visited two islands, Hoedic and Belle Ile. During the whole weekend I didn’t feel like being in France at all. My narrow mind had always made me believe that France is baquette+red wine+football+eiffel+napoleon+politics=arrogancy.
Well how wrong I was.. The nature in Hoedic was amazing. There are only 100 people living on the island through the whole year so maybe you can imagine how small everything is. It is full of empty beaches and the sea is so green, no it is GREEN… Belle Ile was more touristic but equally beautiful. We rented a scooter with Yann and drove around the island. We stopped to see some of the most prettiest views I have ever seen in my life.

But everything good has to come to an end. What a boring cliché but so so true.



Let the real life start then. Summer is gone.

St. Margaret's at Cliffe

Last Saturday Annuska, Da, Adam and me made a road trip to Dover (or close to Dover). We had a mission, one mission only: to take pictures of my Darlings bench and Kanava candleholders. Hopefully the pictures will be published soonish, meaning later this autumn. We had quite ruff morning... Da, our super model, had superhangover but he did very well in the end. Then we had some problems fitting into Adam's tiny car. I didn't really consider the transportation when i designed Darlings.

Well here are some pictures of our fun day and a video clip about a great danger we faced..

Enjoy!

The final pictures you will see as soon as Mrs Dal Maso developes them!