An Interview with Tove Slotte: One Last Story from Moominvalley
Written by Jahwanna Berglund
images courtesy Moomin Arabia
Few everyday objects carry memory quite like a Moomin mug. Held in the hands and woven into daily rituals, they have become quiet companions to childhoods, homes, and generations of collectors worldwide. Behind one hundred thirteen of these designs is Finnish artist Tove Slotte, who, for more than three decades, translated Tove and Lars Jansson’s original illustrations from the page onto ceramic.
Slotte’s work has always been an exercise in sensitivity: preserving the spirit of Jansson’s drawings while finding new relationships between characters, landscapes, and small, sometimes overlooked details. In doing so, she helped transform familiar scenes from Moominvalley into objects that feel deeply personal, each holding a story of its own.
Her final mug brings this extraordinary chapter to a gentle close. Inspired by Tove Jansson’s 1955 comic strip Moomin’s Winter Follies, the autumnal design centres on the Moominhouse as the family prepares for hibernation. Completing the four seasons of the Moomin’s Day series, it feels both like a farewell and a return home.
When I spoke with Slotte, I wanted to return to where it all began, long before Arabia and the one hundred thirteen designs: to her earliest memories of Moominvalley and the characters that first captured her imagination.
Jahwanna Berglund: You began designing for Moomin Arabia more than three decades ago. Can you take us back to the beginning and tell us what first drew you into the world of the Moomins?
Tove Slotte: I actually grew up with the Moomin stories. My mother read the illustrated Moomin children’s books for my brother and me when we were small, at the beginning of the 1960s, and later on I read all the Moomin novels, and also some of the comic books. As a child, I was fascinated by Little My, and later on I admired Snufkin. I also loved to draw the Moomins as a child, and I drew them everywhere, in the sand with a stick, and in the snow.
About thirty-seven years ago I was working at Arabia as a designer, mostly doing decoration designs. The company hired a new product manager, Christel Vaenerberg, who also had loved the Moomins since her childhood. She planned that Arabia would make a Moomin collection with different items, and she asked me to design the surface decorations on these various items, since we had discussed our mutual love for the Moomins earlier. The first collection, in 1990, included four mugs, a children’s set with a plate, mug, and spoon, six small wall plates, two bigger wall plates with eight corners (later completed with an additional four pieces), and four Moomin figurines. The figurines were sculpted by Tuulikki Pietilä, the partner of Tove Jansson.
JB: Your work has involved translating Tove Jansson’s original illustrations onto three-dimensional objects. How did you preserve the spirit of her drawings while gradually developing your own visual language?
TS: I do hope that I have preserved the spirit of Tove Jansson’s original illustrations in my work. In the beginning, I was very cautious and careful with the illustrations. We promised Tove Jansson back then that we would use only her or her brother Lars Jansson’s original illustrations in the designs. When working so long with the same theme and characters, I suppose you just develop your own style, but I can’t really point out exactly what my style is. I guess it has to do with colours, thickness, and variation in the contour lines, and how to put together different characters and background scenes. Most of the details in a mug design are picked from different illustrations by Tove Jansson, and I guess that’s what keeps the motif ‘original’ and contributes to the spirit of her drawings.
JB: After creating one hundred thirteen Moomin mug designs, did your relationship with the characters change over time?
TS: Yes, I believe it did. At some point I was really tired of Moominvalley, and also of seeing Moomin trolls all over the place, not only in Moomin Arabia’s products, but on all kinds of items, from clothes to sweets and to furniture, and everything in between.
This also caused a reaction in my own design work, which actually made designing more interesting. As I discovered familiar illustrations on different objects in the stores or in magazines, I started to try to find unique illustrations that nobody else had used in their design work. Sometimes it could be a really small detail in a comic strip square that I enlarged so that it would become the main component in a decoration. I didn’t want to make ‘lazy’ designs with easy illustrations. I also became more interested in side characters, because the main character you could see everywhere.
JB: Moomin mugs have grown from everyday objects into cherished collector’s pieces, often connected to deeply personal memories. Did you ever imagine that your designs would become so meaningful to people around the world?
TS: No, I couldn’t see it coming in the beginning. As I don’t think anyone could. It was nothing that was planned and aimed for; it just happened. It feels, of course, extremely nice that I have been able to contribute to these cherished pieces, but I strongly feel that the honour belongs to Tove Jansson. I have never felt that the Moomin mugs are completely my designs; both the shape and motifs of the mugs belong to famous creators, Kaj Franck and Tove Jansson. Not to forget the manufacturer, Moomin Arabia, with its high-quality standards and products.
JB: Your final mug is inspired by Tove Jansson’s 1955 comic strip Moomin’s Winter Follies, showing Moominvalley in autumn as the family prepares for hibernation. What made this particular scene feel right for your final design?
TS: It was obvious that the final design would be an autumn motif, since it was the fourth mug in a season series, where summer, winter, and spring already existed. Tove Jansson has not made many illustrations with autumn motifs, so there was not a lot of material to go through either. In the novel Moominvalley in November, there are lovely pictures, but the Moomintroll family is not included in the whole book. In the comic strip Moomin’s Winter Follies, the beginning of the story takes place during late autumn, so that’s where I found the illustration.
I think the Moominhouse in the illustration is so significant, symbolising a safe space, a shelter, a cosy place to spend the winter. The Moominhouse is in many ways a strong symbol for the values of the Moomins, so it felt so right to include it in this last design. Then, the characters on the other side of the mug, Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden, are originally from a spring scene at the end of the same story, but I attached them to this autumn scenery—those kinds of small changes I have made now and then.
JB: The mug also completes the series of Moomin’s Day designs depicting the four seasons. When you look at the four mugs together, what story do you feel they tell?
TS: I think these four mugs show how the Moomins enjoy the different seasons. They are curious about nature; they explore it, and they admire it, and they also manage to live a life in peace with nature. Eventually, they also learn that winter is not as scary as they first thought, and also that you can change traditions. You don’t always have to do things the way your ancestors did. When I look at the four mugs of the four different seasons, I feel joy about the ability to experience all seasons. It is something that forms us northern people, and the element of nature and its changes is very present in Tove Jansson’s novels about the Moomins.
JB: Did knowing this would be your final Moomin mug change the way you approached the creative process?
TS: No, I don’t think it changed anything. The idea of the mug had existed for a long time. It just felt good to be able to create the final piece in a series, to make it complete. I was also happy that my final mug design was a bit special, both motif-wise and colour-wise.
JB: As you close this extraordinary chapter, what are you most proud of, and what do you hope comes next?
TS: I guess I am most proud of the fact that I have contributed to such a special phenomenon that actually brings very much joy (and comfort) to a lot of people around the world. I have met people who have told me their stories and the significance a certain Moomin mug has for them.
I have already been retired for almost four years, even though this last design was released this summer, so I have kind of stepped into the following phase of my life, enjoying summer days in my garden, being able to take care of my three grandchildren whenever they need it (and enjoying it so much!), travelling a bit with my husband, knitting whimsical animal toys, doing a bit of pottery in my clay studio, where mostly my younger daughter is working nowadays, and a lot of other things, not counting hours or being dependent on time schedules or deadlines, enjoying life so much!
