Helina Tilk Combines Several
Careers into One Busy Life

  TALLINN, Estonia – Sometimes you meet people so accomplished in so many different disciplines you wonder: How is this possible and how do they have the time?

  That’s the feeling I had as I got to know Helina Tilk during a visit to the wholesale ceramic crafts business she owns in suburban Tallinn, Estonia’s capital on the Baltic Sea.

  For background, I Googled her and discovered she had a significant presence on the Web. Her Helina Tilk signature, which adorns each of her ceramic pieces, has a distinct, artsy look. It reminded me of other, well-known signatures of famous artists and designers such as Picasso and Vuitton.

  But fame is not something Helina seeks. Rather, she wants her voice to be heard. That story will come later.

  For now, we focus on how a poor girl from a small coastal town, orphaned at an early age in Soviet-ruled Estonia, has somehow achieved unimagined success.

Growing Up

  Helina, an only child, was raised by her mother. Her father, she said,“was not in my life.”

  Her mother, a gifted seamstress, passed along her talent to her daughter. She died young, leaving Helina to be raised by her aunt, whom she called Maemu.

  Life under Communist rule was difficult. Food was scarce. Options limited. Freedom suppressed.

  For Helina, there was a single way out. She had always loved to draw. Cheap pens and pencils were her instruments as the family could not afford paints and brushes. At 15, Helina decided it would become more than a hobby.

  “I knew I had to go to art school,” she said. “I recognized that was my calling.”

  By then she was attending a German school in Tallinn, where the education system was vastly superior to where she lived. At 17, Helina was among 1,000 applicants to the prestigious Estonian Academy of Arts; she was one of 300 accepted.

  Upon graduation four years later, Helina had a singular goal: “I needed to make money.”

  The rare artist with entrepreneurial acumen, Helina first opened a gallery in Tallinn’s Old Town, where she sold her art and that of her friends. That effort evolved into the ceramic business that she operates today.

  Along the way, she married and, by 1989, had had two of her four children. She and her husband, Harry, bought an old house that required substantial renovation.  But with the Soviets still in power, money tight and food supplies still severely diminished, life remained a struggle.

  “Honestly,” she said, “we had hunger here in Estonia at that time.”

  “Somehow, we survived. I don’t know how.”

Business Expansion

  When the Soviets left the country in 1991, a young, nimble group of Estonians led an amazingly fast transition to a capitalistic marketplace. Helina, now 29, had already begun exporting her ceramics, first to Finland, then Germany, Sweden and, eventually, the U.S.

  Gradually, her business prospered.

  She sold two lines: china, made in Poland and the Czech Republic; and her custom-designed ceramics – coffee mugs, plates, pitchers and saucers - created in Estonia.  It’s the latter that has elevated the Helina Tilk brand.

  “I think my work is popular because each design is different. It is colorful and it features animals and nature,” Helina said.

  She lives her art. Visit Helina’s city home and you’ll find a country setting cluttered with dogs, cats, chickens and pigs.

  “It’s a big place - and quite a mess,” she admitted.

  At this point we’d been talking for around 30 minutes, and I felt as if Helina was an old friend. She was charmingly candid and enthusiastic in her responses. Crow’s feet spread outward from her blue-gray eyes, signaling a frequent smiler. Her long, frazzled blonde hair and colorful paisley dress spoke artist at work. But her obvious attention to detail and precise scheduling underscored one reason for her success.

  As the years went by, her business expanded. In addition to this store – a wholesale operation and painting workshop from which she ships her goods – she ran three successful retail shops in Old Town. The arrival of COVID in 2020, however, punctured her business. She closed two stores, and laid off nine of her 12 ceramic painters.

  “I was crying and thinking, ‘This is the end of my work,’” she said.

  But it wasn’t.

Branching Out

  In 2009, Helina started a summer art workshop for kids. She had remembered what it was like for her at that age, lacking guidance and struggling to secure basic supplies.

  “I give them the freedom to do what they like, and guide them to express themselves,” she said of the three-week course in its 15th year. “Some of them are very talented. And they are really grateful.”

  Tallinn’s tourism organizations, which directed visitors to her Old Town stores, were aware of Helina’s teaching skills. An idea emerged:  Why not start a painting workshop for tourists? Helina had a second, empty building next to her home perfectly suited for her new enterprise.

  “After I thought about it, I realized this is a very good thing to do,” she said. “So, we started it, and it was very successful.   Especially in winter when it was too cold to tour the Old Town.”

  Initially, Helina served her customers coffee and cakes. Eventually, she decided to expand the menu. Aside from art, her two other passions are cooking and travel. [She's fluent in five languages.] The auxiliary building where the workshops are held also houses a kitchen. She began serving dishes of various cuisines she picked up during her travels. Her meals – served with fine wines – elevated the workshop experience and increased her revenue.

  Helina’s culinary reputation spread. In 2019, when director Christopher Nolan arrived in Tallinn to film scenes for his movie “Tenant,” he hired her as the caterer for his 25-member crew.

  “I was very afraid,” Helina said. “But they loved it.”

  Describing her success in the kitchen, she said she has a basic formula: “Everything has to be fresh, good looking and tasty.”

  COVID impacted her painting workshops as foreign visitors avoided Estonia.  To Helina’s surprise, her ceramics enterprise stayed afloat through strong on-line sales. Once the pandemic ended and the tourists returned – although not at pre-COVID levels – her businesses thrived once again.

  Then, out of nowhere, another challenge surfaced.

The Unexpected Activist

  Years earlier, Helina bought a lake cottage 180 miles south of Tallinn near the Lativian border. She and her family enjoyed summer visits there, escaping the frantic pace of their daily lives.

  About a decade or so ago, she began to notice a gradual decrease in the bird population that frequented her wooded property. Upon inspection, she found that sections of the bordering forest had been clear cut. Helina was stunned.

  “It was a natural area. I was sure it had to be illegal,” she said.

  She contacted the Ministry of the Environment. She wrote letters to public officials. Nothing happened.

  “I learned there are people in Estonia with government connections and that they were able to work out backdoor deals to bypass the laws,” she said. “I was so angry I could not let it go. I could not just wait while they are destroying everything around me.”

  In 2014, Helina joined the Estonia Greens. With no seats in Parliament, the party with a liberal agenda has little influence in Estonian politics, relying on public education campaigns and legal support to further its platform.

  Energized by her experience with Greens, Helina ran for city government in 2021. She garnered enough votes, but her party’s dismal performance kept her from earning a seat.

  Since then, Helina has created a grass roots campaign to voice her opinions on issues that concern her. She writes articles for local newspapers, and engages people with opposing views.

  “If I have a problem, I don’t keep it inside me. I want to discuss it,” she said.

  So, what’s the end goal in your career as an activist, I asked?

  “I want to have an audience,” she said.  “I need people to listen to me.”

The Future

  Helina’s days are like clouds; each one is different.  She stays up late and – no surprise – has trouble quieting her active mind.   She rarely wakes before 10. Her first order of business, a daily check list, is her most important.

  “I say to myself, ‘OK, I can do this. I have to do this. I can’t do this.’”

  Harry, her husband, has played a crucial role in her success.

  “I’m the artist. He’s the manager. It’s very convenient for me,” she said.

  To relax, Helina takes long walks with her dogs, preferably in the woods: “Being in nature is like meditation for me.”

 Her children are grown, and she’s a grandmother. Her 94-year-old aunt, Maemu, who raised her, lives with her and her husband along with one of her daughters

  At 62, she’s not sure how much longer she’ll work. I ask what she’ll do when she retires.

  Helina answers without hesitation.

  “I’ll return to my roots and be an artist. Simple drawings using pencils and pens. That’s what I’ll do.”

Editor’s note: Last in a series from a reporting trip to Estonia August 7-10, 2024

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Reported and written by: George J. Tanber

Edited by: Michael Gordon

Photo editor: David Kozy