The quiet patience, commitment and skill required to bring together the often opposing forces of nature lies at the heart of the Cone Eleven Ceramics. Challenged by the task of transforming clay back into stone, we are daily confronted with many of life's riddles and contradictions. Chief among these is the desire to create contemporary, innovative and culturally relevant works from an ancient material, frequently employing techniques handed down over the ages from artisan to artisan.
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Cone Eleven Ceramics began in 2007 when Ilona Topolcsanyi and Colin Hopkins found themselves in the same year completing their ceramics diplomas at Box Hill Institute. Shortly after they established a studio at the Abbotsford Convent from where they have operated ever since. Along with a marriage certificate, they also share a genuine passion for making high quality, hand crafted objects and based on this reputation have continued to collaborate with some of the Australia's best chefs, architects and design creatives.
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Other significant projects that have been born from the Cone 11 partnership include:
The Good Plate tableware range made in partnership with Bendigo Pottery
Porcelume hand crafted ceramic lighting
Melbourne Clay ceramic arts and crafts school
Extracted from raw earth, envigorated with pure water, wedged, centred, thrown into form and then carefully dried, artfully glazed and kiln fired to over 1200 degrees - from bespoke tableware through to one-off artworks, these handmade Australian ceramics have travelled over vast spans of time and space to be here. We hope you enjoy owning them as much as we do making them for you.
Ilona + Colin
Cone Eleven Ceramics
Shop
We currently have a range of pieces for sale at the Convent Made store at the Abbotsford Convent