Cone 11 Ceramics + Design Studio

01/10/2026

The alchemy of making.

Last year I had the pleasure of collaborating with Kearney Group Kearney Group on a collection of ceramic pieces for their new office in Abbotsford.

It was a wonderful project — thinking about how handmade objects could sit within a workplace and become part of the everyday life of the people who use the space. Working with a team who understood the value of making, craft and considered design made the collaboration particularly special.

More recently, I had a long conversation with Annie from Kearney Group about my practice, Melbourne Clay, The Good Plate and, I suppose, the bigger question of why I do what I do.

The resulting article, The Alchemy of Making, has left me feeling quite emotional.

There is something very affirming about having someone listen so carefully to the many threads that make up your work — the making, the teaching, the chemistry, the people, the tableware, the failures and experiments — and then have them reflected back to you so beautifully.

We spend so much time in the studio simply getting on with things that it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.

Reading Annie’s words reminded me that all of these seemingly separate things are actually connected. That the work is about much more than making objects. It’s about sharing knowledge, creating opportunities for others to learn, making things that bring people together, and creating a life around the things you believe are worthwhile.

It was a lovely reminder of the purpose behind all the doing.

Thank you to Kearney Group, and especially Anne, for the collaboration, the conversation and for reflecting my own work back to me in a way that made me stop and really see it.

The Alchemy of Making — link https://kearneygroup.com.au/article/ilona-topolcsanyi-the-good-plate/

AustralianCeramics MadeInAustralia CeramicArtist MelbourneMakers Abbotsford TheAlchemyOfMaking

07/09/2026

Just about to head off on a short break, so feeling pretty relieved to finally get the first of three fish sauce fermentation pots out of the kiln for Anchovy. 🐟

I decorated this one with a bunch of little fish, then brushed the glaze over the whole thing. The inside is a white zirconium-based opaque liner glaze, while the outside is a 50/50 mix of recycled studio trimmings from Walkers PB103 and ash from the restaurant.

I’m thinking I might add a little red iron oxide to the external glaze for the next one and see what happens.

One down, two to go!

21/08/2026

Thanks to Chef’s Hat Chef's Hat for making my niece’s 17th birthday, and her first visit to this hospitality institution, one to remember — complete with her very own personalised chef’s whites and apron. 👩‍🍳

Hospitality is a tough industry, and for women, there can be an extra set of challenges to navigate. But it’s also an industry full of opportunity, creativity, incredible people and the chance to build a career doing something you genuinely love.

Places like Chef’s Hat, as a hospitality store, can make such an impression on young people. Seeing the products, meeting the people and feeling that connection to the industry can be the spark that turns “that looks exciting” into “I could do this.”

A special thank you to General Manager Will Harris, who has always understood the importance of human connection and the difference that making someone feel welcome, seen and encouraged can make. The personalised whites were entirely Will’s idea and were so generously gifted by the Chef’s Hat team.

It’s these little moments that can make a big impression — and perhaps even help a young person see a future for themselves in an industry that has so much to offer.

Here’s hoping this is the first of many adventures in hospitality. ❤️

19/08/2026

Watching cups dry.

13/08/2026

Anchovy
・・・
10 months in the making.

The easy way out would have been sourcing these from Vietnam but that approach would have flown at everything this endevour stands for. This whole fish sauce project is about celebrating both Vietnam and Australia..... where we come from and where we are now, and developing some knowledge integral to this craft here in Australia

Made with lllona from Cone 11 Ceramics, using ash from our restaurant in the glaze. It’s a nice little loop, knowing that the remnants of the things we burn, cook and create at the restaurant is given a new lease of life in another form that feeds back in.

We would like to think that this approach is Viet Kieu. Taking what we know, adapting to where we are, and making something of our own.

Soon, hopefully, filled with fish sauce.

06/08/2026

Whole fish, oval plate. Côte Basque. Check out our earlier video to see how@we turned a round plate oval-ish.

05/08/2026

01/08/2026

So I’ve finally managed to get the shape right for the fish sauce fermentation containers for Anchovy.

I’ve stopped calling them onggi because they aren’t really a traditional onggi shape. They’re onggi-adjacent in their construction and will be fired a little hotter than a traditional onggi firing.

A huge thank you to everyone at Amfora Studio who has put up with me monopolising two wheels for the past week while I squeezed these in between making 300 pieces for Côte Basque. To say it’s been an intense week would be an understatement.

Now comes the next challenge—working out the surface.

I’m leaning towards a white liner slip on the inside, or a white silica matte glaze. If anyone has a glaze recipe they want to share, hit me up. The outside is where I’d like to keep things connected to place: a traditional 50/50 blend of wood ash from the restaurant’s wood-fired stove and locally dug terracotta that’s been dried, processed, and turned into glaze.

There’s something fitting about a vessel carrying traces of the kitchen it’s made for. Now it’s time to make some test tiles and see if the kiln gods agree.

23/07/2026

Chef wanted an oval dish for serving a whole fish.

As soon as he described what he needed, something surfaced from the back of my mind—a demonstration I watched years ago by Andrew Halford. I’d completely forgotten about it until that moment.

It’s funny how knowledge works. You spend years watching demonstrations, talking with other makers, experimenting, failing, and learning. Most of it seems to disappear… until the exact moment you need it. Then, somehow, it’s all still there.

That simple demo became the starting point for solving this design. A reminder that every workshop, every conversation, every hour spent in the studio adds another tool to your kit—even if you don’t realise it at the time.

One of the things I love most about ceramics is that you’re always building on the generosity of other makers who share what they know.

Now it’s time to turn that memory into clay and see if it works.

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09/06/2026

Baked custard .