Profile Ilona Topolcsanyi came to ceramics after a varied career including roles as a travel agent, a dental nurse and at an airline check-in, until one day she enrolled in a pottery class and was hooked. This varied experience has come in handy in building successful ceramics business Cone 11, selling ceramics to restaurants, lighting to architects and now, dishes for people to use at home. Ilona also credits her pottery skills to coming from a family of makers. “My dad's an engineer, my uncles are toolmakers, my brother's also an engineer, my other brothers are chefs,” she says. “So growing up, we made everything. That was already very much implanted in my DNA.”
For partner Colin Hopkins, ceramics is the coming together of two different parts of his life,…
