Steve Hoffman

PS: I'm told we fire at cone 5/6.

Thank you for your quick reply. I'm brand new to ceramics and don't know from glazes. On a past project, an experienced ceramist had mixed up some brown stain that worked well for that piece and I thought it might be a good base for this one. She advised that I only had to mix with water. Perhaps I'm not investigating the correct stains here. However, I like your suggestion of using crawl glazes. That might do the trick. I will look into that option.

I have a bisque fired piece textured intentionally to be rough and knarly. I want it to look distressed. No shiny glazes. Think of alligatored paint flaking off a weathered board. I'm experimenting with test tiles of the same texture. If I apply a dark stain for the base color, can I dry brush a matt underglaze over that? Is there any reason they wouldn't play nice together? Are there types of materials that should not be combined this way (for example, should I avoid stain A and underglaze B because a nuclear explosion might result)? Does the stain have to dry for a minimum period before overcoating with the underglaze? I am open to ugly final finishes because this piece is supposed to look worn out and threadbare. But the final product has to be intentional so I can control it on the next piece. Any thoughts?