The Stuff You Need To Do The Thing:

Places To Buy Supplies:

one-stop shops:

A Painter's Collection, supplies paints from Agnes Rynne including matte, metallic, and glass paint. Also sells porcelain blanks, brushes, mediums, and tools.

Maryland China, most blanks are sold by them. Also sells their own line of china paint, mediums, brushes, lusters, supplies, matte compound, enamels for both ceramic and glass, and even a starter kit that I have tested.

DBA Originals, stocks josephine china paints and glass paints, metallic paints, lusters, mediums, tools and supplies, and blanks.

Colorific Porcelain, old-school website with call or mail ordering, stocks Willoughby's china paints (including matte line), glass paints, and enamels. Also sells tools and supplies, mediums, lace draping supplies and porcelain slip for casting.

Sabine's favorite supplies as of 4/15/26:

Paints: depends on the paint. Just like in oil painting, some paints I prefer with different companies.

Brushes: Scharff Aqua Flow wash brushes. Minimal shedding and beautifully smooth.

Mediums/cleaners: for 'fast' drying (dries in a few days), Willoughby's sells a fast drying medium that I have been enjoying. For slow drying, Agnes Rynne Painting/Mixing medium. For cleaning, I use gamsol in a metal plein air container. For deep brush cleaning, The Masters Brush Cleaner - this is amazing for cleaning and reviving brushes from any medium.

Paints

New paints produced in the USA are required to be lead free. Paints from anywhere else MAY have lead in them - imports are much less restrictive. Always check if sellers have a lead free section. ALWAYS buy new if you can! Many if not almost all paints on ebay, etsy, and FB Marketplace listings have paints that are no longer being produced because the company is now defunct or the person who organized the importing died of old age. Like I said in the safety section, the amount of lead isn't enough that should dissuade you from using them, it's the fact that the paints are no longer produced that should give you more caution. Do not fall in love with a vial of paint that you have to beg The Old Ladies on FB groups if they have a specific vial of paint. It will go extinct eventually.

But- But- You're testing some paints that are old and discontinued!

Yes, but my aim is that if an Old Lady passes away near you or you stumble upon a bunch of paints at once, or if you don't care about my safety shpeal, you at least will know what the paints act like on different clay bodies. Sharing is caring, if you see a color you like, by all means go on an adventure trying to get a vial or pouch of it if it is discontinued.

Brushes

Natural hair watercolor brushes. This is the only type of brush you should look for. Synthetic brushes loaded with oiled up china paint on top of ceramics will act like an eraser and not stick to the already glazed surface. Soft, natural haired bristled brushes will give you the softest and least intrusive bristles when painting. Any brush marks that you fire in a kiln will live on the piece forever, so try to get nice brushes, even if it's just 3 sizes of square shaders! If you are using a quill brush (see image to the left) you will need to season the bristles (slather it in an open oil medium and squish the bristles flat) to make them actually act like typical ferrule square shaders.

Synthetic or nylon brushes can be used as a wipe-out tool to clean up lines like an eraser.

Medium

Check out my Mediums page for more medium information, resources, and recipes.

If it's liquid it can be your medium. You can use typical oil painting mediums like linseed oil, safflower oil. Probably not liquin since it is a petroleum product and I think that might do more damage to your brain in a kiln than a saggar firing. Traditionally, china painters used balsam of copaiba resins, pine oil, anise oil, clove oil, etc. There are recipes you can make buy buying these oils from reputable distributors ('clove oil' from amazon or michaels can be just fragrance and a general oil). You can buy mediums from old ladies or china painting companies. You can use laxative. You can use motor oil. You can use a mixture of 7up and water. Should you, is the true question...

Ceramic

You can buy pre-poured and glazed 'blanks' from china painting companies. You can also use any glazed ceramic that you make, or find (thrifting somehow got even better). You are only going up to a MAXIMUM TEMP of 014, most of the time 016, which is much cooler than any low fire ceramic that you might perchance stumble upon while thrifting. While I haven't tested the paints on colored glazes (I hope I can soon of you can share with me your experience), I would think you can china paint on top of any glazed surface. You can also paint on top of any ceramic you make as long as it has been glazed, typically with clear. You can paint on top of bisque, it is a specific technique. Check out the Extra Techniques page for more info.

Colors will be more vibrant on porcelain that uses NZ kaolin (KY Mudworks Kota, Laguna Frost, etc). The less iron in the clay the better.

Brush Cleaner

Like oil painting, you have the option of fully using oils and using oil to clean your brushes, or you can use Gamsol, Odorless Mineral Spirits, or Turps. Oils will protect your brushes longer but take longer to clean. The spirits above are very fast cleaners but can also damage the bristles and brush's structure, and are toxic to you and the environment and waste should be disposed of properly in hazard containers (oil painters are great at starting sudden combustion fires by leaving spirit and oil coated rags around their studio. Do not be like them.) Whatever you use, I recommend putting your cleaner in a clearly marked and labeled container, with a little agitator in the bottom of the jar. Things like the speedball brush cleaning tank or a plein air brush cleaner container work great!

Everclear and Shop Rags

EVERCLEAR?!?!?!?!?

YES!

Everclear is a high percentage alcohol that is great at cleaning glazed ceramic surfaces safely. Before learning about this I was using 97% Isopropyl Alcohol, which can be really bad for your skin if it makes contact. Everclear is safer if it makes contact! Never ingest Everclear, it is extremely unsafe. And if you are under 21, use Isopropyl Alcohol. Also put whatever cleaner you use in a spray bottle, much easier to use.

Shop rags (the blue paper towels in the cleaning or auto sections) are the superior paper towel. If you aren't scrubbing like a madman with the shop rags, you shouldn't have any little fragments come off from the rag. Paper towels leave little bits and fuzzies of itself everywhere, which can get into your paint and make your paint look uneven and splotchy. I use shop rags for cleaning my pieces, and for cleaning my brushes from spirits and oils.

Wet Palette and Mineral Oil/Sewing Machine Oil

Oil painters will know what a wet palette is. Essentially you will need a palette (preferably glass) and a thing to put the palette in that can open and close easily but keeps air out. There are metal encased china painting palettes with glass, you can also use a slim portable project case, or something similar, with glass in the bottom from an old pictureframe.

When you are mixing your paints, they need something to help them go from powder to paint. Mineral oil and sewing machine oil are oils that are meant to never dry out. Those, combined with a wet palette, will ensure that paints you mix today will be usable 10 years later. Never mix all of you paint at once, use little by little. There's no need make more than you need.

Other stuff that doesn't need a paragraph

Palette knife, make sure it's really bendy, this is your paint muller and paint transporter. I prefer RGM.
Glass bottles with droppers for medium. You are never using a ton of medium, a dropper ensures you are going little by little!
Tile for mixing paint on. Mix on tile, transfer to wet palette.
Dip pen with nibs (and 'pen oil' or anise oil if you want to do illustration work). The Old Ladies swear on german nibs. My favorite nibs so far are Zebra Comic Pen Nib from japan and vintage Esterbrook 1000 School Fine Firm nibs.
For the easel painters: rotating easel with a tacky surface. Hard to come by, you can make one or buy one from an Old Lady.

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