I have been painting Ceramic houses and other items for my village collection for about three years. During that time, I have gone through horrible brushes, good and even great brushes, good and really bad ceramic dealers on and off of eBay, and most of all I have dealt with my own lack of knowledge with respect to buying, cleaning, painting/glazing, and finally burning my pieces to Cone 06. Ceramic bisque has been fired to Cone 04 in a kiln- it is NOT greenware. Ceramic dealers will typically not ship greenware because of its fragile nature. Before you even think about buying ceramics, you need to be familiar with what you are buying. Ask the dealer- everyone on eBay is very knowledgeable about ceramics so just ask them before buying. That will save you the hassle in the long run.

When you get your ceramic bisque in the mail, you need to buy some basic cleaning tools- most of which you should be able to get here on eBay. I prefer Duncan tools and paints by far. First you need to get a sponge. I don't mean a sponge for cleaning dishes. Get a craft sponge (I got one from Hobby Lobby because I couldn't find one here on eBay) and dampen it. Do not immerse your bisque in water. The sponge will remove a lot of the excess dust from the ceramic bisque piece. You can get a mushroom shaped sponge or a sponge that looks like a sponge from the ocean. For dust and other such things that you cannot remove with the sponge, use a cleaning tool such as Duncan TL401 or Duncan TL407 Sgraffito-duster. One end of the duster has a scraper to remove dust and other particles that have hardened on the surface of the bisque. The other end of the duster has a brush to remove excess dust. This is, by far, my favorite and most highly recommended tool for cleaning your bisque. You also should purchase sandpaper or a ceramic sanding file that looks like something with which you would file your nails. I use this for sanding down the edges and seams left over from the burning process.

Please see my other guide to painting and glazing your ceramic bisque piece!!