How To Clean Your Antique Pottery Items

For those of us who have some beautiful pottery that looks a little run down there are a few tricks of the trade to bring the life back into your pieces.

Make sure your piece has *NO* repairs before you try any of these methods. If you know that it’s been repaired - *DON’T* take the chance! You may end up with paying to have it restored - again!

Go to your local Beauty Supply store. Buy Peroxide #40 solution. This is very important.

Get a dark bucket or container that your pottery will fit in. Pour the peroxide in to the bucket and then gentley put your pottery into it. *DO NOT* put your hands into the solution! This is a bleach. It will bleach your hands and might even cause burns on some people. Use those heavy duty cleaning gloves if there is a possibility that you might get wet.

If your pottery is very “dirty” it may take a days or even weeks to become clean. Don’t worry about your item. The peroxide will not harm them.

Once your item is nice and clean, wash it with simple dish detergent to remove all the peroxide. Dry completely. Keep those gloves handy!

For the finishing touch on Matte glaze, use “Howard Feed*N*Wax”. A small dot, about the size of the pencil eraser end will work. Put this on a paper towel and go over the whole piece. Wipe off as soon as you finish the piece. This will also help to keep you item from becoming brittle. Don’t get cared away with the wax. It’s supposed to be a Matte finish!

**NEVER use BLEACH!** This will distroy the clay your pottery is made of. Literally eats it from the inside out. If this has happened or you suspect someone might have done this in the past - soak the item in equal parts of water and vinager. Then wash with dishwashing soap. Now check to see if you get the “fuzzies” again. If this happens put it back in the vinager and water solution and soak it longer. Repeat this process until you can let the piece dry out and not get the “fuzzies”.

Pencil like marks on your pottery just never seem to come off? Try a pencil eraser! Slowly and gently start at one end of the mark and erase it. If it doesn’t come all the way off - *don’t scratch at it with anything else* - you may remove the glaze or worse - crack the item.
Hope this helps.

Jerry McCracken
Artisan Antiques