Pasler Ceramic Stains, 60g Each Color, Pigment Powder for Making Underglaze, Pottery Glaze, Ceramic Glaze or Mixing with Slip/Clay (12 Color) Review (2026)

Who reaches for a 12-color stain set

Pasler's Ceramic Stains are pigment powders, not finished glazes, so this set is built for potters and ceramic artists who already mix their own underglaze, glaze base or colored slip and want a wider palette to work from. Twelve colors at 60g each is a working studio quantity, not a sample size, which matters if you are coloring a full batch of slip for a run of mugs or bowls rather than dabbing test tiles. Complete beginners who just want to paint a finished piece out of the box are better served by a premixed underglaze bottle. For anyone building recipes, testing color response on different clay bodies, or running a small production studio, having twelve stains on the shelf means fewer separate purchases and more consistent color across a project once you have settled on ratios that work.

What is actually in the jars

Each of the twelve jars holds 60g of dry stain, sold by Pasler Art Supplies and sent from Amazon fulfillment. The stains are meant to be mixed into slip or clay body, blended into a glaze base to create a colored glaze, or combined into an underglaze recipe, then applied to bisque or greenware with a brush, dip or spray depending on your recipe, and left to dry before firing. Because it is a raw pigment powder rather than a ready liquid, there is no fixed dilution rate printed on the jar. You decide the ratio based on how strong or pastel you want the result, which is exactly the flexibility that makes stains useful once you know your kiln and clay body, but a blank page if you have never mixed one before.

Living with a stain set in a working studio

Using stains well means owning a gram scale, keeping notes, and testing before committing a full batch. Weigh a small percentage of stain against your dry glaze or slip weight, mix a test tile, and fire it in your normal cycle before scaling up, since color response shifts with clay body, glaze base and firing temperature. The dry powder form is an advantage for storage since it does not separate, skin over or go bad sitting on a shelf the way a premixed liquid underglaze can, so a school or studio can buy once and use the set over many terms. The trade-off is dust when scooping and weighing, so work over a tray, keep lids on, and rinse tools between colors to avoid muddying your palette.

Where it falls short and how it compares

The listing does not print firing ranges or cone recommendations for each of the twelve colors, so you are expected to test in your own kiln rather than trust a number on the jar, which is a fair criticism next to boutique single-color European stains such as Cobalt Blue or Crimson Red pottery pigments that publish more detailed cone data per jar. Against a single half pound jar of Ceramic Stain Powder from Ceramic Supply USA, this Pasler set trades depth on one color for breadth across twelve, which suits someone building a varied palette over buying one large jar of a single hue. A basic Mason Stain Kit aimed at first-time buyers offers smaller sample amounts if you only want to experiment before committing to full-size jars.

Verdict for studio shoppers

Choose this set if you already mix your own slip, glaze or underglaze and want twelve working-size jars of pigment rather than a handful of tiny test samples, and if you are willing to run your own test tiles before trusting a color in a full firing. Skip it if you want a paint-and-fire underglaze straight from the bottle with no mixing or testing step, or if you only need one specific hue and would rather buy a single larger jar of that color. For a home studio or a school program cycling through many students, the combination of quantity per color and long dry shelf life makes the value case strong, even with the extra homework of dialing in your own recipes.

Frequently asked questions