I went to a yard sale last weekend and bought a stoneware pitcher for $10. It was covered in paint-- really ugly paint. When I saw it, it was black with some thinly painted metallic pink and orange areas. I wasn't even sure it was an antique at first. But I bought it on the chance it was marked somehow under the paint. I took it home and stripped the paint off. Under the black paint was a layer of white paint with some blue flowers painted on. Since flowers were painted there, I was pretty sure there would be nothing good under that. But I kept stripping it, and here's how it cleaned up so far.
