Hi, I usually post in the kitchen forum, but hope you can help a beginner. I am wondering (details below) if you can apply and fire a second glaze to alter the appearance of commercial tiles.

Here is the background. I want to create tiles for my kitchen backsplash that are machine made (thus have nice straight edges), but that are hand-painted (and thus have color variations). I believe this is the way tiles were typically available in the early 20th century.

I am thinking about buying bisque 4.25"x4.25" tiles, and glazing and firing them myself. However, bisque tiles are not cheap! I have found them for about $10/sq. ft. This is comparable in cost to very nice finished tiles.

Cheap commercial 4.25"x4.25" tiles are available for a fraction of this; I have seen them for as little as $0.45/sq. ft., or 20 times cheaper than bisque!

Do you think you can apply a secondary glaze to commercial tiles and refire?

Thanks! Angie