I always burnish the clay with a spoon when it is
leather hard,before the bisque firing, if i am going
to use shoe polish. Don't have to burnish every crack
and crevass-just the big areas. Then after biswue
firing, I put a coat of black paste shoe polish on and
rub and then a coat of brown or cordavan paste shoe
polish-you know the kind that comes in the little
round tins-looks really good on sculptures.