I have wanted to do this for some long time now, and when I tried I made such a hash up of it, I abandoned the idea, but now you have made me want to try again..

 Do you think there is any where that we could buy a stencil of what we want.....

 All I want is a Q but about 2 inches long, any ideas.. I think yours look great. :-))

 qahtan

The stencil in itself looks good I think. But don't use rice flour, thats the perfect flour when you don't want the dough to stick to a surface.

Make sure the surface isn't too dry. So flour it right after shaping if you're not able to rise in a humid environment that keeps the surface moist throughout the rising period. Don't overuse the flour in the stencil it's not as elegant.

Also if you steam the bread when baking usually some of the surface flour is wetted away but I'd rather have a super crumb than a perfect pattern.

Yes will have to give it more thought.. it would have to be something that will take on the shape of the top of the loaf a bit, so it can't be made of metal, and I don't think plastic would be very good,,,,  I will ask around... qahtan

First I find a nice pattern (in this case, a Chinese character meaning "tea", since I have tea in that sourdough), cut it out on a paper.

Then after proofing, I spray the dough with water, put the paper onto the dough, and shift a combo of AP and rice flour on it

Take away the paper

Score and bake as usual

The pattern really stays, even if I rub on it