The next step in the glazing process is called "dryfooting." No, I'm not trying to make a bad pun.(groan)
To dryfoot a piece of pottery means to wipe off any glaze on its bottom that would touch the kiln shelf. If this isn't done, the melted glaze will fuse the clay pot or sculpture to the kiln shelf. This will probably mess up the shelf, and will certainly ruin the pottery.
With the dragon, I will wipe the glaze off the bottoms of the feet only, using a damp sponge (tool #1).
Clean the inside edges of the finger holes and the whistle voicing with dampened cotton swabs (tool #2). There can not be any glaze left in the voicing or finger holes or the ocarina won't function properly.
The dragon will now look like this.
"Stilts"
So I won't have to wipe the glaze off the dragon's belly and the bottom of its tail, I am going to stilt it. This makes it look better; there won't be a bald spot in the glaze.
The "stilts" I use for this aren't the commercially made stilts that you can buy at ceramic supply stores.
Instead, I use small flattened balls of dried clay for this purpose. I glue them to the feet using ordinary white glue (such as Elmer's). Doing this makes it so easy to load the dragon into the kiln. The glue burns off completely during the firing.
Since the dragon is going to be fired to cone 5, make sure that the clay you use for the "stilts" is rated for cone 5 or hotter. Use the same clay with which you made the sculpture.
Clay "stilts" glued to to the bottoms of the feet.
The dragon's belly and tail are raised up high enough so they won't touch the shelf.
After the glue is dry the dragon is ready to be fired. I fire in an electric kiln to cone 5. If you use a gas kiln, the colors will probably be darker. In any case, there will always be differences between firings, even when the same clays, glazes, and firing temperatures are used.
