I have just come back from completing a "Dragon Fire Sculpture" at the Keramikmuseum Westerwald. I had great help from local children in decorating the dragon. About 20 small pieces, cups and baby dragons, were fired inside the dragon as the sculpture is technically a kiln. The dragon was fired to only about 1000 degrees centigrade as to exceed this temperature would risk collapse. I must remark that the clays used in the making were very responsive to hand modelling and passed all tests in open flame resilience. On the day of the firing I made a door for the kiln with plastic clay and started drying and firing immediately afterward, the door remained intact without even a crack.

See http://www.keramikmuseum.de/e157/index_ger.html