Do I need to do anything special to this?

[PeanutbuttER]

I bought this at Ikea last night and want to use it as a hide for my hatchling. Do I need to do anything special to it to clean it?

Also, I want to put some fake leafs on the front to make it more "cave-like" of a hide. I was thinking of using hot glue, but is there a better way to attach something to terracotta? Hot glue seems to always fall off after a while.

 

[coreyc]

I would just scrub it in hot water maybe sand some of the glaze off before you glue the leafs to it gives it more to grab on to I just looked at it again it does not look like it is glazed is it?

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I don't think it's glazed, or if it is it is something different than my normal orange terra-cotta pots. It's a bit rougher to the touch. I guessed hot water would be the ticket, but wasn't sure because maybe not being glazed the same way makes a difference.

 

[Edna]

It looks like it's made from a different type of clay, such as maybe Indian Brown. It will absorb water because it is unglazed, so gluing leaves on is not likely to work. Drape a vine thing over it, like a curtain? You could also grow moss on/in it. The directions I've found involve blending dried moss with buttermilk, brushing the mixture on, then keeping it moist until the moss takes off. I haven't tried this, but have seen it from various sources and seen lovely examples of pots and sculpture so treated.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I'm not sure what it's made of, but there is a chip on the side and inside the chip you can see the brown color with some flecks of red mixed in.

Moss would be very cool. I'll have to find some in the spring.