We are a small museum--Wickliffe Mounds Research Center--and we have used a
pottery touch table many times for special events.  However, we always had
someone stand near it to not only supervise it--because it is messy--but to
interpret it as well.  So, will your touch table be where someone can
supervise it?  Or will it stand alone in your exhibit area?  Because they
are indeed messy!  You could try to use a really large, very wide pottery
bowl or a large bushel gourd to keep the raw clay in.  People could touch
the clay.  Then nearby have a paper towel, trash can and germ-X wash up
area.  Are they allowed to make pinch pots to take with them--or only feel
the clay and read the exhibit and see all the stages of making pottery?
We've had great success with our many touch tables, but they are always
within view of staff!
Good luck. Contact me if you have a question about our programs.

Carla Hildebrand
Assistant Director
Wickliffe Mounds Research Center
PO Box 155
Wickliffe KY  42087
(270) 335-3681
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Cooley <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 10:19 AM
Subject: pottery resource room


>Hello,
>    I'm an intern in charge of developing a pottery resource room at a
local
>museum.  I am trying to figure out how to develop a wet clay touch table.
It
>needs to be some type of container with a hole to where visitors can feel
the
>clay without actually touching it, so the clay will not go all over the
room.
>    Are there any museums that have developed a pottery resource room or a
>wet clay touch table?  Does anyone have ideas about how to make something
>like this?
>    Any help or advise would be very appreciated, Thank You.
>        Jennifer Cooley
>        [log in to unmask]
>
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