All, Perkins Observatory has a good old-fashioned "drinking gourd." i.e. it is a real, dried out gourd with a long neck/handle and a hole cut into the rounded part. It was used in the past as a dipper, hence the name. The gourd has a few cracks on it, however, and is a little fragile. I fixed the cracks with a little white glue, but I'm concerned about it getting broken. I would like to coat the gourd with something to protect its surface from wear, and to prevent cracks from forming. I should mention that we use this with our astronomy talks when discussing the "Big Dipper." My thought was to give it a good coating of polyurethane, then spray it down with a flat enamel coating to take away the glossy finish. Do you think this will work? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Martino "I look up to the heavens Assistant Director but night has clouded over Perkins Observatory no spark of constellation no Vela no Orion." http://www.perkins-observatory.org -Enya ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).