Artistry with Clay & Lime
Artistry with Clay & Lime Workshop
This 4-day workshop is a collection of the artistic and decorative techniques that we personally use in our finishing of buildings. The emphasis is on natural wall finishes with a focus on clay and lime plasters and paints in that they are in some ways the foundations upon which many other techniques are built. Processing, mixing and applying these materials are strong components of the course.
The course explores the many different ways clay and lime can be combined with a variety of aggregates, fibers and additives along a continuum that ranges from dense and heavy to very thin and light. On one end of the spectrum one finds the heavy materials such as cob, earth floors and clay concrete-like mixes, towards the middle are straw clay blocks and plasters while on the other, paints and thin polished plasters. Time is also dedicated to sculptural designs, moldings and carved plasters as well as clay furniture. A fun and enjoyable course packed full of information.
* The course begins with orientation and dinner Wednesday evening and ends Sunday 5 pm.
- Clay basics
- How to determine if your soil has enough clay.
- Learn how to efficiently mix a high-straw sculpting mix and how to apply with wood floats.
- Mixing of clay-sand plaster mix.
- Japanese trowel use and care.
- Application using Japanese wooden hawks.
- Application practice on personal towers.
- Canelo tour of finishes.
- More application practice.
- Mixing of finer clay plasters.
- Start build-up for carvings.
- Build up more plaster carving layers
- Lime fresco
- Carving
- Lime and clay-lime plasters.
- Polishing clay finishes
- Clay paints
- Look at other ways to stabilize and seal.
