Plastered Too!

July 21, 2009

In thought, the possibilities are endless.

In practical terms there are limits.

When I first laid eyes on the stunning wall drenched with a warm, milky Lake Tahoe Blue, I yearned to bathe my senses in its richness. Stroking, ever-gently the Dakota Red with my quivering fingers, I longed to step into the palate before me and never look back.

The June 2009 Dwell LA Conference http://www.dwellondesign.com/ was where I was first introduced to American Clay http://www.americanclay.com/photos/index.html; where natural is beautiful. Under a spell, I was drawn to unique finishes of what otherwise is just painting a wall with color.

Less than a month later I was enrolled in a nine-hour workshop in San Diego on "The Nitty Gritty of Painting with American Clay". I will admit my excitement of being trained by HGTV design star Jen Guerin www.jgcolor.com was getting the best of me, but I would soon learn as I looked down the barrel of the large paint bucket and the variable speed mixing drill with the mud and resin drill mixing shaft --- I was in for a ride. Pouring the 50 pound bag of Loma plaster as the dust residue rises to ceiling I begin to question my motives here. As I poured water to make the plaster mixture along with the pigment coloring I paused and then grabbed hold of the drill that, like a cup of morning coffee, jolted me back to reality.

However, being surrounded by color in this artsy environment, I had to forge on. Japanese trowels, hawks, slapping on plaster, spreading techniques at low angles the thickness of a credit card. All this is great on a confined surface but I was smart enough to grasp that soon this would have to translate to at least one wall or imagine a ROOM!

Yeah, yeah, yeah the product has bennies: there is zero waste, it's mold-resistant, non-fading, easy to repair, durable, 100 percent natural, it doesn't fade, odorless, quick-drying and has the benefits of negative ions.

But after the prep (same with painting), after the primer is applied, the real work begins. You can paint a wall one or two coats with a roller OR you can spread plaster with a trowel over the wall. Then spread the second coat of plaster with the handheld trowel. And then you can begin compressing the surface by hand with a trowel again or simply use a sponge. But trowel you must. Honestly, I lost interest and strength by the second pass.

And if I am going to paint a wall I will need to purchase that drill that really wasn't planning to be my Better Best Friend! After that I will drop $50 plus on the special sand primer, one bag of plaster around $75, then the pigment maybe another $50 unless you want to consider add-ins like mud glue or Israeli soap or a higher level product at twice the cost.

Still, after all is said and done and done and done... it is unspeakably a beautiful end product.

Maybe today I am still in awe or overwhelmed. Or maybe it's just a little too much too late.