Lath and plaster

“ Plastering is also carried to a perfection in Italy, of which we have very little idea in this country; rooms are so exquisitely finished, that no additional work in the shape of house-painting is required; but the polish of the plaster, and its evenness of tint, are such as to rival those of the finest porcelain. Sometimes the plaster is fluted, or various designs are executed in intaglio upon it, in the most beautiful manner. ”

“ Plas′tering, the art of covering the internal faces of walls, the partitions and ceiling of a building, with plaster: a covering of plaster: the plasterwork of a building; Plas′ter-stone, gypsum.—adj. Plas′tery, like plaster, containing plaster.—Plaster cast, a copy of an object got by pouring a mixture of plaster of Paris and water into a mould formed from the object; Plaster of Paris, a kind of gypsum, originally found near Paris, used in building and in making casts of figures; Porous plaster, a plaster for application to the body, full of small holes, which prevent it from wrinkling. ”

“ Foliage and ornamental work in plaster is made by modelling the ornaments by hand, in a proper kind of clay, worked by steel or wooden tools, resembling small spatulas in form. To do this requires a taste and skill in drawing or designing in the workman, which raises him to the rank of an artist. When the model is finished and dry, the surface of it is covered with a thin coat of oil, and a mould of fine plaster is taken from it in separate pieces. ”

“ The part where the artist decides to begin his work is uncovered, that is to say, a portion of the paper is turned down and cut away, but in such a manner that it may be replaced. Then the plasterer puts fresh plaster, about an eighth of an inch thick, upon the uncovered portion of the wall, and the plasterer’s work is of the utmost importance in fresco painting. ”

“ Rough places in plaster take more color than a smooth wall, hence they are liable to show spots; so it stands you in hand to make such places smooth as possible; to do this take off the rough sand with sandpaper and knife or trowel on a thin coat of plaster paris, or give the rough places an extra coat or two or size. Fill all cracks and holes, and give the filling time to dry before putting on the size, because otherwise it will take more color than the balance of the wall and your work will look spotted. ”

“ All the fine plaster with which the walls of the houses are covered in India, and which is so much admired by strangers, is composed of a mixture of fine lime and soapstone, rubbed down with water: when the plaster is nearly dry, it is rubbed over with a dry piece of soapstone, which gives it a polish very much resembling that of well-polished marble. ”

“ Plaster-casting in General
It is not a difficult matter to reproduce in plaster almost any object that has no undercut or parts that will not easily detach from a mould. When making them, the first thing to do is to get a piece of board about a foot square; that is to work on, so as not to soil the table. Then you want a lump of clay about as big as a football, five or six pounds of plaster of Paris—it only costs three cents a pound—and a half-dozen wooden pegs. ”

“ Architects and those interested in the erection of new houses have frequently looked upon the application of plaster as one of the greatest drawbacks of modern building, showing, besides, a marked deterioration from old plaster-work, such as that found on walls of ancient buildings, some of which, of a highly decorative character, may still be found almost as sound as when first executed. ”

“ XV. Evidently, then, painting, confessedly such, is no deception; it does not assert any material whatever. Whether it be on wood or on stone, or, as will naturally be supposed, on plaster, does not matter. Whatever the material, good painting makes it more precious; nor can it ever be said to deceive respecting the ground of which it gives us no information. To cover brick with plaster, and this plaster with fresco, is, therefore, perfectly legitimate; and as desirable a mode of decoration, as it is constant in the great periods. ”

“ Plaster, or stucco, is sometimes regarded as an inferior material only to be used when nothing better can be obtained. It should not however be judged from the achievements of the domestic plasterer of to-day, who has to trust sometimes to the wall-paper to keep his stuff from crumbling away. Plaster as used by the ancients, and through a good part of the mediaeval and Renaissance periods up to the eighteenth century, is a fine material, susceptible of very varied and effective artistic treatment. ”

“ Still earlier specimens of the plasterer's skill are extant in the pargeted and ornamented fronts of half-timbered houses With regard to the smaller buildings, comprising small dwelling-houses and cottages, the general application of plaster is of comparatively late date, for wainscoted walls and boarded ceilings or naked joists alone are frequently found in houses of not more than a century old both in England and on the Continent. ”

“ They deserve a detailed notice because they prove, as do most Moorish works, that plaster may be used truthfully and artistically, and that without any approach to the contemptible effect which the imbecility and dishonesty of the nineteenth-century designers of plaster-work have contrived to impress on almost all their productions. ”

“ Casting in plaster. This is a mode of copying applied to a variety of purposes: to produce accurate representations of the human form—of statues—or of rare fossils—to which latter purpose it has lately been applied with great advantage. In all casting, the first process is to make the mould; and plaster is the substance which is almost always employed for the purpose. ”

“ My attempt is seen under every disadvantage; it is too near the eye and too near the light; and it is painted on a material which is most ungracious for the reception of colour. The minute undulations of marble always lose something in a plaster reproduction, but when the plaster has further to be painted with four coats of oil paint to stop the suction, it may readily be imagined how much the more delicate modulations of the surface will suffer. ”

“ Lime plastering is composed of lime, sand, hair and water in proportions varying according to the nature of the work to be done. Internal Work.In all cases good materials, well mixed and skilfully applied, are essential to a perfect result. Plaster is applied in successive coats or layers on walls or lathing and gains its name from the number of these coats. “One coat” work is the coarsest and cheapest class of plastering, and is limited to inferior buildings, such as outhouses, where merely a rough coating is required to keep out the weather and draughts. ”

“ Plaster moulds were also used for moulding pottery lamps. The oiling of plaster was done on painted plaster statuettes, so as to make them waterproof. They can still be scrubbed in water without disturbing the colour.
The most artistic use of plaster was for the modelled heads, which were placed on mummy cases in Roman times. Though most such works were rather crude, some are found which show real ability of portraiture. In fig. 135 we have a sympathetic study of the face of a young man. The lips are beautifully true, the modelling of the cheek is quite natural, the nose and brow well formed ”

“ IT IS THEN POURED PROMPTLY into the center of the space on the glass prepared for the plaster tile so that the poured plaster gradually spreads from the center toward the corners and edges filling up the spaces and coming up the sides to about one-half inch height. Jarring the table or a slight shaking of the glass will cause the plaster to settle very level as well as causing any bubbles in the plaster to rise to the surface and break. Care should be taken that the plaster is not too thick before being poured. ”

“ But let us consider about judgment, as the sculptors wish, and see whether it is not more necessary to one who works in fresco than to one who chisels in marble. For here not only is there no place for patience or for time, which are most mortal enemies to the union of the plaster and the colours, but the eye does not see the true colours until the plaster is well dry, nor can the hand judge of anything but of the soft or the dry, in a manner that anyone who were to call it working in the dark, or with spectacles of colours different from the truth, would not in my belief be very far wrong. ”

“ By a method of working in ordinary oil colours on a ground of fibrous plaster, using rectified spirit of turpentine or benzine as a medium, much of the quality of fresco or tempera may be obtained, with the advantage that the plaster ground may be a movable panel.
There are, however, other fields for the decorative painter than wall painting; as, for instance, domestic furniture, which may vary in degree of elaboration from the highly ornate cassone or marriage coffer of Mediæval Italy to the wreaths and sprays which decked chairs and bed-posts even within our century. ”

“ John assured him. “Come!”
Corin reluctantly laid down his chisel, turned for a final look at masonry, herb Robert, and chevrons.
“And to think,” he ejaculated, “that the plaster hides all this! There must be ten coats of plaster or thereabouts. After the first Goth, the first horrible Philistine, plastered, no one can have known what was hidden, and they just went on plastering at intervals. I’ve made out six plasters for certain,—grey, green, white adorned with awful scroll-work, purple, green again with more scroll-work, and then this dingy brown,” he waved his hand towards the walls. ”

“ Most of the supposed medicinal plasters are in the same class. As a rule, sufficient curative material cannot be incorporated in a plaster to be of any service, and most of them, though widely advertised, are scarcely more than rubber adhesive plaster. ”

“ Some skilful painters can stipple one tone upon another so as to produce the same brilliant softness of effect, and when this can be done, oil-colour upon plaster is the best of all treatment for bedrooms since it fulfils all the sanitary and other conditions so necessary in sleeping-rooms. The same effect may be produced if the walls are of rough instead of smooth plaster, so that the small inequalities of surface give light and shadow as in textiles; upon such surfaces a pleasant tint in flat colour is always good. ”

“ A broad thin strip of wood with a bevelled edge is very useful when stopping plaster walls, for in trying to stop a crack or hole with a sharp steel stopping knife, the surrounding face of the plaster may be badly scratched, which is only seen when the job is finished. ”

“ Every touch of plaster is a sign of advancing decay. The virtue of our critical journals is a dowager of somewhat dubious antecedents: every day that thins and shrivels her cheek thickens and hardens the paint on it ”

“ If you find one edge of a crack higher than the other, gently press against it, and if it goes back to place, cement it with plaster paris wet up in clear water, and it will set in three minutes hard enough to hold the plaster in place. If the loose edge will not go back by gentle pressure, lay a piece of board over it and push hard as you dare to and not crush the plaster. ”

“ For painting the roof of buildings, the plaster and oil answers a good purpose, as it is durable, and when rain water is collected in cisterns, it will be found to be purer than when it comes in contact with lead. Plaster is sometimes found ground very coarse, and it should therefore be run through a paint mill before it is used. ”

“ The slightest change in the surface of a cast impairs its value, and the problem is consequently to provide a method of filling the pores of the plaster that will make it less subject to dust while in no wise altering its form, and to provide a method of removing dirt without injury to the surface. ”

“ Modern facilities have greatly abridged the personal labor of the sculptor in marble or bronze. The present method of casting in plaster, which was then unknown, or at least unpracticed, enables the sculptor of our days to elaborate his work to the utmost finish, in its full size, in the clay model; and when this is completed and cast in such a permanent material as plaster, the workman has an absolute model, which he may, to a certain extent, copy with almost mathematical accuracy. ”

“ The value of a plaster cast as a portrait of the dead or living face cannot for a moment be questioned. It must, of necessity, be absolutely true to nature. It cannot flatter; it cannot caricature. It shows the subject as he was, not only as others xivsaw him, in the actual flesh, but as he saw himself. And in the case of the death-mask particularly, it shows the subject often as he permitted no one but himself to see himself. He does not pose; he does not “try to look pleasant.” In his mask he is seen, as it were, with his mask off! ”

“ A finished coloured drawing or painting of the design, to a smaller, or even to the same scale as the fresco painting, must be prepared, and the artist should endeavour to make an exact copy of this on the plaster surface, as there is no time to experiment in colour schemes, or to make alterations from the original coloured design in the short period that is at the disposal of the painter when he is at work on the wet plaster. ”

“ In proof of its being the result of crystallization, the face of the plaster is always found to be covered over with powdered lime. The painter, finding this, takes care to saturate the disintegrated face of the framework in effecting repairs, but this, as he finds to his chagrin, is no protection against a recurrence of the evil, for so long as water or moisture is admitted at any point, so long will this abnormal blistering ensue. ”