Plaster of Paris

“ The painted plaster casts were so lifelike that they recalled the fish in his own Chinese waters. The Museum was to that Chinaman an object-lesson.
Now I am certain that if boys or girls knew how to make plaster-of-Paris fish look like the real ones, it would not alone be an interesting occupation, but an instructive one.
I have explained how the plaster is to be mixed. It is better to buy the plaster in small quantity, not more than a pound at a time. It should be kept in a well-closed glass preserving jar. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the daytime there is nothing better than the “white-cloud illuminator,” which is made easily enough by means of plaster of Paris. A sheet of thin white paper fastened against a window-pane is also useful ”

“ She mixed a quantity of plaster of Paris, and put it down all round the church, which cemented the model firmly to the board that she had used for a stand, and also gave the effect of uneven ground. She smoothed down the path, and while the plaster was still wet, stuck in little pieces of sanded cardboard for grave-stones, and small twigs of yew to represent the ancient gnarled trees that surrounded the chancel. ”

“ They pug these iron joists—placed about 28 inches apart, and connected at intervals of about a yard, by iron tie-bars 5⁄8 in. square—with plaster concrete. This is no bad method, certainly; but here we have neither the iron joists, which are so easily procured at the great centres, nor the plaster-of-Paris, which is perhaps too lavishly used in the capital, but which is nevertheless an excellent material when it is properly employed, especially for the interior. We must construct the floors with wood. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It contains plaster casts, adequately described for casual visitors by the labels, as well as copies of paintings. These plaster casts, especially those of the pulpit from Pisa, by Nicolò Pisano, the first mediæval sculptor who tried to imitate the antique, will enable you to piece out your conception of Italian Renaissance sculpture, as formed at the Louvre. Do not despise these casts: they are excellent for comparison. Among the pictures, notice the copy of Mantegna’s fresco of St. James conducted to Martyrdom, from the church of the Eremitani at Padua. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They can't justify themselves, however. Though this plaster looks like Travertine, it nevertheless remains plaster, and it lends itself to plastic decoration. The Greeks and the Romans often used plaster, and they did not hesitate to paint it whenever they chose. Kelham's four towers have been criticised on account of their plastic design, which has a good deal of pink in it. But that design provides one of the strongest color notes in the whole Exposition, a delightful note, too. It happens that makers of wallpaper have had the good sense to use a design somewhat similar. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is simply meant to say, ‘This house is built for a rich man.’ The very material of it is all wrong, as, indeed, mostly happens with an art that has fallen sick. That richly designed, freely wrought plastering of our old houses was done with a slowly drying tough plaster, that encouraged the hand like modeller’s clay, and could not have been done at all with the brittle plaster used in ceilings nowadays, whose excellence is supposed to consist in its smoothness only. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is common for the young sculptors of our day to scorn and sneer at any work that is offered to them which they think beneath that skill and capacity which they suppose themselves to possess; and they will not, as they say, abase themselves to mere work in plaster. If any one orders of them a bust or a statue in plaster, their pretence is so excessive that they deem it an insult. Now, I say the material counts for nothing; and a plaster statue merely for decoration, well executed, is worth more than a statue in marble or bronze which is ill executed. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The rough plaster wall, tinted, is the cheapest method of all to use in decoration and has numerous advantages. It is much to be preferred to smooth plaster in that it gives a slight unevenness of surface which is a distinct advantage because of the vibration of color thus attained. Water color, while it does not last as long as oil paint, is so much cheaper and quicker to put on that it becomes possible to do over a gallery after a year or two without any more outlay than oil paint in the beginning would have necessitated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ French painting, in a word, is not to be considered as an independent art, or original language, coming immediately from nature, and appealing to it—it is a bad translation of sculpture into a language essentially 131incompatible with it. The French artists take plaster-casts from the antique, and colour them by a receipt; they take plaster-casts and put them into action, and give expression to the features according to the traditional rules for composition and expression. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We do so, because some people, even those who ought to know better, are in the habit of describing any wall-painting as a fresco; whereas so many of the wall-paintings, especially in Italy, are not frescoes at all, but distemper paintings on a dry surface. The real fresco consists of painting upon plaster, while it is wet. The piece of plaster which is to be painted upon must be only sufficient for a single day's work—any that is left over must be cut away, and a fresh piece added for the next day's work. ”

“ 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. ”