Plastering

“ Floors which are to be finished natural or stained should not be laid until after the plastering is done. Floors should be the last work of the carpenter as well as the painter. This requires laying an extra floor. On the best and more expensive buildings this is looked after by the architect in his specifications. However, there are a number of buildings in which the floors are laid before the plasterer commences his work, and as these are to be finished either natural, stained or painted, they should be protected from plastering. ”

“ PLASTER-WORK, in building. Plastering is one of the most ancient of handicrafts employed in connexion with building operations, the earliest evidence showing that the dwellings of primitive man were erected in a simple fashion with sticks and plastered with mud. ”

“ Plastering, the process of covering walls, masonry or woodwork with material which is soft and plastic when applied, but becomes hard when dry. For interior walls a first coat of mortar, made of sand and lime mixed with hair, is generally used. ”

“ That is quite a usual plan with people who are prospectively fashionable. They do nothing with the drawing-room, library, and reception-room until the daughter of the house is pronounced ready. The plastering, after a dry of eighteen years, has had plenty of time to settle, and is not apt to crack the costly papers or ruin the elaborate frescoes; and the wood-work no longer in danger of warping or opening too much. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In fresco painting a damp plaster ground is prepared on the wall, upon which the moist colors are painted. These colors become fixed as they dry, and appear to be a part of the wall. The work must be done while the plaster is damp, so the painter prepares only that part of the wall which he expects to cover that day. As it cannot be used after it is dry, he must scrape away all that is left and prepare a new background the next day. If the artist wishes to change any part of his picture, he must scrape off the ground and repaint the entire picture. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Very pretty decorations on plaster may be executed by combining hand-worked illumination with diapered or other paper-hangings. Thus, for instance, taking one side of a room, say about eleven feet high, to the under-side of the plaster cornice, mark off about a foot in depth on the wall from the bottom of the cornice, set out the width of the wall into three or more panels, dividing the panels by upright pilasters of the same width as the depth of the top border. At the height of about four feet from the ground mark off the top edge of another horizontal band, which make also one foot deep ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ When a small amount of roughness is required, a dry brush, or a piece of beaver nap attached to the trowel, is passed over the plaster in all directions.
3. The process of Painting. The wall being properly prepared, the outline of the figures is to be traced with a sharp point on the plaster, as before described. The artist commences his work when the surface is in such a state that it will barely receive the impression of the finger, and not so wet as to allow the colours to run or to be liable to be stirred up [Pg 211] by the brush. ”

“ Painted plaster-work, so long as water can be kept from percolating through the cracks or faults, or gaining entrance from above by filtration, or from below by capillary action, is a highly durable material, but the moment water gains a footing the lime in some degree is dissolved, and, upon being removed and redeposited, undergoes the process of recrystallization, a powdery substance is thus formed that comes as a stranger between the paint and the plaster, in which respect it bears a strong resemblance to rust, the result of the oxidization of iron. ”

“ Scrape the plaster to a level surface, and cut two moderately large V-shaped nicks, one on each edge of the mould, build up around as before with wood, and fill in all interstices leading to the table below with clay. See that the mouth is properly shut, introducing a little clay if needed. Brush over with soft soap, not forgetting the top of the plaster mould, and mix some more plaster and pour over the lower jaw, on to the edges of the plaster mould, until stopped by the wall; build up thicker in the centre, as before, and suffer all to dry for about an hour. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Originally, undoubtedly, each bit of glass or stone was laid in the soft plaster of wall or floor; but now a more labour saving method has obtained; it is amusing to watch the modern rest-cure. Page 310 Instead of an artist working in square bits of glass to carry out his design, throwing his interest and personality into the work, a labourer sits leisurely before a large cartoon, on which he glues pieces of mosaic the prescribed colour and size, mechanically fitting them over the design until it is completely covered. ”

“ Our plasterer fits in the new mortar up to the charcoal mark the next morning, and so we proceed bit by bit as if we were putting together a puzzle, until the whole is completed.
It is hardly necessary to say that it is very desirable that each cutting should correspond with some natural division of the work. Thus, in painting a female head, we might paint the hair and diadem the first day, and go on with the face and neck the next, stopping at the necklace. In real fresco nothing can be retouched. Every day’s work must be finished and complete in the minutest detail. ”

“ This plaster, or mortar, is a mixture of lime and sand, and the colours used in the painting are such as will remain unchanged in hue when in contact or in mixture with the lime. When all necessary details relating to the method of procedure connected with the work are carefully carried out, true fresco paintings may be said to have a higher degree of permanence and durability than those executed by any other method or medium. The fine surface texture and luminous quality of buon fresco pre-eminently distinguishes it as the most beautiful colour finish for mural decoration. ”

“ And then you will find, as the plaster sucks in the colour which you have first laid on, that there will be—it may be in the course of half-an-hour, it may be an hour, that depends upon the temperature of the atmosphere—a pleasant suction from your brush, the colour going from it agreeably, and you will find that it will cover better. Now is the time to paint rapidly, and complete the work you have in hand. When the colour leaves your brush as though the wall was thirsty for moisture, you should cease painting ”

“ In small houses, where an expensive decoration is out of the question, a somewhat similar architectural effect may be obtained by the use of a few plain mouldings fixed to the plaster, the whole being painted in one uniform tint, or in two contrasting colors, such as white for the mouldings, and buff, gray, or pale green for the wall. To this scheme may be added plaster medallions, as suggested for the vestibule, or garlands and other architectural motives made of staff, in imitation of the stucco ornaments of the old French and Italian decorators. ”

“ 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. ”