Today was the first proper day of venetian plastering, yesterday was great but we spent a lot of the time getting settled and today was the day we really got cracking.
The first task was to get the end wall base coated and this was just a warm up for the rest of the day just to get you in to the swing of things. We use Veneziano Medio as a base coat and put it on in small random strokes. It is quite hard to get out of the habit of putting it on in long consistent strokes but you soon get the hang of it.
I left a really scabby bit to see what effect it creates when we top it out later this week and the photo will help me gauge what I left to get that effect as no doubt I will forget.
The next step was to second coat the first wall I base coated yesterday with the same product Veneziano Medio and this time really push it into the wall and it takes a lot of effort. With skim you lay it on the wall but venetian plaster from what I have experienced so far you need to really push it hard into the wall or the previous coat and do it in really short strokes.
I am definitely not the fastest in the group and normally one of the last to finish my walls, but I’m messing about wit the camera and also I am not on the tools as much as everyone else and tire quite quickly. I am finding it fairly hard work to be honest.
With the second base coat rammed into the first coat my elbow and forearm crying for mercy I was pleased to get a brew on and sit and walk around and see what everyone else was up to. The picture is of a green marmarino finish going on and I think this is the first finishing coat of two but I will have to check that tomorrow. But as you can see its looking pretty good and the chap doing it from what I can see has done a bit of venetian plastering before.
After lunch it was time to put on the first of the top coats onto the wall we base coated for the second time this morning and this time it is a black finish and it was lovely. It was like pushing silk around and reminding me of a smoother magnetic plaster.
This black carrera finish was a lot easier to apply but it was hard to drop the habit of long consistent sweeps but I go there in the end and I was quite happy with the end result and it is looking good. I am still not entirely sure what this finish is going to look like so it ill be a nice surprise I am sure when it starts to come together.
The other things we did today was carry on making sample boards and this time we used a Comet finish which is pronounce “committee” it was like spreading rice pudding and it was quite nice we use both the white and the black comet finishes.
The other two sample boards we did were of the Michael Angelo effect and this was put on a lot thicker and then we dragged a trowel using its suction to create like a stipple effect and then left it to dry.
So in conclusion of today we have a lot going on and there are a lot of finishes and the language is getting easier to understand but i am getting very confused with the names of the finishes so please do bear with me on that front. I will go back through these updates and edit them to read better and also adjust to get my facts right.
I am enjoying the training and think that I could quite easily settle into the life of a Venetian Plasterer as it beats slapping miles of skim about and the jobs you get are a lot more prestigious and that is a place a rather be to be brutally honest.
