Vasari

Archive for September, 2007

• September 26th, 2007

Burnishing Venetian Plaster is probably the most important step of your job. There are few ways to burnish. With Veneziano, on the second coat, when you apply a thin tight layer, it sucks up and almost dries immediately, right after put on another coat in the same fashion. This layer doesn’t dry so fast. When it’s not tacky wet, which should be soon, take your clean trowel and at a 5 degree (or so) and go over the ready spot with some moderate force like your ironing a shirt, except at an angle. AGAIN, BURNISHING IS LIKE IRONING CLOTHES EXCEPT AT AN ANGLE. If this doesn’t polish out, do a third super thin layer (not a third coat, just a third pass on the second coat), then burnish. It is always done to some degree or another. Burnishing ensures that you have sheen and variation on the wall. You can burnish (especially Veneziano) to a high glass like sheen or very subtle pockets of sheen and color variation. Marmorino, the sandy ‘rougher’ plaster also needs burnishing for the variation and some smoothness. Sand sponging Marmorino is a must to get all the color variation. Marmorino can get shiny but not like Veneziano.

Burnishing is not only necessary to get bang for your buck but also to compact the plaster and make it literally harder and more durable. Also, the more a spot is burnished, the more resistant it becomes to absorbing things like Lime Wash and wax. Since the pores of the plaster become tighter, it rejects the wax and alike and the rougher left alone areas pick up the superficial layers better. When burnishing, make sure, really really sure that your trowel is clean and has no nicks, otherwise your going to get scratches which are generally bad, although it’s amazing how many jobs look like a mess because nobody takes care of their trowel. If you forget and you do get a scratch, take a little plaster and go over it and burnish again.

The most popular form of Veneziano, and quite possibly of Venetian Plaster, is what we call ‘unburnished’ Veneziano. This is when on the second coat (as there is always one), instead of doing successive tight coats then evenly burnishing everything, instead, you plaster a single tight coat (on the second coat), then immediately afterwards plaster a slightly thicker fluffier layer, but not full coverage. When this starts to turn into a clay like consistency (it’s drying, not dry, but not wet) you can give it single light stroke of burnish from your trowel. When it is completely dry the next day, take a worn sanding sponge, which we can provide, and sand the wall. You’ll notice that the thinnest places of application and the areas which were lightly burnished will ‘pop’ the most with color and sheen. Lastly, to get a high shine, you can spray a little water on the wall and burnish (don’t let it streak down the wall), you can buff out the wall when dry with a #0000 steel wool, if you’re looking for complete flatness, do 3 (instead of 2) coats burnishing only the last one, or if all else fails, you can wax it with our beeswax (clear for no color).

Venetian Plaster comes in any sheen or texture giving any possibility to your customer or yourself.

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• September 23rd, 2007

After you finish your Venetian Plaster job, there is a 95% chance that you will do touchup. You or you clients should expect perfection in the work. The variation in color, movement, sheen and texture should be consistent. The edges, where the wall meets the ceiling, corners or where it meets the molding or baseboards, should be razor sharp without a mess. The best way to prevent lots of touch up is of course to do a carefully executed job in the first place. This includes the right preparation like masking.

Masking is almost as important as the venetian plaster job itself. It saves time, money and a headache. The basic order of masking is first mask the floor, then cabinets, then crown molding / ceiling, then baseboards. If you are doing the ceiling, which is quite common, then mask off the doors, sinks and well, everything else.  Now, for the touch up: first make sure your walls are where you want them to be- no weird trowel marks, nicks, blistering, cracking. There are numerous ways to fix these problems. Sometimes a little extra venetian plaster, a little sanding, a little wet sanding, rewaxing, polishing with finer sanding paper will work. There are numerous ways of fixing plaster. Sometimes it just takes a little experimenting, but everything is fixable.  The sheen (or no sheen) should be uniform, the wax (if there is any) should buffed out without streaks.

BEFORE OR DURING YOUR SECOND COAT, RUN YOUR FINGER WITH PLASTER BETWEEN THE WALL AND THE MASKING TAPE (wear gloves). This will hopefully leave a nice sharp line when you unmask. If there is too much excess venetian plaster on the tape and there tape is ripping when you pull it off, you can spray it with water, which softens the plaster and makes the unmasking easier. If there is still a problem, gently score / cut along the tape line then unmask.  If there is an uneven line, you can wrap a wet cloth around a putty knife and scrape / clean along the edges where the wall meets the trim. You can even scrape with a dry knife.

Venetian Plaster is much easier to clean off lacquered wood (it just pops off), rather than a painted surface. Venetian Plaster sticks much more to a paint than an oil based surface.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. If you need products, be sure to visit our Venetian Plaster ordering page.

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• September 21st, 2007

There are lots of fancy Venetian Plaster trowels available on the market. They are often expensive and unnecessary ($30 -$50). They are often a limited size, like 8 or 10 inches, which is useless unless your doing a very small area or looking to do a highly intricate pattern. UNLESS YOU’RE DOING A TINY JOB OR A DETAILED AREA, ALWAYS USE A 12”-16” TROWEL. IT MAKES YOUR VENETIAN PLASTER JOB MUCH FASTER AND EASIER. Trowels often fall and get easily dinged which could mean the end of the trowel. It is often much cheaper to buy your own trowel at any standard hardware store, like Home Depot or Lowe’s. ($14-$20). The difference between these and the fancier trowels is that the other trowels have slightly rounded edges. By the way, pool trowels work, except they don’t get into corners. The rounded edges insure that there are no lines left over when you make a trowel stroke. With the unrounded trowels, this only happens when the trowel is fabricated with a slight bow which makes the trowel uneven. So, if you buy a trowel, just carefully look down the edges to make sure it’s straight, or at least bowed the other way so the corners don’t touch the surface first. If you have a mechanical grinder, you can grind down the corners a bit. Then take a sanding sponge/paper (even if you don’t round the corners) and sand the edges of the trowel to get rid of any minor imperfections. Feel the edges to make sure it’s perfectly smooth. This is most important especially when you are applying Veneziano Venetian Plaster with a high burnish. Every imperfection in the toll can show. There are some trowels, like Kobalt brand that are terrible, because the are made in such a way that has a very rough edge which makes sanding it down very difficult. Remember, you always want a bigger job and you always want to do it fast. A larger trowel will make that possible. Typically 16” for men and 12”-14” inches for most women (no offense to anybody). Vasari Venetian Plaster can provide you with trowels. The right tools will ensure a better, easier, faster and more profitable Venetian Plaster job.

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