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Venetian Plaster is a technique more than a product. It’s a modern version of the colored and polished hard plaster finish that first appeared in ancient Greek and Egyptian times. Hard plaster finishes were revived in the 17th century in Venice, giving rise to the name “Venetian Plaster” that we use today.

Chris Jewett has created a finish on the dining room walls with a translucent, almost liquid look to it. People who visit the Project House cannot resist touching the plaster, because it glows as if it’s wet and in motion. Chris achieves this mesmerizing effect because he applies three coats of razor-thin plaster to the walls. Each coat of plaster features its own distinct color. The first and third coats are done in the same color. The color of the second coat (sandwiched in between the others) differs only slightly and subtly. The three layers of color show through one another to create the effect that Venetian Plaster is famous for – the walls seem to glow from within.

Plaster is one of the oldest building materials known to mankind. The pyramids in Egypt have plaster made 4000 years ago that’s still hard, intact and durable. Plaster’s a mixture of a powdered natural mineral (usually sand or gypsum – the same material in your drywall) and water. The mixture hardens as it dries, just like a cast for a broken arm.

A Venetian Plaster finish uses a much finer sand than normal plaster or stucco, and it contains marble dust for color and strength. The small grains of sand (as fine as talcum powder) make the layers of Venetian Plaster so thin that they’re literally translucent.

Fresco
Just around the corner, in the dining room, two classically trained fine artists have created a genuine fresco, done in the same style and with the same techniques that Michelangelo used to create the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel five hundred years ago.

Nicola Vigini, a native Roman, is a fine and decorative artist specializing in the classical techniques of Buon Fresco, trompe l’oeil, and mural painting. Nicola is an internationally recognized master in the field of decorative painting. Before moving to the U.S., Nicola completed his formal study in Rome and Paris.

Jimmy Shugrue has perfected his skills at creating an eclectic variety of historical plaster and stucco finishes with extensive training in Venice and the ancient Etruscan village of Ceri, in Italy. He specializes in Buon Fresco plaster for fine art murals in the ancient tradition, as well as Venetian stucco, marmorino, and lime plaster coatings.

Fresco means “fresh” in Italian. The term refers to the fact that in the true fresco process, color must be applied directly onto a coat of plaster while the plaster is still “fresh” or wet.

Buon Fresco means “Good” or “True” fresco. The term is meant to distinguish the genuine fresco process from alternative (some would say inferior) techniques, which try to mimic the look of Buon Fresco through shortcuts and superficial coloring techniques

Cartoon – this is the classical term for the preliminary drawing of the fresco scene that Nicola prepares on paper in his studio. Once he arrives at the Project House, Nicola then transfers the cartoon (by tracing it with charcoal dust) directly onto the plaster in the niche where he and Jimmy will create the fresco.

Intonaco (“In-TONE-uh-coe”) – the smooth, final coat of plaster. Color is applied onto the intonaco while it is still wet.

Giornata (“Joor-NAH-doe”) – the amount of Intonaco that can be painted in one session or one day (from the Italian word for “day”).

Early civilizations were creating frescoes ten thousand years ago. Nicola and Jimmy have devoted themselves to preserving and teaching the traditional Buon Fresco techniques Michelangelo perfected to paint his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Buon Fresco is a very precise, demanding and time-consuming process. In a nutshell, color is applied to lime-based plaster while it’s still wet. When the lime dries (in other words, when it literally turns to stone), the color actually becomes part of the stone, not just a surface material. As the lime dries, it forms a transparent crystalline “skin” over the colors to preserve them in stone. The painted fresco will last as long as the stone lasts.

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