day one design

Living Walls Earth Plaster & Aliz

2009-12-20T23:01:48-08:00

A beautiful timber frame structure to work on! lots of stuff all around... thank goodness for 5 gallon buckets! we start with coco fiber mesh as lathe to span areas that might crack this project had 36 rounds! and lots of upside-down areas to plaster the base coat goes over the Durasol stemwall and Light Clay-Straw walls a nice pic of the substrates and base plaster layer my mom joined in for a day of base coat application somehow I got known to "love upside-down stuff"... I guess it might be true :) lots of taping off involved with a frame like this scratched surface on the base coat Ingredients for the final coat, how many bags of each do we need? mixing it up in small batches applying kaolin-based finish coat over the base coat detailing those rounds! and details around each framed opening The gable ends were conventionally framed and covered with drywall. We primed the surface with latex paint that we added a bunch of coarse sand to. The surface looks like this and you can apply finish coat earth plaster right over it. my plaster set up working those gable end details Finally time for some color! The client chose a light yellow aliz. Iron oxide is the best! Details! whose that monkey? I must have climbed up and down that scaffold 100 times! Joshua prefers to hang out on the tip top of the ladder... but can he reach the very top? the final texture is so beautiful a nicely integrated 'truth window' shows off the plaster layers

sah-weet!

Suscol Strawbale Project - Part 3

2009-08-04T10:43:36-07:00

Time for the finish plaster! Off-white aliz on the underside of the soffit Tracy applying the final coat to the outside of the building Bob comes around shortly after with the texture We use the handle of the trowel to get the 'woven' texture Early morning shadows are amazing Enjoying popsicles along the way, what a treat on a 110 degree day! voila!

Oasis Remodel

2009-05-27T20:02:51-07:00

Got to help out on a really fun plaster job with Kata Polano at a home near Santa Barbara, California. The 40's style cabin is being entirely retrofitted to withstand the Santa Barbara threats of wildfire. By finishing almost all the interior and exterior surfaces of the house with earth plaster (including eaves), this home is virtually fire-proof and hopefully if one did come it would pass right by. The style is really elegant and the color palette is just charming. Kata has a great sense for earthen finishes. It was also lovely to work with this all-female crew. Somehow getting dirty together always makes for good friends. Eva mixes plaster Sculpting the bar between the kitchen and livingroom Awesome steel bracket details support the salvaged granite countertop. Kata does aliz (clay paint) with lots of mica onto the kitchen ceiling. Kata does more aliz on the walls of the entry porch Blue glass bottles in the ferrocement roof wash great colors onto the wall. I work on a window detail, more mica aliz! The finished porch window Amit plasters an exterior wall Arched plaster meets the ferrocement window treatment at the basement level The most beautiful mechanical wall ever! Earthen plaster surrounds each of the utility boxes and cable conections. We save the leftover aliz (clay paint) by making 'cookies'. Once dry they can be stored and then saved for repairs. Since we use custom dye-lots, this is the best way to get an exact match. An interior niche filled with light from a solatube. Note: this is not on an exterior wall, it coming through the center of the house. The basement apartment has a sweet little kitchen and dining space which got frequent use since the main kitchen was still a construction zone.

We even celebrated with a rocket-stove baked pizza.

Eva and Art are really excited about it, so adorable!