Hi,
Yes, NH, ( I don't know if I should be putting an article before that or not - as in the NH or the northern hewer...), and not to move the topic on or anything 'cause there is plenty more could be said here but I did mean how these old-time-plastered walls would have been handled once the plaster was up there. But just as important how they could or should be worked on even now, or in a non-historical setting. After all we shouldn't give the whole thing up for dead and buried in a museum out there somewhere.The use of clay here is widespread, relatively, but I see lime making strong inroads now as a wall covering.

The finishes I am aware of are paints, washes and wallpapering but then maybe not the sort of wallpapering generally thought of today. I mean the strung up paper with linen backing floating on a wooden framework attached to the plastered wall. I'm also aware of plastered walls being covered with modern sheet material - I don't know, maybe to get that oh so flat look.

Graining and marbleizing I've seen on columns and other elements but no plastered walls that I know of in these parts although I have seen it on wood plank walls and bedsteads.

As far as washes, I think, what could be better than a good ol' whitewash for in the stall or down the cellar, or in that gri - that mill. Also in rooms where not a lot time is spent, where the wash would rub off on your shoulder if you brushed against it, and yet where every few years or so, when it needed it, or yearly out there in the stall at the spring cleaning, one could easily mix up and slap on a fresh coat, and on the ceiling. And the whitewash I like best is the simplest, just a kilo of lime powder and a liter of rain water mixed together. Maybe some skimmed-off milk or a bit of casein powder in there if it is in a room that is more lived in like a kitchen or front room.

Northern hewer, have you ever noticed different wash mixtures for rooms with different uses? The funny thing about whitewash that also struck me in another entry up there is how it is translucent when first put on and then whenever it gets wet, but that at the same time wetting it makes it even stronger or more durable and opaque once it dries out again. It is the damnedest thing.


Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 01/16/11 10:12 PM.