Getting Started in Venetian Plaster: from painter to plasterer

Like faux painting, Venetian plastering offers the artist considerable creative scope. A skilled Venetian plasterer can produce anything from a cold, glossy, marble-like surface to a warm, antiquelooking distressed effects. Yet a Venetian plaster wall is more durable than any painted surface, and a skilled plasterer’s creativity can be admired for many years to come.

What is Venetian plaster?

The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans appreciated the beauty of polished lime plaster. In the 1500s, builders in Venice, trying to make buildings as light as possible so they wouldn’t sink into the mud underlying that city, enhanced lime plaster with marble dust to simulate the look of marble without the weight. The technique became known as Venetian plaster and was used around Europe since then.

Traditional Venetian plaster consists of certain materials applied in a specific way. The material used is a lime putty containing marble flour and aged slaked lime. The lime and marble are ground to the fineness of talcum powder, so that the plaster can be troweled on in layers almost as thin as a paint film.

Besides lime and tools, training and practice are the essential ingredients of Venetian plaster.

In response to the demand for the finish and the shortage of trained plasterers get some training from a master. Stuccoitaliano’s training classes address the training needs of craftworkers throughout their careers, from new apprentices to instructors and supervisors.

Our training programs are continually improving to train future and trained plasterers to use new and improved materials that are constantly being developed to make plasterers more competitive and artistic.

Training is a key element in today’s plasterers environment especially in the “ancient modern” of Venetian marmorino finishes.

You will learn directly from venetian artisans all the necessary techniques to correctly apply Lime paint, Venetian plaster, Marmorino finishes for floors and walls.

Classes are held in Vicenza, Italy.