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Q: What exactly is an “Italian Plaster Finish”?

A: This may get long, but stay with me, you will be glad you did.  To understand the “Venetian Plaster Finish”, you first have to understand the “Italian Plasters”, and where it all started. This brings me to the explanation of “Civil Plaster”.

Civil Plaster

During the early Greek and Roman empires, Terra Cotta (clay) bricks and stone were used as the primary means to construct buildings.

Civil plaster was developed as a way to strengthen and protect the structural brick and stone.

Civil plaster is a hand-troweled coating that consists of 5 to 7 layers applied in a specific order.

• First Layer – Is called “Rinzaffo” or bastard plaster. Consists mainly hydraulic lime mixed with small pebbles, little aereal lime and ground volcanic rock. Purpose is to fill in the cracks of the brick and smooth and level the grout lines.
• Second Layer – Known as “Arriccio” is a little bit smoother. A mixture of 50/50 course sand and a blend of Hydraulic/aerial lime. This layer smoothed the heavy grit of the “Rinzaffo”.
• Third Layer -  Next is “Velo”, the protective layer of plaster. It is made from a mixture of very fine river sand and aereal lime.
• Fourth Layer – Another layer of “Velo”.

Now we come to the final three layers. These are called the “decorative finishing coats”. The final three layers are a mixture made from aereal lime and very fine powdery marble dust. These are the finishes that “Bella Faux Finishes” offer.

• Decorative Finish – Mixture of aereal lime and very fine powdery marble dust.
• Decorative Finish – Each layer will become gradiently finer.
• Decorative Finish – The final layer will become even finer.

In Summary, the aggregates in each layer become gradiently finer and finer. Fortunately today, we are not working on old crumbling brick and stone structure.  At Bella Faux Finishes we specialize in the final 3 steps…the Decorative Finishes.